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A class action lawsuit recently removed to federal court claims that Grand Canyon University requires its online doctoral students to take continuous courses that have no value.
Plaintiffs Eileen Carr, Clayton Kolb, Samuel Stanton, and three unnamed plaintiffs filed the class action lawsuit against Grand Canyon University. The six plaintiffs say they were online doctoral students at GCU.
The Grand Canyon University class action states that GCU is a for-profit university, and has mostly online students.
Allegedly, the university uses numerous tactics to get as much money as it can out of its students, including requiring them to take classes that provide no value to them.
Allegedly, GCU represents that an online doctoral program can be completed in 60 credit hours, which include three dissertation courses worth three credit hours each. However, the university allegedly does not provide the resources needed to complete the dissertation courses.
The students claim that the result of this is that GCU doctoral students must then enroll in additional courses to complete their dissertation.
According to the students, the university has designed its dissertation program and requirements so that it is highly unlikely that a student could complete the program within the advertised 60 credit hours.
The GCU class action goes on to claim that the dissertation courses are not actual academic courses, but are mechanisms by which students receive individualized support in their “dissertation journeys.”
Allegedly, if a student does not satisfactorily complete the dissertation at the end of the dissertation courses, they are then required to take what is referred to as “research continuation” courses.
The students and their attorneys claim that in reality, the programs are designed so almost all students are required to take “research continuation” courses, though this is not advertised to students.
The GCU doctoral program class action lawsuit argues that though students receive credits for the continuation courses, these classes are basically worthless because by the time a student has to take a continuation course, they have already completed the required 60 credit hours to complete the doctorate, though they cannot receive the doctorate until they have completed the continuation courses if they are deemed necessary.
Allegedly, these courses are designed to enable the university to maximize the profits it can gain from students, because doctoral students are charged $650 for each credit towards the first five continuation courses, for a total of $1,950 per research continuation courses.
So, if a student took all five continuation courses, they would have allegedly received 15 unnecessary course credits, for which they paid the university a total of $9,750.
The students claim that the university knowns that these courses provide no value to students and only uses them to maximize profits.
The students are represented by E. Adam Webb, Matthew C. Klase, G. Franklin Lemond Jr., and D. Grant Coyle of Webb Klase & Lemond LLC.
The GCU Continuation Courses Class Action Lawsuit is Eileen Carr, et al. v. Grand Canyon University Inc., et al., Case No. 1:19-cv-01707-MLB, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.
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45 thoughts onGCU Class Action Says Doctoral Students Must Take Worthless Courses
I agree. Currently in gcu Doctoral Program. Enrolled since 2015.
My name is Donald Ferguson, I started Doctorial program in 2009, which I was timed out due to documentation being reviewed every ten days per instructor which forces you to get additional courses and absorb more debt. 6785579277
I am a doctoral student, how do you join the class action lawsuit? I want to be involved.
Hello,
I am a current doctoral student at Grand Canyon University and I have been writing my proposal since 2016/2017. I continue to move backwards and not forward through the process. Throughout this process I have been emotionally and financially affected. I truly believe that the goal has been to force me to drop out and/or to continuously receive monetary gain. A previous chair of mines suggested that I file a class action suit or become part of the class action suit. I know that I have been set back and made to stand still. Please let me know how I can become a part of this action or start my own class action. Thank you.
I am writing to inquire as to how a student becomes a class member for the Carr v. Grand Canyon University, Inc. lawsuit. I am currently enrolled in their Doctoral program and am in my 4th year of continuation classes. I was told last year that I “did not meet the deadline to complete my program” and had to request an additional year to complete it. Once approved I was told I have until March of 2020. I have experienced multiple setbacks from the University and was even issued a refund for a class as the committee changed over and over again. I am now being told I must hire an editor and pay for it out of pocket in order to move forward. The timeline, despite completing the coursework with high marks, appears to never have been attainable. I was not told there was a limit on how long I had to complete the program either. I am currently enrolled and only 1 other student from my class, aside from myself, is left in the program.
March 14, 2021
Hello.
Did you find out how to join a class action suit against GCU?
– Anita Shower
missetiquette@me.com
I’ve been in the bachelor program for over 2 years now and have been yanked around like no other with classes that make no sense. They add them to my schedule and when confronted they fall back on that the credit will be applied as an elective. However, the idea of an elected course would be one I actually choose for myself. They haven’t followed there own program core class schedule in anyway.
8-2-19 around 9-10pm got an email from GCU stating that I copied and paste another student work, for a statistic class that I passed months ago with grade A. I am only 2 classes away from finishing my BS, GCU is trying to shake me up for more money. I hoping its a mistake, if not I need to start looking for a lawyer a sap.
It’s not just that the courses are worthless in practice, they’re irrelevant to the degree sought. Additionally the morass of menial tasks demanded in the cyber hub is mentally oppressive and demanding of a sedentary life-style for anyone balancing other duties. And the “teachers” if you would be so kind as to call them that are never present. When they’re not on vacation and being substituted they take three days to redline an essay that was due the day before. And the course will continue even when you’re past the point of no return or never did anything. I had to drop out myself because of family emergencies but because I didn’t notify them of my leave, they automatically moved me from one failed course to the next and charged me a full amount for the latter— that’s right, a course I never ONCE logged in for.
Neither lawsuit suffices to address the gravitas of the school’s ethos, which like it’s a shell company for Grand Canyon Education Inc. to shirk regulation on for-profits, its teaching model is a subterfuge for a textbook self-dealing. I would wager about a quarter of the online students are plants enrolled in every course recycling boilerplate essays to make the school seem operational and keep this state-backed mafia running. Actually given the narrow target of white people capitalizing on working class Latinos and Blacks and the latter who believe they are getting cut a break to prestigious school by taking out a Stafford loan, the whole school rings like a front for indenturing the poor and preserving the hegemony of straight, white, dominion theocrats. In a country with no restrictions on private lobbying, economic slavery may not be illegal but it’s certainly immoral and wanton.
Shame on you if you work for GCU. Remember every jot and tittle of what you’ve done to others will be met. Every day we wake we are GIVEN the opportunity to leave something of our better selves behind through the outset of our current circumstance. You shirk your obligation for a good standing in the world of men.
It’s not just Doctoral, the Masters programs are exactly the same. Worthless.
How can I contact the lawyers representing Eileen Carr as I’m an inactive student at Grand Canyon University in the online doctoral program?
How do you get information about this case. I remember several students writing me about setting up a case againist. Me too
Former Doctoral student, I am also seeking to be a member of the Class Action lawsuit…