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Grand Canyon Education Inc. d/b/a Grand Canyon University is facing a class action lawsuit accusing it of refusing to refund tuition charges when students notify the school of their intention to drop classes or withdraw their enrollment.
Plaintiff Lee Ward says he signed up to take online courses from Grand Canyon University, a for-profit college. According to the Grand Canyon University class action lawsuit, nearly 80 percent of the college’s students take courses online and have never visited the campus in Arizona.
“Defendant has assembled a massive marketing and recruiting operation to keep new students enrolling, even though tens of thousands of students drop out each year without a diploma or anything to show for their time as a student,” the Grand Canyon University class action lawsuit states.
The majority of GCU’s funding comes from the federal government, the bulk of which comes from tuition financed through federal student loans and grants, the Grand Canyon University class action lawsuit alleges.
“Since students in many of GCU’s online programs quickly realize that their ‘classes’ and ‘curriculum’ are nothing more than a sham, Defendant’s refund policies are critical to its financial results,” Ward alleges in the GCU class action lawsuit.
According to the Grand Canyon University class action lawsuit, online students are charged excessive fees when they drop a class or withdraw from the college unless they do so before classes begin. If a student drops the course in the first week, that student will be charged at least 25 percent of the tuition. However, a student who fails to drop the course or withdraw after the first week will reportedly be ineligible for a refund. These refund policies are listed in the University Policy Handbook.
“Federal law and regulations do not allow GCU to keep federal grant or loan amounts when a student promptly withdraws from a course,” Ward alleges. GCU has adopted practices designed to discourage online students from dropping or withdrawing from courses so that it can prevent students and the federal government from getting refunds, the GCU class action lawsuit alleges.
Emails and phone calls are not valid methods of dropping classes, according to the GCU class action lawsuit. Although there is an online drop request option, it is not easily accessed by students. Further, the form is written in a manner that discourages students from completing it, Ward alleges.
Ward says he experienced issues when he tried to withdraw from courses in the first week of classes. He says he submitted the withdrawal form online and received an automated notice on the screen indicating his request had been sent, but he says he never received a confirmation. He completed the form three times in the first week without response, the GCU class action lawsuit says.
In the second week of classes, he again submitted the online withdrawal form because he still didn’t receive confirmation. He received a response informing him that, because he waited until after the first week to withdraw, he would still owe the full tuition. He claims he should not owe the full tuition because he initially submitted the withdrawal form in the first week of classes.
Ward has filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a Class of all Grand Canyon University students whose tuition was not properly refunded or recredited.
The GCU class action lawsuit asserts claims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment and declaratory judgment.
Ward is represented by E. Adam Webb and G. Franklin Lemond Jr. of Webb Klase & Lemond LLC.
The Grand Canyon University Class Action Lawsuit is Lee Ward v. Grand Canyon Education Inc. d/b/a Grand Canyon University, Case No. 1:17-cv-01749, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
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135 thoughts onGrand Canyon University Class Action Challenges Non-Refundable Tuition Policy
Grand Canyon University did not refund my student loan fees which I pay rough approximately 20,000 for two graduate courses which i was a Student at GCU from 2009 to 2009 and re-enrolled from 2011 to 2014. 51 credits Received an MA degree in education with a $53,000 student loan. Approximately $15,000 was a personal loan.
GCU has been one disappointment after another. I was supposed to have completed my doctoral journey 2 years ago however, they have changed the program 4 times, I have have 3 chairs and 5 methodologist. I just want to be done! If someone came through right now and offered to pay off my debt, I would walk away with nothing just to be done.
GCU has intentionally changed the degree program in my nursing course. They combined two courses one of which I had already completed with an A, the other I had completed prior to coming to GCU. They refused to accept it. They dropped the course I had already taken with them. At this time they made me sign up for the “new” course that had the same exact assignments as the one I had previously taken. I contacted them and and told them this was not fair practice and that I should have the tuition reimbursed being as I had already taken this exact course. They refused. This is so frustrating. I contacted every agency I could however no one was able to(or willing) to help. There has to be laws against this! They unintentionally manipulated my program so that I would have to take more classes! Delaying my ability to finish. I’m now stuck because they didn’t drop me when I asked and charged me for the full tuition of the class I have already taken! I was 3 classes from graduating with my BSN. Now they say I need 5? And dropped courses, renamed them, and changed me? I need help!
My wife and I both now have a balance with GCU. They charged an excessive fee to return money to the student loan lender. I think its bogus! Now neither one of us can get a copy of our official transcripts.
They did the same to me. I thought this was wrong and this is the only school has ever done this. I ended up with no degree and more debt. Worse school ever.
I am having the same problems and was set up to fail so I would have to take the extension course. In DNP955 and DNP960 I was told I had to actually implement a project and did not have the choice of only doing a proposal. The instructor did not answer a crucial email I sent her for four weeks which put me way behind in getting this project started. The school dismissed my chair and in DNP965 I was given a new chair who would tell me she did not know how to help me, I was fumbling trying to get IRB approval and once I got the approval the chair could not help me figure out a critical element in my project so her and another faculty determined on July 5 I could not work on my project and was told to quit until I filed an amendment which again put me behind another 2 weeks and was not able to submit to AQR because I did not have IRB reapproval. I am 5 days from finishing my last class and I asked for an incomplete and was told no that I will need to pay for an extension course and they were the ones that impeded my success to move forward in a timely manner. There is really something wrong with this program, the school and I am a faculty member at a college and if students complete 75% of their coursework they can have an incomplete and up to a year to finish. I need help as I do not have $2000 more for tuition due to their inability to guide me effectively through my process. Also, other students did not need to implement a project and I believe I am being discriminated against.
Where can I get help please?
I am in the same boat, I had to go into more continuation courses, so I can work on my Prospectus, because they kept saying I need to keep revising. After , I did more loans for continuation courses, they still didn’t approve my Prospectus, they claim I had to pay $500 in order to be a half student with no credits. I don’t understand why they don’t approve your prospectus and why every time I revise it they change the format and I have redo it for new template.
I also dropped a class in the last two weeks I had a credit balance and now they are saying I owe the money they supposedly sent back to the loan office and now they are trying to charge be for that money. They did this to me when I failed a class twice and and to get a co-signer for 3000 did stay in school. I would like to join your law suit if you could send me the info to do so.
I had problem with a fianacial class and called my counselor to say that I have never taken Excel before and having major problems. She said to hang in their a couple of more weeks but I kept getting a F and even reached out to the teacher with no respond back to me. I was not told that I was loosing my advisor and she left to turn it over to a new advisor who had no clue because she didn’t document my problems. I am a senior and disable with a spinal cord injury and feel this process was awful the new advisor said to move on with a new class and now in my 4th week for another class. Reading this will it keep me from getting my next refund which I do look for to help me. Please advise me. Sincerely Kay Helton 62 years old African American om my second year here at GCU.
I am in the same boat. I only had my dissertation left for my PhD. and they would not let me get an “I” in the course or drop. I had a 3.9 GPA and they were so rude and were not helpful at all. We had to go to Arizona each summer and I spent a lot of money on top of tuition. The first year was fine, but the second year they made us stay in run down dorms and the teachers did not seem to know what they were doing as far as the classes for that summer session.
I am in the same boat! I have a 3.83 GPA and could not get the proposal approved by AQR before the gap expired because they changed the template. This set me back about 6-8 months! Is there a class action suit to get out money back from this despicable doctoral program?
We offer a submission form on our website for you to fill out if you are seeking class action legal help. Attorneys will then review your submission to determine if you have a case. If they feel you qualify, they will contact you directly. You can submit your information here: https://topclassactions.com/start-a-class-action/.
GCU intentionally introduced the new V8.3 template to milk money. How can you change the rule of the game in the middle of the game? That’s exactly what they did.It’s taking me more than 10 months. This is a scam. How do I join this class action. There are hundreds of doctoral learners out there waiting for this.
I notice the new template as well, so now I have do something differently, and now I have to pay out $500 out of pocket and accept being half-student without gain credits if I want to continue with the course. I don’t understand any of this and I spent all this time trying to get the degree so they can tell me I need more classes to continue, because my prospectus has to be approved. I’m constantly correcting. Confused
I am also in the same boat. I was lied to, harrased, and constantly called. They say that I owe it I continuously attempted to reach the school to drop and would not do so. But in the harrasing calls inreceived was because i refused to participate. I would let my advisor know I was wanting to withdraw and she would hang up on me each time so I couldn’t.
I am in the same situation I tried to drop a class because I was unable to get in contact with my professor and was told I couldn’t drop the class and it was on my second day of that class. I would like to seek some help also.
Another problem I had too was my mother was dying last year and in the ICU and I also had to care for my mentally challenged brother while mother was in the hospital fighting for her life. I asked my service counselor to drop my class and was told no and it didn’t matter what was going on with my mother. However, three of my peers in the same program and classes with me were allowed to drop and take a break!! One of them is a nursing faculty at GCU. Again, I feel that deference is shown to some students and this is not providing equal opportunity for all but discriminating behavior.
I tried dropping a class right away after my husband was arrested for murder, I was forced to move and lost both my jobs in one day. I was told to “try” staying in but the next day I realized I was too distraught to continue. I was given the run around trying to drop my class by being told “oh you need to call this person” but then the person I would call would tell me “oh you need to call this person actually.” By the time I called my adviser for the 3rd time in 4 weeks, he finally told me there was an online form to request a class drop but that it was now too late. I now owe them around $3000 because of this…