Dive Transient:
- Union Institute & College mentioned this week that it’s going to shut June 30, following months of economic and authorized troubles.
- The personal nonprofit informed the Greater Studying Fee earlier this month that it will give up its accreditation with the company, efficient June 25, a close to sure portent that closure was imminent.
- Union Institute has confronted a troublesome yr, together with a lawsuit introduced by its workers over unpaid wages, a $4.3 million high-quality from the U.S. Division of Training and a lack of entry to federal monetary help.
Dive Perception:
The problems at Union Institute, a predominantly on-line establishment with educational facilities in Ohio, Florida and California, gained widespread consideration early final yr.
In April 2023, workers complained publicly that the college had not paid them in weeks, with one employee submitting a class-action lawsuit. The college finally settled for $110,000 in March with out admitting to wrongdoing, in response to WVXU.
However in the course of the yr it took the lawsuit to conclude, Union Institute continued to wrestle. The college delayed the beginning of its fall 2023 semester twice, citing funding issues. It finally scrapped fall courses altogether, in response to the Cincinnati Enquirer
Its enrollment has additionally steadily declined over the previous decade, dropping 52.8% from 1,666 college students in fall 2012 to 787 in fall 2022. The establishment focuses on grownup learners and nontraditional college students.
And in November, the Training Division accused the college of taking 1000’s of {dollars} in Title IV federal monetary help past what it was entitled to. The company additionally mentioned the college misused some funds for college kids to cowl its bills.
These findings led to the $4.3 million high-quality and lack of Title IV funds. The Training Division mentioned in December that Union Institute appealed the choice.
Though many faculties can’t function with out federal monetary help, the college maintained on the time that it will keep open.
Now, it’s closing with lower than two weeks’ discover, whilst its web site continues to listing a brand new time period beginning Monday.
In a joint assertion, President Karen Schuster Webb and Vice President of Educational Affairs Tom Frederick mentioned the upper schooling panorama has modified considerably since Union Institute opened 60 years in the past.
“The publish pandemic world has modified greater schooling. Nearly all universities now understand the potential of grownup learners; virtually all acknowledge the alternatives of distance studying,” they wrote. “We go away realizing that we’ve got made our mark on the upper schooling world.”
All of Union Institute’s college students have been positioned at associate faculties, Frederick mentioned Thursday. The college established teach-out agreements with two establishments — Antioch College, in Ohio, and Lasell College, in Massachusetts.
These two establishments have agreed to honor college students’ present tuition charges and their credit earned at Union, in response to the announcement.
