For-Profit Higher Education: An Analysis of Recurring Legal and Policy Challenges

• In Event: The Law and Higher Education

Abstract

This paper offers a recent history of for-profit higher education litigation from the late twentieth century to the present. It examines three recurring trends in the primary and secondary literature: (a) whistleblower lawsuits, (b) class action lawsuits, and (c) lawsuits initiated by state and federal agencies. This examination draws on select case studies to highlight patterns in each trend and identify basic policy challenges facing for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) in the years ahead. While using traditional case law analysis, the paper also introduces and utilizes a new theoretical framework called "agnotology" to interpret the findings.

Author

• A.J. Angulo, Winthrop University