DeVry University
DeVry University is a private for-profit university in the United States. It offers both onsite and online programs. The university was founded in 1931 by Herman A. DeVry and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It has been the subject of several government investigations and lawsuits alleging false or deceptive claims.
History
Early history (1931–1970)
DeVry was founded in 1931 as the De Forest Training School in Chicago, Illinois. School founder Herman A. DeVry, who had previously invented a motion picture projector and produced educational and training films, named the school after his friend Lee de Forest. De Forest Training School originally taught projector and radio repair, but later expanded to include other electronic equipment such as televisions. After its founder's death in March 1941, the school was renamed DeVry Technical Institute in 1953 and gained accreditation to confer associate degrees in electronics in 1957.Bell & Howell completed its acquisition of DeVry Technical Institute in 1967. A year later, the company acquired the Ohio Institute of Technology and DeVry was renamed DeVry Institute of Technology, which was accredited to confer bachelor's degrees in electronics in 1969.
Keller Graduate School of Management (1970–1990)
Dennis Keller and Ronald Taylor met one another in the early 1970s when the two were teachers at DeVry. Keller and Taylor learned the economics of for-profit education while at DeVry and, in 1973, the two founded the Keller Graduate School of Management with $150,000 in loans from friends and family. The school was originally conceived as a day school that granted certificates. In 1976, the Keller School became an evening program offering MBAs, focused on working adults. The school was fully accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1977, becoming the first for-profit school to be accredited by the body.DeVry first received full accreditation in 1981. The Keller Graduate School of Management acquired DeVry from Bell & Howell in 1987. The leveraged buyout was worth $147.4 million. The two schools were combined as DeVry Inc., with Keller acting as chairman and CEO and Taylor as president and COO.
DeVry Education Group (1990–2018)
DeVry Inc. completed its initial public offering on June 21, 1991. In 1992, DeVry lost the highest scoring basketball game in history to Troy State University, 258 to 141.In 1995, its stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 1996, DeVry acquired Becker CPA Review—a firm that prepared students for the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination—for an undisclosed amount of cash, the tentative purchase price of which was US$18.685 million. In 2003, DeVry acquired Ross University, a medical and veterinary school based in the Caribbean, for a price variously reported at $310 million and $329 million. DeVry moved into the nursing field in March 2005 with the acquisition of Deaconess College of Nursing, a St. Louis–based nursing college that conferred both associate's and bachelor's degrees in nursing, at a price variously reported at about $5.3 million and $5.4 million. Deaconess College of Nursing was later renamed Chamberlain College of Nursing.
DeVry Inc. entered Brazil with its 2009 acquisition of Faculdade Nordeste, Ruy Barbosa and ÁREA 1, which are universities located in the Northeast of Brazil.
In 2010, DeVry University had nearly 90 campus learning sites in 26 states and more than 7,000 employees. The parent company had more than 12,000 employees. DeVry University's undergraduate enrollment reached 68,290 students by the summer of 2010.
In 2012, the university acquired Faculdade Boa Viagem and Faculdade do Vale do Ipojuca. DeVry acquired a sixth Brazilian university, Faculdade Differencial Integral, in 2013. DeVry Inc. was renamed DeVry Education Group later that year. DeVry Education Group changed its name to Adtalem Global Education in May 2017, and announced in December 2017 that they would hand off DeVry University and Keller Graduate School to Cogswell Education for no upfront cost, pending regulatory and accreditor approval.
In December 2018, the parent company Adtalem finalized the handover of both DeVry University and Keller Graduate School of Management to Cogswell Education.
Cogswell Education (Since 2018)
DeVry University's parent company is Cogswell Education, LLC. Cogswell purchased DeVry at no original cost from Adtalem Education. However, Cogswell could pay up to US$20 million. Cogswell Education is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. The principal investor is Bradley Palmer of Palm Ventures. Mr. Palmer has been involved in flipping Heald College, UEI College, and American Education Center.In December 2018, in a report titled VA's Oversight of State Approving Agency Program Monitoring for Post-9/11 GI Bill Students, the Department of Veterans Office of Inspector General mentioned DeVry's use of false claims. However the Veterans Affairs office did not indicate that any action would be forthcoming.
In 2020, Tom Monahan III became president and CEO of DeVry.
In 2022, the US government discharged more than $71 million in student loan debt for 1,800 former students of DeVry University, asserting that the university deceived students in the enrollment process.
In 2023, Elise Awwad became the first female President and CEO of DeVry. The main campus and headquarters were moved to Lisle, Illinois.
Devry has a case pending in Illinois challenging borrower defense to repayment claims against the school. More than 30,000 fraud claims have been filed against DeVry.
Locations and campus closures
Between 2020 and 2022, all DeVry campuses were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. DeVry University has a presence at one military installation at Twentynine Palms, California. List of DeVry campuses and learning centers, as of 2024:Arizona
- Phoenix Campus
- Folsom Campus
- Newark Campus
- Ontario Campus
- San Diego Campus
- San Jose Center
- Sherman Oaks Campus
- Twentynine Palms Military Base Extension
- Orlando Campus
- Decatur Campus
- Addison Campus
- Chicago Campus
- Chicago Loop Campus
- Naperville Center
- Henderson Campus
- Iselin Campus
- Midtown Manhattan Campus
- Columbus Campus
- Irving Campus
- San Antonio Campus
- Arlington Campus
Campus closures
Academics
DeVry University offers undergraduate and graduate programs onsite and online within its six areas of study: Accounting, Business, Healthcare, Technology, Liberal Arts, and Media Arts & Technology.DeVry operates on a uniform academic calendar for both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The university's academic calendar consists of six eight-week sessions. Most degree programs are offered at both the associate's and bachelor's level. In addition, the institution offers various certificate programs in specific subfields such as information technology.
Courses and programs are also offered online. DeVry has offered graduate classes online since 1998 and undergraduate classes since 2001.
Faculty
The US Department of Education's College Navigator reports 61 full-time faculty and 765 part-time instructors for 26,384 students at DeVry-Illinois.Accreditation
DeVry is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Engineering technology programs are accredited campus-by-campus.Student outcomes
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, DeVry University-Illinois has a six-year graduation rate of 28%, for first-time full-time students who began their studies in 2013. While the university's 3-year student loan default rate is 11.2%, a Brookings Institution report found that DeVry's five-year default rate was 43%. The College Scorecard reports of a graduation rate of 18% for DeVry University-Illinois. Of those students in repayment, 31% were in forbearance, 29% were not making progress, 10% were in deferment, 10% defaulted, 10% were making progress, 6% were delinquent, 3% were paid in full, and 1% were discharged. For the 2018–19 academic year, the amount that all undergraduate students received in federal student loans was $69.42 million. Median salary after attending ranges from $23,000 to $62,000 depending on the field of study and location.Investigations, lawsuits, and settlements
DeVry University has been the subject of numerous investigations and lawsuits alleging a variety of false or deceptive practices. Some of the cases led to multi-million dollar settlements, though DeVry continued to deny the allegations. In 2014, accumulated student loan debt from DeVry University and Keller, its graduate school, was about $12.1 billion.1990s
In March 1995, DeVry's ability to grant U.S. degrees through its Calgary facilities was discussed during a session of the Alberta Legislative Assembly. Therein, Grant Mitchell—then the Leader of the Opposition for the Alberta Liberal Party—accused the Premier of Alberta, Ralph Klein, of maintaining a conflict of interest with DeVry through his relationship with John Ballheim, who was at the time an executive at DeVry serving as both the president of DeVry's Calgary campus and as a member of the Premier's special advisory council on postsecondary education. Klein denied any conflict of interest. In 1995, DeVry was also suspended from the Ontario Student Assistance Program after a large number of its students misreported their income. DeVry was reinstated after paying fines of C$1.7 million to Ontario and putting up a letter of credit totalling C$2 million.In 1996, students of DeVry's Toronto campus filed a class-action suit of C$400 million claiming poor educational quality and job preparation; the suit was dismissed on technical grounds.