Purdue University doubling down with subprime Purdue University Global

• Related link: Graham Holdings and Kaplan Revenue Numbers
• Related link: Purdue University Global Continues to Defraud Servicemembers, Veterans, and Working Families
• Related link: Purdue University and Its Subprime College Cousin Committing Fraud
• Related link: Purdue University Global Is a For-Profit College Masquerading as a Public University (Bob Shireman)

Despite severe and growing financial losses and several campus closings, Purdue University Global (PG) is being kept alive by its famous cousin, the real Purdue University. Purdue.edu now prominently displays and links to Purdue University Global.  Purdue’s leaders also proudly support PG as its online school for adult learners, who they acknowledge are not in the same class of students as those at the real Purdue.  

The scheme has gotten so fraudulent that Purdue University Global (formerly Kaplan University) is freely appropriating Purdue's 150-year history, its world-class reputation, and its famous alumni in creating an unethical if not illegal bait and switch throughout social media.

Purdue Global is not a world-class institution. Its educational quality is mediocre, and its student outcomes rival some of the worst actors in for-profit higher education. Global's numbers:

• 83 percent (320 of 1,910) of PG instructors are low-wage adjuncts
• spends only 18 cents for every dollar it receives in tuition
• 20 percent 6-year graduation rate
• 26 percent student loan repayment rate
• 53 percent student loan default rate over 5 years
• More than 30 percent of its enrollees do not even pass basic composition.*

But that's not the story that Purdue University Global says with the help of QuinStreet, a predatory lead generator.

Recently, I visited the online chat that Purdue University Global uses to enroll students, and what I found was extremely disturbing. Not only did they use the Purdue University history, but also its world-class reputation to sell the school. One enrollment person mentioned astronaut Neil Armstrong in trying to sell me a degree.

How long can this scheme continue? Judging by word of mouth, not too long.

*Information provided by Purdue Global insider.