Brown Mackie College

In 2007, two whistleblowers filed a lawsuit claiming that Brown Mackie recruiters received perks based on the number of students they were able to enroll, regardless of whether the student's success or completion of the program.[16][17][18][19][20] Though the company denied these allegations, EDMC and the Obama administration reached a $95.5 million settlement with the Justice Department in 2015.[17]

In 2011, another lawsuit was filed once again alleging Brown Mackie illegally incentivized meeting recruitment goals.[21] This case reached a settlement in 2015 wherein EDMC agreed to reform recruiting practices, including disclosure of the transferability of Brown Mackie credits, more accurate representations of expected graduate outcomes, and more detailed information about taking out federal loans to help pay for a Brown Mackie education.[21][17] Brown Mackie was also required to forgive $102.8 million in loans for students who enrolled briefly between 2006 and 2014 and were given misleading information about taking out federal loans.[22][21][23] More than 80,000 students were impacted by this settlement.[22] Each qualifying former student and each of the credit reporting agencies were to be notified of the settlement, and the settlement will be paid through 2022.[24]

In 2016, eleven former Brown Mackie nursing students in Tucson, Arizona, sued the school for consumer fraud. The plaintiffs alleged that the poor training they received left them unable to be gainfully employed.[5] The plaintiffs expected to graduate in 2015 until a state nursing board investigation found some of the school's faculty were unqualified and were using veterinary supplies to teach students how to care for human patients.[5] The Arizona State Board of Nursing barred the Brown Mackie students from taking the practical nurses licensing exam and ordered the school to retrain the students at the company's expense.[25] Brown Mackie was barred from enrolling new nursing students for two years following the incident, though the college system was shut down before the program could resume.[26]

In 2022, Brown Mackie was one of 153 institutions included in student loan cancellation due to alleged fraud. The class action was brought by a group of more than 200,000 student borrowers, assisted by the Project on Predatory Student Lending, part of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. A settlement was approved in August 2022, stating that the schools on the list were included "substantial misconduct by the listed schools, whether credibly alleged or in some instances proven."[27][28] In April 2023, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the settlement and allowed to proceed the debt cancellation due to alleged fraud.[29]