Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson sued Globe University and the Minnesota School of Business, alleging the for-profit sister schools misled criminal justice program students about their career prospects, reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Swanson described a “sales-oriented culture” on their campuses, which she says aggressively pursued potential students with deceptive claims about jobs they would land and their ability to transfer credits to other schools. “This school left some people deep in debt with promises that did not materialize,” Swanson said. She said school recruiters steered students who wanted to become police officers into bachelor’s programs that lacked Minnesota accreditation. In addition, they recommended two-year associate degrees to would-be probation officers, although the state and most counties require at least a bachelor’s degree for such jobs. A criminal justice associate degree program at the two schools costs $35,100; a bachelor degree program costs $70,200.
Globe and Minnesota School of Business said claims made in the suit “could not be further from the truth.” The schools said their recruiters tell students that the criminal justice program does not fulfill requirements to become a licensed police officer in Minnesota. The almost 130-year-old Globe University and the Minnesota School of Business have seen rapid enrollment growth in recent years and now serve more than 11,000 students on campuses in five states and online. For-profit higher education institutions and their marketing practices have come under intense scrutiny in recent years in Minnesota and nationally.