For-profit Hussian College abruptly shuts down.

Higher Ed Dive

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

June 23, 2023

Dive Brief:

• Hussian College, a for-profit institution with campuses in four states, is closing, according to state regulators and its accreditor.

• The Tennessee Higher Education Commission, which oversees three of Hussian’s campuses, said all branches of the college largely shut down June 12, and would only remain operational to help students finish internships or clinical portions of their academic programs. The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges also confirmed the institution’s closure.

• Hussian officials have not formally announced the shutdown. The college’s website merely states that it is not enrolling new students. Its chief executive, Joshua Figuli, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Dive Insight:

For-profit colleges have earned bad press for abruptly shutting their doors and leaving students in the lurch. Such was the case with Corinthian Colleges’ closure in 2015 and ITT Technical Institute’s in 2016, which left tens of thousands of students with loan debt and no clear path to a degree. Both institutions faced state and federal investigations into accusations of subpar student outcomes, like low job placement rates.

Since then, the Obama and Biden administrations attempted regulatory crackdowns on for-profit colleges. Most recently, in May, the U.S. Department of Education proposed that career college programs would need to meet debt-to-earnings tests or risk losing federal funding.

Similar to other for-profits, Hussian appears to have fumbled its closure, according to press reports.

Continue Reading