Feds fine for-profit Grand Canyon University nearly $40M over program pricing

For-profit Grand Canyon University (GCU) has been fined $37.7 million by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) over claims the Christian school misrepresents the cost of its doctoral programs.

“An FSA investigation found GCU lied to more than 7,500 former and current students about the cost of its doctoral programs over several years,” the Education Department announced Tuesday. “GCU falsely advertised a lower cost than what 98% of students ended up paying to complete certain doctoral programs.”

GCU has 20 days to dispute the hefty fee. The Phoenix, Ariz.-based university is thought to be the nation’s largest Christian university, according to a 2018 Arizona Republic report. A large majority of the school’s roughly 100,000 students study online.

Feds claim GCU advertised their doctoral programs as costing between $40,000 and $49,000, but less than 2% of graduates completed their coursework at that rate. Nearly 80% of the school’s doctorate programs’ graduates reportedly shelled out at least $10,000 above the advertised rate between 2017 and 2022. That impacted more than 7,500 grad students, the Education Department found.