DOJ LOOKS INTO ALTIUS-TIFFIN: The Chronicle of Education reports here that the US Dept. of Justice is investigating whether Ivy Bridge College, the online school run by Tiffin University and Altius Education, broke federal student-aid laws. Writes the Chronicle: "the inquiry is part of a False Claims Act investigation that could cover Ivy Bridge's student-recruiting practices, academic-integrity issues, and student-loan policies, as well as the corporate relationship between Altius and Tiffin."
Paul Freedman, founder and CEO of Altius, offered this observation in an email to EdSurge:
Obviously the DOJ investigation is disheartening and creates an air of suspicion about everything we ever did or ever tried to do, whether or not that is the entire intent of the investigation I cannot say, but it is certainly the most immediate outcome. There are clearly strong agents at work who view attempts to innovate in Higher Education with deep skepticism, and at this point the government seems to trust the word of those agents over those attempting to innovate. Our only hope is that the whole situation will lead to more people asking why there is such hostile resistance to new ideas, new models, and new experiments in Higher Education when the Status Quo is so obviously broken."
