Education Department Approves $1.5B in Debt Relief
Inside Higher Ed
Scott Jaschik
August 31, 2022
The Department of Education announced Tuesday that it will discharge all remaining federal student loans for borrowers who enrolled in any location of Westwood College (including enrollment in Westwood’s online program) between Jan. 1, 2002, and Nov. 17, 2015, when it stopped enrolling new borrowers in advance of its 2016 closure.
The department said that it has analyzed the evidence related to Westwood and concluded that the for-profit college “engaged in widespread misrepresentations about the value of its credentials for attendees’ and graduates’ employment prospects such that all borrowers who attended during the period described above are entitled to a full loan discharge.”
This action will result in $1.5 billion in discharges for 79,000 borrowers, regardless of whether they have applied for a borrower-defense discharge.
