Western Governors University Class Action Lawsuit Salt Lake City Utah

This company is setup to make money. But not by providing a decent college based experience ending in a credentialed learner. They make money by forcing the learner to take endless repetitive poorly constructed assignments. Their course based structure is logistically poor also, so learners find themselves taking a math course followed by a second math course the following year and repeating the tuition and having to re-revise for both courses, instead of optimizing and putting them together, or better yet only having one course which meets both sets of conditions. The college advertises as a US institution, yet does not understand statewide laws. This also is not helped by them pairing up a mentor from Montana who did not take a state based exam like Praxis, and pairs up with a learner from Minnesota who has to take degree level standard based material in order to pass the MTLE which now has been in place for 2 years.

Again content is drawn out quite deliberately to extend the learners time with the college. Each credit breaks down into multiple assignments, of which some have 20 tasks to complete.

The specific course taken was an educational degree with accreditation to become a school teacher. Failing State requirements places the degree on hold which lengthens out the whole duration. The final course components have to be taken within a local school and it is incumbent on the learner to find their own placement. If they cannot find a willing school, they cannot complete the degree program. This was not mentioned at the start of the degree, or the fact that State based exams are needed and not administered by the University.

WGU should have a standing agreement in place with local schools, otherwise they are selling a product that will never conclude. If I was to purchase anything as a consumer with flaws like this in the design, laws would protect me and I could return the faulty product, not so for a degree it seems.

I believe retention is very bad and the success rate is around 20%. Of the advertised 50,000 students WGU has on their books, 40,000 will not pass and be in the same position.

This has cost $50,000 so far and fully government loaned money. 5 years of lossed earning potential + $50,000 with little chance of completion. I would ask how many other learners there are in a similar position? Is there enough here to look at litigation against WGU? How many students have failed due to poor administration, impossible to pass courses, had retaliation and harassment if they dare complain?

 Again this is government loaned, is there some audit body that governs this sort of situation?  At this point I have contacted my local senator for direction also and I am thinking of pusuing my legal options as I am very sick of this company and the way they have dealt with this.