Latoya Sowers started her studies at Purdue Global in 2022, opting for a program in health-care administration due to her experience as a phlebotomist and certified nursing assistant. She obtained both an associate's and a bachelor's degree, finishing the latter in May.
Sowers faced challenges in earlier efforts to pursue higher education. She attended three physical institutions and two online ones, "failing badly," she mentioned.
However, she continued to encounter advertisements for Purdue Global in her home state of South Carolina. The institution's message regarding rebuilding and starting over appealed to her. Sowers remained doubtful about returning to online education, however, as she was aware that many students who enrolled did not complete their studies.
But she recalled finding Purdue Global on a college rankings website that listed a graduation rate of 88%.
She was finally able to finish her education. It was empowering, she mentioned, to reshape her life and take a step toward building a brighter future for herself, her husband, and their two sons.
She didn't secure a position in health-care administration. Instead, she works as a career advisor at a school that primarily provides online associate's degrees in different health-care fields. To achieve her original goal, she would have to earn a master's degree, obtain certifications, and gain several years of experience.
I once believed that after graduating, I would be working in a nursing home or hospital," she said. "I feel as though I've wasted years in school because I no longer want to follow this path, as I've come to understand that I need these things and those things and more.
Sowers has a debt of $70,000 from student loans. She mentioned she is unsure about how she will manage to repay it.
The data she discovered might have been an incorrect recollection regarding Purdue's primary campus in West Lafayette, which has a six-year graduation rate of 83%. Purdue Global's graduation rates stand at approximately 30% for undergraduate students.
Sowers believed she would secure a well-paying job right until the day she graduated.
If they were more informed," she said about the staff at Purdue Global, "I'm fairly certain they would have alerted the students.
A similar playbook
Sowers isn’t alone.
The typical student from Purdue Global left with $26,000 in student loan debt by 2021, the latest year for which this information is publicly accessible. As per data from the U.S. Department of Education, only 5% of undergraduate students and 2% of graduate students were on track to repay their loans one year after graduating as of 2020, a challenge that might be due to their average salaries of $45,000.
The average student at the institution is a mother over the age of 30 who is balancing work with her studies. Many come from low-income backgrounds: 48% of Purdue Global students during the 2022-2023 academic year received a Pell grant, which is typically given to families earning less than $30,000 annually.
Although Purdue Global does not obtain state funding in the same manner as its parent university, Purdue University, it still depends on taxpayers for a significant portion of its income through federal student financial aid. In 2023, students received $453 million in federal loans, grants, and military assistance, according to the most recent ED data.
Most federal funding is provided to Purdue Global in the form of loans. Students at Purdue Global took out approximately $300 million in federal direct student loans during the 2025 fiscal year, which concluded on July 1. This amount ranked as the fifth-highest among institutions classified as public by the ED.
Purdue Global allocates approximately $140 million annually for marketing, which accounts for almost a third of its overall costs, primarily through online advertisements aimed at students who meet specific criteria: those with low income, individuals in the military, or those looking to switch careers.
After Purdue acquired Kaplan University, a for-profit online institution, to establish Purdue Global, then-President Mitch Daniels stated that "Kaplan has now become a public university."
However, Kaplan Higher Education, the school's former owner, continues to play a significant part in Purdue Global's non-academic activities since the 2018 purchase. As per the 30-year agreement with Kaplan, the for-profit organization handles marketing, student enrollment, and financial aid management, along with other services.
And Purdue Global, with its aggressive use of advertising to attract students who frequently depend on some form of financial assistance, retains elements of Kaplan's for-profit history in its business approach.
A 2012 U.S. Senate reportThe practices of for-profit universities that resulted in greater oversight of the industry revealed that institutions focused on students depending on financial aid to increase income, frequently raising tuition costs to maximize aid collection without much consideration for the dangers of student debt. Kaplan Higher Education was among 30 companies studied in the report.
"Of course, it's crucial to ensure that higher education is available to everyone," said Eileen Connor, executive director of the Boston-based Project on Predatory Student Lending, a non-profit organization that advocates for student borrowers who believe they were deceived by their colleges.
But it's not acceptable for people to take advantage of the fact that our current system isn't meeting people's needs," she stated. "It truly turns into a push product, something being sold to individuals who might not have considered they needed it otherwise.
'The narrative was there'
Rob Bock, who left a bachelor's program at Purdue Global in 2021 after two semesters with $15,000 in student loan debt, mentioned that he was never provided an option to pay his tuition directly.
The school secured a combination of loans on his behalf, presented the details to him using an intricate spreadsheet that he examined during a brief phone call with a financial advisor, and subsequently prepared a loan package for him each semester, he mentioned.
I was glad to transfer it to student loans," said the Indianapolis resident. "It felt like the correct decision.
Both of Bock's parents are educators, he mentioned, and have encouraged him to pursue higher education since his youth. He attended Ball State for three years after high school, majoring in music education, but left the program when he didn't feel comfortable in a student-teaching position.
Bock's inability to finish his bachelor's degree led to a long-lasting disagreement with his mother.
"She thought I would have a better future than she did, and that not completing my degree meant I had let her down," he said. He believed earning a degree from Purdue Global would enhance his career opportunities and help make up for the years he didn't finish at Ball State.
The story was there," he said. "Hell, even Purdue Global, one of their primary selling points was, 'Are you having trouble finding a job in cybersecurity? Why not come get your bachelor's?'
Bock left Purdue Global because he felt his cybersecurity studies were too basic for someone with his extensive background in information technology.
It was more expensive than he anticipated. He mentioned that admissions representatives from Purdue Global provided him with a tuition cost prior to his enrollment that was significantly lower than the amount he ultimately took out in loans.
You need to consider where the risk of failure lies and where the costs are placed," Connor stated. "In our current system, it's primarily the student who bears this burden. Schools never face the repercussions of their students taking on loans, and students only realize the impact too late.
A way out?
Bock, along with nearly 1 million other students who believe their universities burdened them with debt while providing unclear information about the amount they would borrow or their capacity to repay it, have discovered a possible way out of their loans: They have submitted a borrower's defense application to the U.S. Department of Education.
Under the initiative, a student's loans may be forgiven if an assessment of their application shows they were deceived regarding key aspects of their enrollment.
A representative from Purdue Global stated to the Journal & Courier that by 2024, 846 claims related to borrower's defense had been submitted by students who enrolled at Purdue Global since its inception in April 2018. The institution denies all of these allegations.
Colleen Ashly is pursuing a bachelor's degree in health-care administration, the same program that Sowers finished, and has taken out nearly $60,000 in loans to cover her education. She still has enough Pell grant money remaining to finish her degree by December.
Ashly enrolled in a repayment plan where her employer will deduct a part of her salary to settle the loans, over a period of 25 years if she pays the minimum amount. She will be 59 years old at that time.
It's somewhat intimidating," she said. "I'm being honest, that never even entered my thoughts when I enrolled in school. I was focused on the present moment and thought, 'I want to do this.' But now, as I approach the end, it's quite distressing to consider how much money I'll have to repay.
She wishes to settle her debts more quickly, despite the fact that her anticipated income as a certified health-care administrator is still pending.Purdue Global's websitedisplays Ashly's program's earnings reaching into the six-digit range.
"They earn a significant amount of money," she stated.
Operating behind closed doors
News statements detailing Purdue's 2017 agreement restricted the portrayal of Kaplan's involvement in the new university to "back office support."
However, according to the purchase agreement, Purdue University acquired only Kaplan University's online programs, 14 physical campuses (which it subsequently closed), along with its faculty and students, resulting in the institution being divided between Purdue for academic matters and Kaplan in all other areas.
"It lies somewhere between rebranding and implementing significant modifications," said Robert Kelchen, head of the Department of Education Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee, regarding Purdue's agreement with Kaplan.
And that's where it becomes challenging for outsiders to determine the actual changes implemented in governance, academics, and student support, as these are the kinds of aspects typically promised during such agreements.
Although Purdue Global is supervised by a board that has five of eight trustees in common with its parent organization, decisions are taken with the guidance of an advisory committee comprising Kaplan executives and has expanded in number since the acquisition.
The committee, composed of four executives from Purdue Global and four from Kaplan Higher Education, initially included two representatives from each organization, as outlined in the contract that created Purdue Global in March 2018. This committee is responsible for developing recommendations for the trustees that address critical aspects of Purdue Global's operations, including its budget, goals, marketing strategy, and performance indicators. The agreement encourages the group to strive for agreement among its members prior to submitting proposals.
Whether the board of trustees endorses the committee's suggestions, or even discusses them, isshielded from public viewIn 2017, Purdue University collaborated with Indiana legislators to exclude its online campus from the public access regulations that apply to its main institution.
The online university conducts "special meetings," according to a representative, during which its board members discuss matters privately. The representative stated that the advisory committee is "as the name implies, only for providing suggestions."
A pursuit of profit
The agreement between Kaplan Higher Education and Purdue Global for operational services mirrors partnerships established at other universities with "online program managers," or OPMs.
These organizations, typically profit-driven, work with colleges and universities to offer services aimed at increasing student enrollment and improving retention, such as advertising, admissions assistance, and academic guidance.
Opponents of OPMs argue that these companies have a strong motivation to enroll as many students as possible in order to receive higher fees from their affiliated institutions. Kaplan Higher Education is eligible for up to 13% of Purdue Global's net income, which closely correlates with the number of students enrolled.
"There aren't many positive outcomes for students when they are pushed into programs that might not suit them, could be costly, or may not be financially feasible as promised," said Amber Villalobos, who focuses on accountability in online education at the think tank The Century Foundation, where she serves as a fellow.
Kaplan's admissions team collaborates with third-party recruiters such as Guild Education to bring in new students, enrolling employees from major corporations like Walt Disney at reduced rates, frequently resulting in less satisfactory results.Bloomberg reportedin 2021. As a result, Guild retains up to a third of the tuition fees.
Purdue Global has seen its student enrollment more than double through collaborations with businesses or the military in recent years, reaching 65% of its total student population, according to former Chancellor Frank Dooley, who oversaw Purdue Global from 2020 to 2024.
You're seeing the influence of profit-driven goals within a non-profit school," Villalobos stated. "If for-profit Kaplan was facing its own challenges, and they're establishing their own organization, it's logical that we could witness similar approaches, with a profit focus being part of this newly labeled, so-called, private-nonprofit Purdue Global entity.
Securing students
The deal between Kaplan and Purdue sets a defined expectation for student development via significant investment in marketing and enrollment.
The original agreement states that Purdue Global plans to never reduce its investment in student outreach and admissions efforts. Purdue Global allocated $53 million to admissions in 2020, the latest year for which detailed financial data is accessible through aleaked budget.
University admissions advisors are employed and trained by Kaplan, as a representative stated, even though the company has a history of aggressive selling methods. (A recruitment manual, as mentioned in a 2012 U.S. Senate report, noted, "It's all about identifying their pain points and anxieties.")
Purdue Global stated via a representative that it has established "well-defined guidelines" for its enrollment advisors since the acquisition.
As outlined in the agreement, new students' main points of contact during their initial two semesters, other than their instructors, are admissions advisors, whose responsibilities include various elements of marketing. After this period, they are moved to an academic advisor — however, the admissions representative may continue to reach out to the student via calls and messages throughout their time at the institution.
The school's initial point of contact with Bock, a admissions officer, only communicated with him via mobile phone.
Every time I sent them an email, they would call me," he said. "They would reach out when they needed details, if I hadn't completed my FAFSA or something. That was sort of their role, to encourage you to finish your FAFSA forms, or if there was missing information on the application.
An admissions representative contacted Bock to inform him about Purdue Global's cybersecurity program following his initial submission of information on the school's website. Bock mentioned that they informed him he would have completed 80% to 90% of his degree before starting, based on the courses he had taken at Ball State.
However, when he personally visited the school's Indianapolis office to complete the enrollment paperwork, a guidance counselor mentioned that his degree would be approximately 30% complete. The courses he took at Ball State did not align as smoothly with his Purdue Global degree as the admissions representative had initially believed. Bock stated he never received a detailed explanation for this, even after inquiring.
"The impression I had was that they looked at the course title and checked if it was similar to something they provided," he said. (Purdue Global lists a few)baseline requirementsfor credit transfer on its website, which states it may ask for the syllabus of a specific course to determine transfer eligibility.
Bock dismissed it. He had reached out to Purdue Global to complete his bachelor's degree — to facilitate his return — and he chose to proceed with that plan.
A quality education?
The portion of Purdue Global's budget allocated to instruction in 2023 was less than a third of that of its parent institution in West Lafayette, standing at 16%, which is almost the same as Kaplan's usual allocation, as reported by ED data.
With the school's investment in marketing and admissions, less than one dollar of each student's tuition is allocated to their education for every two dollars spent on enrolling another student.
"That's undervaluing students," said Connor, director of PPSL.
Purdue Global's full-time instructors receive compensation similar to that of Kaplan, ranking among the lowest when compared to other large online, non-profit institutions. As per the 2018 agreement, Purdue Global took over all of Kaplan's teaching staff, and according to ED data, it has hired just 29 full-time professors since then, out of approximately 300 total.
A representative stated that the school's full-time professors had, on average, taught at Kaplan for five years before Purdue Global was established; the average part-time instructor began in 2019. The institution refused to provide the specific percentage of its current faculty who were transferred during the acquisition.
Purdue Global has boosted its use of part-time instructors, as per ED data, rising from 83% of its teaching staff in the last year Kaplan managed the institution to 88% in early 2025. No teachers at the school, including those who are full-time, have tenure.
Bock's time in class was the main factor that led him to leave Purdue Global without earning a degree.
In one class, he mentioned, he assisted other students in learning the Linux operating system via Discord, while his professor submitted support tickets for issues he couldn't grasp regarding the software. In another instance, he said his instructor delivered all lessons through YouTube videos. When Bock brought his concerns to the IT department's dean, he claimed he was "brushed off."
David Sanders, a professor of biological sciences at Purdue and former chair of the University Senate during Purdue's acquisition of Kaplan, mentioned that faculty members from Purdue Global have informed him that they were directed not to let students fail their courses, as this could increase the chances of them withdrawing.
It's now more focused on the credentialing process than on learning," he stated. "This is a situation that has developed over time, and Purdue Global is both a result of and a contributor to this trend.
Online feedback regarding students' experiences at the institution differs greatly, with some calling Purdue Global a complete scam or a degree mill, while others claim they were taught by supportive, skilled instructors who have real-world expertise.
Purdue Global often highlights its accreditation from the Chicago-based Higher Learning Commission, the same organization that accredits Purdue's primary campus, as proof of academic excellence.
That postage indicates merely that a university satisfies the organization's basic requirementsrequirementson ethical leadership, learning atmosphere, purpose, and available resources. Kaplan University was also recognized by the HLC.
Villalobos stated that when evaluating an institution, student results are the most important factor.
Looking at one, how probable is it that students will graduate with these degrees?" she asked. "And two, where do they end up? Do they find jobs? Are they able to pay back these loans? Those are the indicators for determining the return on the investment.
Bock mentioned that prior to enrolling, he looked into Purdue Global and found negative online reviews about Kaplan University. He ignored them.
"I assumed that with Purdue taking over, I thought, 'Oh well, I don't have to worry about these anymore,'" he recalled.
Because it's no longer Kaplan.
Next up: Despite aggressive promotion, uncertainty remains regarding Purdue Global's connection to the main campus.
Israel Schuman works as a journalist for the Journal & Courier. You may contact him atischuman@gannett.com or on X @ischumanwrites.
This piece first was published in the Lafayette Journal & Courier:Seven years following the rebranding of Kaplan, is Purdue Global's for-profit background truly behind it?