$415 million of federal loan money sent to students defrauded by DeVry, ITT Tech

Federal student loans worth $415 million will be repaid to nearly 16,000 students who were defrauded by for-profit universities, according to an announcement from the Department of Education on Wednesday.

These include students who attended DeVry University, Westwood College Employment Prospects, ITT Nursing and Minnesota School of Business/Globe University. The mechanism that students used is called a borrower defense to loan repayment, meaning the settlement would discharge some or all of their student loan obligations.

“Students count on their colleges to be truthful. Unfortunately, today’s findings show too many instances in which students were misled into loans at institutions or programs that could not deliver what they’d promised,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a release.

Approximately 1,800 former DeVry University students will receive $71.7 million in loan repayments due to "widespread substantial misrepresentations" they made about the job placement rates of its students, according to the U.S. Department of Education. More specifically, it claimed that 90% of its graduates get jobs when in actuality it was closer to 58%. The 90% statistic was based on people who already had jobs while in college, not due to DeVry's education and job opportunities.

DeVry University is still operating and enrolling students but is no longer a public company as of 2018.

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Navient student loans canceled: Thousands of student loans to be canceled in $1.85 billion Navient settlement. Many more borrowers can expect $260.

The release also said Westwood College owes $53.1 million to 1,600 borrowers it defrauded who submitted claims. Westwood told students 80% of them would find employment and claimed that graduates would make salaries of $50,000 or more. The job placement rate was inflated, and graduates often made half or as little as a quarter of that amount.

About $660 million will go to 23,000 students who attended ITT Nursing as well, read the department's release. These students were lied to about job prospects, as ITT Nursing failed to gain proper accreditation and had insufficient funds and unqualified faculty.

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Lastly, the Minnesota School of Business/Globe University will be giving 270 students approximately $3 million for misleading students, telling them that if they graduated from the university's criminal justice program, they could get jobs as Minnesota police officers. In reality, the school lacked the accreditations and certifications necessary for the students to obtain those jobs, the education department's release stated.

The four universities made several false claims about job placement statistics when often lacking the credentials or programs to lead to employment, leaving thousands of students to dry. If you are a student who is being misled by your university, submit a claim at https://studentaid.gov/borrower-defense/.

Michelle Shen is a Money & Tech Digital Reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her @michelle_shen10 on Twitter.