The U.S. Department of Education rescinded the fine, with prejudice, saying it found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Christian school.
The charge by the previous administration was that GCU “substantially misrepresented” the cost of its doctoral programs. The Dismissal stated unequivocally that “there are no findings against GCU, or any of its employees, officers, agents, or contractors, and no fine is imposed.”
GCU President Brian Mueller said the fine dismissal is welcome news, but he was not surprised by the decision. He said, “The facts clearly support our contention that we were wrongly accused of misleading our Doctoral students and we appreciate the recognition that those accusations were without merit.”
Mueller went on to say, “GCU is a leader in innovation, transparency and best practices in higher education and we look forward to working cooperatively with the Department in the future – just as we have with all regulatory agencies.”
The proposed fine was, by far, the largest the Department of Education had ever levied against a university. GCU filed an appeal maintaining that the unsubstantiated accusations were gross mischaracterizations based on isolated, out-of-context statements.