The DOE is in charge of federal student loans. GCU takes advantage of how easy it is for students to get federal student loans. If you read the article I provided, you would have seen the university's doctoral program is 60 credit hours. Once the student is in the program, the university then adds "continuation courses" they must take for dissertation requirements to graduate. That runs the cost up another $10K to $12K. It was a group of doctoral graduates who made the initial complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
The university was fined $37.7M by the FTC last year. In total, the university has more than 100K students on campus and online. Its net income was $205M for 2023, with an operating margin of 25.9%, which is very good. The fine really didn't do any damage to them. So, what odds do you give them to stop their unethical business practices?
Do I think they should be forced to close? I think they should continue to be scrutinized and punished for any further wrongdoing. Incidentally, the Southern Baptists sold the non-profit university in 2004 because it was in great debt. Significant Education, LLC, out of California, purchased it and made it the first for-profit Christian college in the country.