Dive Transient:
- Aspen College, a 9,100-student for-profit based mostly in Phoenix, surrendered its prelicensure nursing program license Tuesday after informing the Arizona State Board of Nursing it will be unable to fulfill the state’s minimal examination go fee for 2022.
- In 2021, lower than 60% of Aspen nursing college students in Arizona handed the Nationwide Council Licensure Examination, the take a look at required to change into a nurse, on their first attempt. Arizona’s minimal program first-time go fee for the examination is 80%.
- Poor scholar outcomes have plagued Aspen’s nursing program. As a consequence of a failure to fulfill state requirements, this system has been on probation with the state’s nursing board, leaving it unable to enroll new college students since March.
Dive Perception:
Dropping Arizona licensure is a significant blow for Aspen, which is owned by New York-based Aspen Group, a publicly traded firm that additionally operates United States College.
A overwhelming majority of Aspen’s 9,100 college students, 84%, are enrolled in its nursing applications, in line with public filings. Some 6,200 are registered nurses finding out for a sophisticated diploma, and 1,484 are in bachelor of science in nursing prelicensure applications within the Phoenix; Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Tampa, Florida; and Nashville, Tennessee areas.
However after coming into into the settlement with Arizona regulators, the college can also be suspending new enrollment and finishing instruction for present nursing college students in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas, it mentioned in a Tuesday submitting.
Aspen has had the eye of regulators all 12 months after the Arizona State Board of Nursing investigated Aspen’s nursing program for poor examination go charges. The board in February provided the college a three-year consent settlement beneath which it could not enroll new college students in core nursing lessons till examination passage charges improved.
Talking to the Arizona State Board for Personal Postsecondary Training later that month, college leaders answered questions on this system’s operation, the profession preparation college students obtain and poor Nationwide Council Licensure Examination outcomes.
State regulators then instructed Aspen to cease new enrollment into its nursing program at two Phoenix campuses.
And in April, a former scholar filed a class-action criticism in opposition to Aspen Group, the college’s proprietor, saying it had violated Arizona’s Shopper Fraud Act, in line with KSAZ.
College students who’re already enrolled can proceed their research and graduate inside two years. The state’s board of personal faculties and Aspen’s accreditor, the Distance Training Accrediting Fee, will oversee the teach-out and outgoing transfers.
Aspen can apply for its nursing program’s reinstatement starting two years after its closure in 2024. Aspen didn’t reply to a request for remark Wednesday.
