Minnesota Supreme Court Rules on Globe University Student Debt
The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that many former criminal justice students at Globe University and Minnesota School of Business can receive a tuition refund from the sister-schools. The state Attorney General’s office sued the schools in 2014, alleging that the schools were misleading students by suggesting that their criminal justice programs would qualify students to work as police and probation officers. In 2017, a Minnesota district court ruled that Globe University and Minnesota School of Business had misrepresented the program to students and ordered the schools to pay restitution. On appeal, the Minnesota Court of Appeals found that only students who testified against the school were eligible for refunds. This new ruling from the Minnesota Supreme Court widens the scope of that decision, allowing many more criminal justice students that were affected by the schools’ misrepresentation to receive a refund.
This ruling comes as the second blow to the schools, which closed campuses in 2017 after the Minnesota Court of Appeals also found that Globe and Minnesota School of Business had to repay both the principal and the interest on millions of dollars of unlicensed loans they had issued to students. The U.S. Department of Education had ended Globe and Minnesota School of Business’s access to federal financial aid programs in 2016, another contributing factor to the schools’ closures.
Globe University and Minnesota School of Business, now in millions of dollars of debt to ex-students, have shuttered business and filed for federal bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruling on student refunds could total as much as $33 million owed. The school claims assets of as much as $500,000, with debts ranging from $10 million to $50 million.