Aspen University Hit with Class Action After Nursing Program Suspended

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A proposed class action claims Phoenix-based Aspen University misled prospective students regarding the benefits of the school’s pre-licensure bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) program.

The 22-page lawsuit explains that defendants Aspen Group, Inc. and Aspen University, Inc. touted the BSN program as a “responsibly priced distance-learning education” that would provide graduates the skills they need to practice as registered nurses. What the defendants failed to disclose, however, is that the program’s resources, opportunities, quality of instruction and infrastructure were “completely inadequate to support student learning or successful outcomes,” the case alleges.

According to the suit, the program’s failures led to an “abysmal” first-time pass rate for the National Council Licensure Examination—the nationwide test required for nurse licensure—which prompted an investigation into Aspen’s BSN program by the Arizona Board of Nursing. Per the case, the board concluded by February 2022 that the school had engaged in “unprofessional conduct” based on “[f]raud or deceit in advertising, promoting or implementing the program,” among other charges.

The Arizona Board of Nursing’s findings led to a request by the state’s education board that Aspen immediately cease enrollment in its BSN program until the matter was resolved, the suit relays.

Per the case, the plaintiff and other BSN program students were notified in early February 2022 that Aspen would not begin its scheduled February instruction at its two Phoenix campuses.

“In other words,” the complaint states, “those students who, like Plaintiff, had completed their first-year prerequisite courses and had paid, enrolled, and made arrangements to start the core BSN Program at Aspen on February 15, 2022, were officially notified five (5) days prior that there would be no classes—a development that leaves Plaintiff and dozens of other students enrolled in the Program with uncertain futures and in the middle of what has been described by several media outlets as Aspen’s ‘nursing school nightmare’ and ‘infrastructure collapse.’”

The lawsuit alleges that Aspen’s misrepresentations and omissions regarding the features and benefits of its BSN program were “false when made” and therefore violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

According to the case, Aspen began offering its BSN program at its main campus in Phoenix in July 2018 and, as a result of “overwhelming demand,” expanded the program to six term starts per year and a second campus in partnership with HonorHealth.

Despite representing that BSN program students would be provided with all the tools they would need to succeed in the nursing field, Aspen has failed to follow through, the lawsuit says.

Per the case, Aspen failed to disclose to prospective students that a “significant majority” of its clinical hours are provided virtually and that the school struggled to retain a consistent faculty to administer the BSN curriculum. Moreover, the suit says, students were unaware that Aspen lacked the resources to provide proper training to its faculty and that, as a result, the school’s “pedagogical approach to nursing education [has been] inadequate in the preparation of prelicensure nursing students and fails to allow its students to form necessary links of theoretical knowledge, clinical reasoning and practice,” as the Board of Nursing found.

The lawsuit goes on to claim that Aspen hid from students the nature of its “fragile, crumbling infrastructure,” including that the school employed five different program administrators over the course of less than four years.

The case claims Aspen knowingly concealed these facts from prospective students in order to increase enrollment in its BSN program and the tuition it would be paid. From the complaint:

The plaintiff is a certified veterinary technician who says she enrolled in Aspen’s BSN program after deciding to pursue her goal of obtaining a degree and licensure as a registered nurse. Per the case, the plaintiff paid for her tuition out of her own pocket and through federal loans and Pell grants. As a result of Aspen’s misrepresentations, the plaintiff has sustained “substantial damages,” including the costs of paying for an education she did not receive at Aspen and expenses associated with paying for credits at another institution that she had already earned but that did not transfer from Aspen.

“Upon information and belief, Plaintiff will incur approximately $10,000 to $12,000 in additional tuition expenses per year (after exhaustion of available federal financial aid) to continue her education elsewhere, which Plaintiff would not have otherwise incurred had Aspen fulfilled its responsibilities,” the complaint contends.

The plaintiff looks to represent all Arizona residents who were accepted to Aspen’s BSN program and paid tuition to the school.

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