USC deceptively marketed an inferior online social work graduate degree as equal to its respected on-campus program, using it as a 'cash cow,' a class-action lawsuit alleges.
USC falsely marketed an online social-work degree program as equal to its respected on-campus offering, using it as a “cash cow” to lure in students unaware of the difference, a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday alleges.
USC also said it had overhauled its social work degree to be more affordable, slashing tuition by 25% in 2022. And for much of the last year, the school has been run by the dean of USC’s pharmacy school, Vassilios Papadopoulos, who has worked to make it more financially sustainable. Reforms include greater oversight over academics affairs, curriculum and student wellness.
“I felt hurt that a university like USC — very prestigious, well-known — would knowingly use deceitful recruitment tactics to target students going into a profession that is meant to help communities that are oftentimes marginalized,” said Luna, who graduated in May 2021. The venture with 2U made USC’s social work school the largest in the country, with the student body growing from about 900 in 2010 to 3,500 in 2016. Tuition climbed to $115,000 by 2021.
USC pushed to fill online classes with more students, which led to the admission of less-qualified students and aggressive recruiting practices — which further diminished the learning experience and the social work program’s overall reputation, The Times has reported. But Luna said she soon began to feel uneasy. She was not granted either of two scholarships she applied for and had to take out more than $100,000 in loans. A summer “internship” fell short, she said, by failing to provide one-on-one training. The instruction was disjointed, with lectures often not aligned with the reading and video material assigned for the class, she said.
In 2019, as the fiscal crisis at the social work school mounted, USC embarked on a series of cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. County contracts were “important for the survival of the school,” Clapp said, and would help “make up our fiscal deficit.”
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