Feds Defund WGU

After an audit, the U. S. Department of Education’s inspector general has deemed Western Governors University unworthy of federal student aid. “The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General has released the results of a much anticipated high-stakes audit of Western Governors University, with negative findings that could threaten the large online university and, more broadly, the growing field of competency-based education,” Paul Fain wrote in Inside Higher Ed last month. “Citing concerns about an inadequate faculty role — which the competency-based university contests — the inspector general called for the department to make WGU pay back at least $713 million in federal financial aid.”