COLUMBUS – Columbus State Community College is offering scholarships to another group of students stranded by the shuttering of a for-profit school.
Heritage College – a vocational school with 10 campuses in Ohio and five others states — closed abruptly, citing financial problems and decreased demand for services from for-profit schools. A statement on the college website says its campuses are permanently closed, including those in suburban Cleveland and in Columbus, where students found a note taped to the door of the building on Taylor Station Road Tuesday announcing it had closed.
Student Kimi Boyce tells WBNS-TV she’d anticipated graduating on Nov. 18 and that after spending $12,000, she’s not sure if she’ll even receive a diploma.
Columbus State is offering Boyce and other former Heritage students $500 scholarships, spokesman David Wayne said. He says Columbus State offers some of the same programs as Heritage.
Student enrolled at the time of the closure, or who withdrew within the last 120 days, are eligible to have their federal student loans forgiven under new federal rules released last week, but U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown warns that students who want to transfer credits to a different school may be limiting their ability to have their loans discharged.
The closure comes as some of the largest for-profit colleges have faced steep enrollment declines, growing competition and new regulation. Some of those schools have closed recently and Columbus State stepped in with similar scholarship offers for the displaced students from ITT Technical Institute and American School of Technology, Wayne said.
Wayne says Heritage students should contact Columbus State now to enroll for Spring Semester which starts Jan. 17.
Heritage College operated 10 campuses around the country, including those in Denver; Fort Myers and Jacksonville, Fla.; Little Rock, Ark.; Kansas City, Mo.; Oklahoma City; and Wichita, Kan.