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    The law school once boasted bar-passage rates of more than 90 percent but has seen its percentages drop to about 25 percent among first-time test takers. A for-profit law school in downtown Phoenix that is struggling with falling bar-passage rates is moving to affiliate with one of the country’s historically black colleges and universities. Arizona Summit Law School has signed an affiliation agreement with the private, nonprofit Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. The law school, founded in 2004, once boasted bar passage rates of 97 percent but has seen its percentages drop to 25 percent among first-time School officials said they have made several changes aimed at improving bar passage, and that the affiliation with Bethune-Cookman will enable them to benefit from the university's academic support services and marketing. A university official also will serve on Arizona Summit's board of trustees. The deal would allow both schools to pursue their objectives of diversifying the legal profession, officials said. "This enables us to take it to a much higher level sooner, swifter and with greater impact," Arizona Summit President Donald Lively said. Bethune-Cookman President Edison Jackson said in a statement, “Together, we aim to be a leading force in disrupting a legacy of exclusion that has persisted into the 21st century.” The affiliation needs the approval of several accrediting bodies, including the American Bar Association and the Arizona Board of Private Postsecondary Education. The agreement doesn't make Arizona Summit a nonprofit school. However, Lively said the school is working toward nonprofit status. Summit’s owner, InfiLaw Corp., also owns law schools in North Carolina and Florida, and the parent company has been controversial in legal circles. A sister school, the Charlotte School of Law, was put on probation by the American Bar Association last year for two years because of concerns over its bar-passage rates, and the U.S. Department of Education in December yanked the C
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
      USAMar2017ArizonaLawprivatenon-profit
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      Arizona Summit Law school, a troubled for-profit institution owned by the InfiLaw System, has been placed on probation by its accrediting body, the American Bar Association. The association’s move was announced on Monday and followed Arizona Summit’s affiliation with Bethune-Cookman University, a nonprofit historically black college in Daytona Beach, Fla. Arizona Summit Law in Phoenix is the second school owned by InfiLaw to be placed on probation for failing to meet A.B.A. accreditation standards. Sterling Partners, a private equity firm in Chicago and Baltimore, is an investor. The first, Charlotte School of Law in Charlotte, N.C., lost its eligibility for federal student aid in January as a result of the probation. Its enrollment has declined sharply, and the school has said it is trying to restart federal aid and is exploring affiliation with a nonprofit college in a Northeastern state. At Arizona Summit, the bar association found that admissions practices, academic programs, and graduation and bar exam passage rates were below par. These deficiencies, according to a statement by the A.B.A. Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, “have resulted in the law school now being in a position where only immediate and substantial action can bring about a sufficient change to put the law school on a realistic path to being in compliance within the time allowed” by the bar association’s rules. Only 24.6 percent of Arizona Summit graduates who took the Arizona state bar exam for the first time in July 2016 passed, an exceptionally low rate. Charlotte School of Law reported nearly the same passage rate for its graduates who took the North Carolina bar exam last month. The bar association said that because the situation at Arizona Summit was critical and urgent, it could have hearings this year to consider any additional remedial action or sanctions “up to and including withdrawal of the law school’s approval.” The probation decision was made by the bar association’s Council of the Section of Legal E
      6 years ago by @prophe
       
        Mar2017for-profitbanaccreditationUSALaw
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        Generally, prestigious private universities with hundreds of students don't get shut down over fairly minor, six-month-old technical issues that have since been resolved. But that is precisely the predicament facing the two-decade-old European University at St. Petersburg, a bastion of Western liberal arts, which has been ordered closed by a district court after a furious conservative assault against it. What appears to be on full display is a hallmark of the Vladimir Putin-era: a new brand of domestic "lawfare," in which state-run courts enforce political conformity through legal pretexts. Unlike blatant Soviet-style repression, outcomes are shaped through complicated, often years-long court battles that seem to lead inexorably to the politically desired verdict. One illustrative recent example is a local court's upholding of an embezzlement conviction against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which has the collateral effect of barring him from running in presidential elections that are about a year away. Kremlin supporters will denounce such a description as an example of Western arrogance, aimed at defaming Russian courts and rule of law. It's a debate that cannot be easily settled. 'Fake studies'? But consider the case of the European University, a private post-graduate school that currently has about 260 students – many of them from abroad – and whose main campus occupies the magnificent Small Marble Palace in St. Petersburg's historic heart. The school was founded in a different political era, in 1994, with support from the city's then-mayor, reformist Anatoly Sobchak, and substantial donations from a range of international organizations, including the Soros, MacArthur, and Spencer foundations. It's one of the few private universities in Russia that is fully licensed to issue graduate degrees by the Ministry of Education, and has been consistently rated among the top universities in Russia. The school's curriculum is heavy on political science, sociology, history, and economics. Many classes are tau
        6 years ago by @prophe
         
          closureMar2017HungaryEnglishprivateEuropeBudapestLaw
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          A federal appeals court rejected the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s investigative fishing trip into the records of a leading accrediting agency for for-profit colleges, saying the bureau failed to explain what sort of illegal conduct it was looking into. The decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington is a rebuke to the CFPB and its director Richard Cordray, who demanded the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools turn over documents and make an executive available to testify about the group’s possible involvement in “unlawful acts and practices in connection with accrediting for-profit colleges.” The Obama administration mounted fierce legal attacks on for-profit colleges, accusing them of peddling shoddy degrees financed by federal student loans and forcing Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute to close their doors. This appears to be the first time in decades that a federal appeals court rejected an agency's civil investigative demand or administrative subpoena, said Allyson Baker, a partner in Venable's Washington office who represented ACICS. “They didn’t think the CFPB met the requirements of the statute, which requires notice,” said Baker, herself a former CFPB enforcement attorney. ACICS refused to comply with the civil investigative demand in 2015, sending the question to a federal district court. That court last year said the CFPB, which is charged with enforcing consumer financial laws, didn’t have authority to question a school accrediting agency. The CFPB “plowed head long into fields not clearly ceded to it by Congress,” the district court said. The D.C. Circuit affirmed today, in an opinion by Judge David Sentelle, on narrower grounds. The agency “wholly fails” to state what sort of unlawful conduct it is investigating, the appeals court said. The CFPB never explained what “unlawful acts and practices” it suspected and merely repeated the same language in court filings. Without specifics, the court said it can’t determine whether the demand
          6 years ago by @prophe
           
            USAcourtfor-profitloseObamaDonald_TrumpLaw
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            CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government has decided to scrap the contentious Khalsa University Act that the previous Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government had passed in September last year, just before assembly elections. The Act allowed Khalsa College Charitable Society, run by Satyajit Singh Majithia, father-in-law of former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal, to carve out a private university from the land belonging to the 125-year-old Khalsa College in Amritsar. The decision was taken at Wednesday's cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. . . This is Amarinder's third big decision overturning the previous government's pronouncements. He had first cancelled permits to a number of private bus companies, including those owned by Sukhbir. He had also removed halqa in-charges and ordered a third-party probe into the alleged Rs 12,000-crore foodgrain scam. . . According to Wednesday's cabinet note, the government will repeal the Act through an ordinance. The note cited four reasons for not letting a private university come up on the land including "damage to character and loss of heritage status of 125-year-old institution". . . "The Khalsa University (Repeal) Ordinance, 2017 aims to repeal the Khalas University Act, 2016 with a view to protect the heritage character of Khalsa College, Amritsar. The Khalsa College, Amritsar has over a period of time become a significant icon of Khalsa heritage and the decision for the university taken in 2016 is likely to shadow and damage its character and pristine glory," the note states. .
            6 years ago by @prophe
             
              IndiaPunjab_EnglishLawbillApr2017
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