Temple University must pay $700,000 under a settlement with the U.S. Education Department for using false data to bolster its online M.B.A. program’s nationwide ranking.
The settlement resolves a two-year federal probe into allegations that Temple’s Fox School of Business and Management submitted false information to artificially inflate its online M.B.A. program’s rankings between 2014 and 2018. The Education Department said the university deceived students about the school’s online program rankings and wrongly increased its enrollment and revenue.
The Philadelphia university admitted no liability or wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
Temple’s Fox School of Business was rated No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report for its online M.B.A. program four years running, including in 2018, before notifying the publisher that it had provided phony information.
“We know many students rely on rankings to make decisions,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Friday. “In this case, students were presented deliberately falsified information by Temple’s Fox School.”
