Kaplan lays off 50 in Fort Lauderdale

Kaplan Higher Education in Fort Lauderdale has laid off about 50 workers.

The staff reduction “reflects less than five percent of our current Fort Lauderdale workforce of approximately 1,000,” said Gregory Ten Eyck, spokesman for Kaplan Higher Education, the surviving entity after Kaplan University was sold.

Kaplan University was sold in 2018 to create the new Purdue University Global, the online university of Indiana-based Purdue.

“Some roles have changed and some no longer fit our operational strategy going forward,” he said in an email on Thursday.

A deal struck in 2017 allowed Kaplan to unload its for-profit status.

The federal government has cracked down on for-profit colleges amid claims that some schools lured students with false career promises. Such schools have been in danger of losing their accreditation, which could restrict access to federal student aid.

In 2014, the Florida Attorney General’s Office closed its investigation into Kaplan, which agreed to make changes to “misleading” marketing information to prospective students. The investigation was part of a larger one on for-profit higher education in the state.

Kaplan’s assets and operations were sold for $1 to Purdue University Global for a 30-year agreement in which Kaplan provides services to Purdue’s new institution of online education that launched in April.