Accreditation decision nears on Art Institute of Pittsburgh; online courses in jeopardy – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
The shuttering of 30 campuses, including 18 Art Institutes, at the end of this year will represent a curtain closing on Education Management Corp., the Pittsburgh-based for-profit education company that declared bankruptcy in July and will liquidate.
Another 30 or so former EDMC-operated schools remain open and accepting students, but the Pittsburgh company’s financial woes have apparently continued to plague the new nonprofit owners.
Dream Center Education Holdings, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit:, pushed through another round of layoffs this fall at many Art Institutes, forcing out full-time faculty and eliminated administrative positions.
Making matters worse, Dream Center has put forth no clear direction for the schools, leaving faculty and students with unanswered questions. The complicated, opaque acquisition has frustrated accreditation agencies across the country faced with tough decisions on how to verify the schools’ performance.