ITT-Tech

ITT Technical Institute (often shortened to ITT Tech or ITTTI) is a for-profit technical institute with over 130 campuses in 37 states of the United States.[4] ITT Tech is owned and operated by ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE: ESI), a publicly traded company. ITT Educational Services, Inc. (ESI) was spun off by ITT Corporation through an initial public offering (IPO) in 1994,

with parent company ITT as an 83% shareholder.[5] ITT Tech licenses the "ITT" name from ITT Corporation, which originates from the latter company's original name "International Telephone & Telegraph".

Company history

The company was founded in 1946 as Educational Services, Inc. and has been headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, since 1969. From 1965 until its IPO in 1994, ITT Tech was a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation (as "ITT/ESI"). By 1999, ITT Corp. (which had merged with Starwood the year before) divested itself completely of ITT Tech's shares but the schools still use the "ITT" name under license.[6] It operates over 130 ITT Technical Institutes in 37 states which primarily provide career-focused degree programs to approximately 80,000 students.

Academic services

ITT Tech offers AAS, bachelor's BAS, and master's (business-only, online) degrees. ITT Tech is nationally accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools.[7] It may be impossible to transfer from ITT to a traditional university; per the ITT website, "it is unlikely that any credits earned at an ITT Technical Institute will be transferable to or accepted by any institution other than an ITT Technical Institute."[8]

Controversies

A two-year associate's degree at ITT Tech (which requires 96 credit hours, 12 credits per quarter, 3 classes every quarter, and 4 credits per class) costs approximately $47,328 and that cost comes out to $493.00 per credit hour. Out of concern that students at ITT Tech and other for-profit Technical Institutes are taking on unsustainable levels of debt, the Department of Education implemented new regulations that restricts students at for-profit Technical Institutes from taking out more debt than their future employment prospects would justify.[9]

ITT Technical Institute has been involved in several controversies over its business and academic practices, among them:

In August 1998, 15 former students alleged misrepresentation, fraud and concealment by ITT arising out of their recruitment and education at ITT campuses. In September 1998, ITT settled all of the claims of the 15 claimants.[10]

On February 25, 2004, federal agents raided the company's headquarters and 10 of its campuses.[11] The investigation negatively affected the company's stock and triggered several class action lawsuits by investors.

In October 2005, ITT agreed to pay $730,000 to settle a lawsuit with California in which employees alleged that it inflated students’ grade point averages so they qualified for more financial aid from the State of California.

An investigation by WGBA-TV (NBC26, Green Bay, WI) found evidence of widespread grade inflation. In one instance, a student got 100% on a computer forensics assignment by emailing the professor a noodle recipe. The station believes this to be a way to increase federal student aid funding.

In early March of 2011 WTMJ-TV (NBC4, Milwaukee, WI) ran an investigation finding teachers lying on attendance records so they could get cash bonuses paid by ITT Tech. ITT Tech uses an attendance policy as part of a requirement to get financial aid to show student progress. (Wikipedia.org)

Posted in: ITT-Tech