AG Healey Accuses Brookline Art College Of Fraud In Lawsuit

BROOKLINE, MA — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s office filed a lawsuit Monday against The New England Institute of Art, which was based in Brookline Village near the corner of Washington Street and Rt. 9.

“Students who went to NEIA deserved the education and careers that they were promised. Instead, they were treated like a source of income in order to boost profits. Our office took this action to hold this deceptive for-profit school accountable for cheating students. We need to protect students and families who invest in their future,” Attorney General Maura Healey said in an emailed statement to Patch.

The lawsuit alleges that New England Institute of Art (NEIA) and Education Management Corporation (EDMC) actively targeted and aggressively recruited prospective students by misrepresenting job placement rates, its capacity to provide job search assistance, and the availability of financial aid.

The Attorney General's office is seeking restitution for students and an order prohibiting NEIA from continuing to harm former students, including the collection of outstanding student debt.

The lawsuit, according to the Boston Business Journal which first reported on it, accused the now closed for-profit college of fraud, saying it misrepresented how successful its graduates were in finding work in their fields of study.

The school's parent company, Education Management Corp., based in Pennsylvania, announced in May 2015 that the Brookline school would be one of more than 50 institutions it planned to shutter.

Leading up to the school’s closing in 2017, however, the lawsuit says NEIA and Education Management repeatedly misled prospective students about the programs they offered, in order to get more people to enroll in the school.

The average four-year tuition was $95,000, the lawsuit said. While NEIA may no longer exist, those students are still struggling with their loans and will for years to come, Boston Business Journal reported.

“Nearly all NEIA students incurred substantial debt to pay the school’s steep tuition and fees, yet upon graduation, most have been unable to secure employment in their field of study and/or have been consistently underemployed,” the lawsuit said.

Healey’s office wants the court to force Education Management and NEIA to pay back students for their tuition and fees, among other monetary damages. But it may have a difficult time obtaining much money. Neither Education Management nor NEIA is still operating. Education Management filed for bankruptcy in Delaware in late June.

>> Read the full BBJ report to get more details: AG Accuses Defucnt Brookline Arts College Of Fraud

This also wasn't the first time the AG's office has raised concern about the institution. In 2016 the AG expressed serious concerns about the New England Institute of Art’s treatment of students as it wound down and plans to outsource instruction.

In a letter sent to the Board that year, the AG’s Office asked that it prohibit NEIA from its proposed plan to transfer its teach-out obligations to an organization in New Delhi.

Before it was called the New England Institute of Art, it founded as the Norm Prescott School of Radio and Television in 1952. A decade later, it became the Northeast Broadcasting School, and was located on Marlborough Street in the Back Bay. It then became Massachusetts Communications College on Columbus Avenue. In 1999, the school became part of the Art Institute chain, and changed its name in to the New England Institute of Art in 2003.

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