UPDATE:  September 28, 2011 ~ The Associated Press

The Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools has begun a review of the placement rates of National College of Kentucky.

The council issued a statement on Wednesday announcing the review one day after Attorney General Jack Conway filed a lawsuit alleging National College had exaggerated the percentage of its students who get jobs in their chosen fields after graduation.

In the statement, the council said any discrepancy in placement rates is taken "very seriously" and that reporting erroneous placement rates won't be tolerated.

The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools accredits more than 800 private post-secondary institutions.

Conway's lawsuit claims National College — which has campuses in Danville, Florence, Lexington, Louisville, Pikeville and Richmond — has misrepresented placement numbers to make itself more appealing to prospective students.

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September 27, 2011 ~ The Courier General ~ Tom Loftus

Jack Conway files suit against another for-profit college (Kentucky Attorney General) 

Attorney General Jack Conway filed suit Tuesday against another for-profit college, charging that it lied about its success in placing graduates in jobs and thus put its bottom line before the interests of its students.

The lawsuit was filed in Fayette Circuit Court against National College of Kentucky Inc., which has about 5,000 students at campuses in Louisville, Lexington, Danville, Florence, Richmond and Pikeville.

It is the third suit Conway has filed as part of a continuing investigation of for-profit colleges.

“This type of deception must stop,” he said at a Capitol news conference. “National College is putting its bottom line before the hopes and dreams of students who are trying to better their lives. The reality is that more and more students are leaving for-profit schools with high debt loads and without the high-paying jobs they were promised.”

The college issue a statement saying that it’s proud of its “long history of providing career-focused education” but added that it could not comment on the suit because it had not been served.

“Each individual student’s success is our main focus and we remain committed to that,” it said.

Conway’s suit alleges that National College represented on its Website that its students achieved “success” in obtaining employment at rates far higher than it reported to its accrediting agency, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools.

For instance, Conway said, National College posted information last December saying that 96 percent of graduates from its Louisville campus were successful in finding employment. However, Conway said, in 2010 the college reported to the accrediting agency that its job-placement number was 60 percent.

“It’s just this type of misrepresentation that leads students to sign up for an education that oftentimes costs too much and doesn’t put them in their chosen field of study,” Conway said.

The suit seeks an order enjoining National College from violating the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act’s ban against false advertising and asks civil penalties of $2,000 per violation of that law.