Kaplan has over 10,000 employees in 27 countries, and partners include more than 12,000 businesses and 4000 educational institutions. The company's chairman and CEO is
Andrew S. Rosen, and its 2020 revenue was $1.3 billion. Kaplan operates through two major divisions: Kaplan North America and Kaplan International. A third division, Kaplan Corporate, manages investment activities in education technology companies.
Kaplan North America (KNA) Kaplan North America encompasses two segments: Higher Education and Supplemental Education. KNA higher education provides operations support services for online pre-college, certificate, undergraduate and graduate programs to various educational and training institutions, including
Purdue University,
Wake Forest University, and others. In its support agreement with
Purdue University Global, which operates largely online as a public university affiliated with the
Purdue University system, KNA provides support for technology, admissions, help-desk, marketing, human resources, financial aid processing, recruiting, and other functions. KNA supplemental education products include test preparation, publishing, professional licensure training and preparation (including healthcare simulation programs), corporate training and continuing education. KNA's test preparation services are branded through Kaplan Test Prep, Manhattan Prep and Barron's Educational Series. In total, Kaplan's test prep offerings prepare students for more than 233 standardized tests, most of which are U.S. focused. Kaplan Publishing focuses on print and digital test preparation and reference resources.
Kaplan International (KI) Kaplan International is based in London and operates educational businesses in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. Its language business supports students from 150 nationalities, delivering 16 different language learning programs. It operates 19 English language schools in the U.S., Canada, UK and Ireland and delivers on and off-campus pathways programs with 24 universities in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. Kaplan International recruits up to 100,000 international students annually for U.S., U.K. Australian university programs, transnational programs in Singapore and Hong Kong and language training programs worldwide. KI operates English language training schools and university pathways programs in North America.
Europe In Europe, KI operates: • Kaplan Professional UK includes Kaplan Financial, which provides training and test preparation services for professionals in accounting, financial services, securities trading, insurance and other financial services. •
KI Languages Group provides English-language training, academic preparation programs and test preparation for English proficiency exams, principally for students wishing to study and travel in English-speaking countries. It also offers instruction in Spanish, French and German • Mander Portman Woodward, a U.K. independent sixth-form college that prepares domestic and international students for A-level examinations that are required for admission to U.K. universities • Dublin Business School, a private college in Ireland that provides a range of full-time and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, with courses in subject areas such as business, law, accounting, event management, IT, arts, media studies and psychology • Kaplan Open Learning, an online learning institution offering accredited online higher education degree programs through the University of Essex and University of Liverpool • BridgeU, an adaptive guidance platform that connects universities with international secondary schools In the Middle East, Kaplan operates a financial training business in
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates and
Saudi Arabia.
Asia and Oceania In Asia and Oceania, Kaplan operates primarily in Singapore,
Australia, and
Hong Kong. In
Singapore, Kaplan operates two business units: • Kaplan Higher Education Academy (KHEA) offers full-time programmes to local students in Singapore and international students who wish to study in Singapore. Such programmes are suitable for students who are able to attend classes in the daytime during weekdays. • Kaplan Higher Education Institute (KHEI) offers part-time programmes to local students in Singapore. Such programmes help working professionals balance part-time studies with personal or work commitments. Classes are held in the evenings and on weekends for such programmes. In Hong Kong, Kaplan operates: • Kaplan Financial, which delivers preparatory courses for students and business executives seeking to earn professional qualifications in accountancy, financial markets designations and other professional fields • Language training, which offers test prep for overseas study and college applications, including
TOEFL,
IELTS,
SAT, and
GMAT • Higher education offers full-time and part-time programs to students studying for bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from leading Western universities in Hong Kong. In
Australia, Kaplan operates: • Kaplan Professional, which delivers financial services education and professional development courses • Kaplan Business School, which delivers higher education programs in business, accounting, hospitality, and tourism and management • English language training schools across five locations in Australia and one in New Zealand • Kaplan Australia Pathways, which is part of KI Pathways
Controversies In 2007, a
class-action lawsuit was settled for $30 million by Kaplan and
BarBri, a company offering
bar exam preparation. Among the allegations was a
federal antitrust violation claiming that Kaplan had agreed not to compete in the bar review business while BarBri agreed it would not compete in the LSAT business. Both
West Publishing Company (parent of BarBri) and Kaplan denied the allegations and the matter was resolved without any findings of wrongdoing. Between the late 1990s-2015, Kaplan acquired and owned several for-profit colleges. A 2010 investigation by the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) found deceptive practices at 15 for-profit college campuses, including two owned by Kaplan. After the GAO released its report, Kaplan halted recruiting at the campus, offered full tuition rebates, and brought in outside accountants to audit internal practices, including training manuals. Several ex-employees alleged that Kaplan had broken the law and breached its agreement with the
U.S. Department of Education including two former instructors who sued Kaplan in November 2006 for allegedly submitting false claims to the government and not adhering to the Higher Education Act's requirements for payment. The plaintiffs, who were previously employed at Kaplan's
Pittsburgh-based campus, claimed that Kaplan had breached the 70 Percent Rule, which requires eligible schools to have a minimum graduation rate and job placement rate of 70%. Furthermore, they argued that Kaplan Career Institute had advertised job-placement rates without providing prospective students with job-placement statistics or state licensing requirements. In 2011, a federal judge in Miami refused to dismiss the lawsuits filed by former employees of
Kaplan University and Kaplan Higher Education Corp, who allege that the companies have violated the
Higher Education Act in order to gain federal funding and profits. Judge
Patricia A. Seitz has denied the accusations related to Kaplan's manipulation of students' academic records and job-placement statistics, or their incentive payments based on student enrollment numbers. However, she has allowed the whistleblowers to continue to pursue claims of retaliation and other violations. Seitz found as well that the plaintiffs had failed to adequately provide prospective students with the data underlying job placement advertisements or to prove the falsity of the documents that were made available. Additionally, the plaintiffs failed to establish that Kaplan had not provided licensing information to prospective students. While she has dismissed that argument as "bare conclusions, she ruled that Kaplan's policy, which required minimum enrollment numbers for continued employment, did not violate the Higher Education Act." In 2012, the
North Carolina Attorney General determined that Kaplan had lied to students about the credentials they would earn in the Dental Assistant program. Following the investigation Kaplan College Charlotte campus surrendered its license to operate a school. Kaplan refunded students the cost of tuition, books, and fees, and agreed to pay the program's graduates $9,000 stipends. Students claimed they were told the school would soon obtain ADA accreditation. The program had never been accredited by the
American Dental Association, and had never been scheduled for the initial site visit required for accreditation. In 2014, Kaplan agreed to voluntarily comply with the Attorney General and made several required changes as part of the settlement. Kaplan agreed to "clearly and conspicuously disclose true and accurate information relating to the school's accreditation, program costs, financial aid, and the scope and nature of employment services they provide." During the course of the investigation, Kaplan waived $6 million in tuition and fees for more than 2,400 Florida students, and reimbursed the Florida Attorney General's office for attorney costs, while impacted students were offered retraining or a separate arbitration process. The office of Florida's Attorney General,
Pam Bondi, announced in June 2014 that an investigation, which focused on other for-profit institutions as well, found no violations by Kaplan. In 2015, Kaplan paid $1.375 million to the
Massachusetts Attorney General's office to resolve complaints that Kaplan engaged in "unfair or deceptive practices designed to induce enrollment of students" including "harassing sales tactics and false and misleading representations" in the operation of the Kaplan Career Institute campus in Boston, Massachusetts with $1 million going toward tuition refunds to 289 students, Acting U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr. stated that the settlement was not an admission of liability by Kaplan or its affiliates, and that the company had fully cooperated with the government's investigation and negotiated the settlement in good faith. The settlement did not involve a finding of wrongdoing, and Kaplan stated that it resolved the legal challenge "due to the high cost of protracted litigation." In the same year, the
United States Department of Justice began investigating Kaplan following a
Qui tam suit filed by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act. The whistleblower alleged Kaplan employed unqualified instructors to teach Medical Assistant courses at its San Antonio campuses and knowingly requested, received, and retained federal funds for courses taught by individuals who did not meet the minimum requirements established by Texas law. ==Kaplan Educational Foundation (KEF)==