APA has taken this matter very seriously. It has affected the well-being of students, faculty and staff across Argosy's campuses, many of whom are our peers, colleagues, APA members and governance leaders within APA. Argosy also trained a significant portion of the next generation of psychology's providers, educators and others in the workforce, which has impact on the nation's access to healthcare. A team of experts across the organization has and continues to meet regularly, devoting significant resources to supporting our members and stakeholders, and mobilizing our Advocacy team.

Rosie Phillips Davis, PhD, ABPP, APA's president, and Beth Rom-Rhymer, PhD, chair of the Council Leadership Team, said in part on March 7, 2019: “Our principal charge is to protect students and the public by promoting consistent quality in the teaching of psychology … We are developing a nimble advocacy strategy … Moreover, we are in constant contact with relevant agencies and other affected accreditors, so that we stay apprised of the rapidly changing terrain … APA does not have authority over the decisions of the psychology programs, the institution, the Department of Education, and the Argosy receiver. We must be careful to maintain our role as an evaluator and policy guide - APA is committed to continuing to do all within its scope as an accreditor to facilitate these transitions."

Federal Advocacy

• APA facilitated members of the Argosy community to take their concerns directly to their elected officials via this online action alert.
• APA Advocacy staff immediately contacted key congressional offices seeking to enlist their assistance. 
• We sent a letter on March 1, 2019, to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (PDF, 57KB), urging her to immediately establish a real-time response center to address concerns from affected Argosy students and to provide timely, helpful updates and guidance. Several senators also sent a letter on March 8 to Secretary DeVos (PDF, 573KB), and U.S. representatives sent another letter (PDF, 777KB) on March 13. Both letters referenced APA's original letter of March 1. 
• In March, we prepared hundreds of psychologists and students from around the country to address the Argosy issue as part of previously scheduled visits on Capitol Hill with their members of Congress. 
• In May, we also sent a letter (PDF, 95KB) to the Departments of Homeland Security and Education requesting an extension of the deadline for international students to transfer and matriculate into other programs.
• In July, APA expressed strong support (PDF 263KB) for the Relief for Defrauded Students Act of 2019 (H.R. 3662). Championed by Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), this legislation was introduced in response to the closure of Argosy University earlier this year, which had severe consequences for students enrolled. Speaking on the House floor, McBath mentioned the closure of Argosy’s Atlanta campus in her district, and the need to protect students who have been left with debt and no paths to finish their educations. If enacted, H.R. 3662 would strengthen accountability within the Department of Education by enabling students to get much-needed student loan relief in cases of misconduct by institutions. Watch McBath discuss the legislation in this video. (Note: If you have received or are in the process of applying for borrower defense for your graduate psychology education, regardless of institution, please contact Alex Ginsberg if you are willing to share your story for advocacy purposes.)
• In November, APA CEO Dr. Arthur C. Evans wrote a letter to Secretary DeVos (PDF, 179KB) recommending that the Department of Education consider extending debt relief to students from Argosy University and to extend the proposed look-back eligibility period for closed school discharges.

Accreditation 

• On March 8, the APA Office on Program Consultation and Accreditation (OPCA) issued a statement on teach-out and transfer plans;  
• On March 15, details about two Accreditation review pathways that programs could follow was provided.
• On March 19, a list of APA-accredited programs willing to take Argosy students was published. 
• After the CoA spring meeting (held April 4-7, 2019), the OPCA published a list of previously unaccredited programs granted ‘accredited, inactive status’ to teach-out Argosy University students. The schools on the list have since changed and can be found on the Accredited Program search page. 

Additional Actions

• In March, APA issued a statement to the press.
• APA continues to respond to calls and emails from affected students, faculty and other concerned parties. We established and regularly update this FAQ page, and maintain the Psychology Student Action Center (via email and 202-336-6014) to listen to members of the Argosy community and direct them to appropriate resources. The Action Center held two webinars for students and alumni as described below.
• APA provided all faculty and current psychology students at the time Argosy closed with 90 days of access to PsycNET Gold. Interested individuals were asked to sign up by April 28.
• APA provided one complimentary fee waiver per applicant who applied to Argosy through PSYCAS within a certain time period.

Further APA action steps are described in the responses below.

Many students and faculty were rightfully distressed by the lack of clarity about what happened when their institution suddenly closed. Based on the emails and calls we have received, we understand that some students found support in one another via online forums they have created through social media. Some students have told us they reached out to local universities about their abilities to transfer credits. Some students are still reaching out to members of Congress to start a case file, share their concerns about financial aid and other matters and demand action by the government. We provide greater information about a number of these options in this FAQ.

APA set up a response team to hear from concerned students, faculty and other stakeholders. Reach the Psychology Student Action Center via email or by phone at (202) 336-6014, where we listened to concerns and directed callers to appropriate resources. The number and email still remain active. 

There has been and undoubtedly will be more coverage in the media about this situation and the various parties involved. It is important that members of the psychology community do all we can to recognize the significant ways that Argosy students and faculty have been affected by the actions and circumstances surrounding their education at Argosy University. Students and faculty are the innocent bystanders to what has been happening. We know that students enrolled in APA-accredited programs at Argosy were being trained by faculty who were preparing them for careers to address critical societal needs for behavioral health services. Accredited programs have been judged to meet standards associated with quality education and training.

There is a process for this called Federal Loan Discharge. Read about general criteria and eligibility and information specific to Dream Center/Argosy. Federal Direct Loans, Perkins Loans and Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) are eligible for discharge. It is important to note that the government says, “If you completed or are in the process of completing a comparable program of study at another school through a teach-out, by transferring academic credits or hours from the closed school, or by any other comparable means, you are not eligible for a closed school discharge.” Also, note that private loans are not eligible; you would have to check with your private loan servicer, or possibly the higher education office in the state where your closed school was located, to see if there are any closed-school discharge options. APA members are also entitled to free support with student loans through ionTuition (if you created an account before December 2019).

APA has learned that some students are also considering applying for borrower defense to loan repayment. This is different from loan discharge. This is a process that can be used when a school has misled the student or engaged in other misconduct in violation of certain state laws. APA offers no legal advice in this situation. Please note that the media is reporting this to be a lengthy process that may not end favorably for the applicant. 

For an overview of student options for borrower relief, please see this 2019 report (PDF, 1.3MB) from the Congressional Research Service.

The federal government advises that you contact your private lender or loan servicer to discuss your options. Please note that there may not be any recourse with your loan provider for loan discharge as there would be with federal loans (see question above), but specific information will be described in the lending documents or promissory notes that you signed when you took out your loan. It is possible that the higher education office in your state has a special process or fund to assist nonfederal student aid borrowers when schools close. Finally, you may wish to contact the U.S. Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to discuss other options.

Currently, Argosy states on its homepage that transcripts, diplomas, and enrollment verifications can be requested online through a third-party company called Parchment. The federal government advises that inquiries may also be made to the agency in a particular state that licensed a closed school. APA has learned that some of these agencies have acquired student files, but there is no consistency as to the handling of these files as of yet.

If you are a former Argosy clinical psychology doctoral student applying for internship or postdoc through APPIC’S APPI system, please read more about special allowances being made for unofficial transcripts. 

Under a federal law known as FERPA, you have a right to view your student records, sometimes known as your paper-based student file. APA recommends that students (including those transferring to other schools) learn what is in their records. For most students, this likely includes information such as the student’s application to graduate school, contact information, grades and test scores, health and immunization records, disciplinary reports (if applicable), documentation of attendance, lists of courses taken, awards conferred and degrees earned, and lists of special accommodations (as applicable). The standard list is outlined in this FAQ (PDF, 267KB).

If you transferred schools and wish to view your record, you can contact your new school’s department chair, registrar and/or designated administrator (such as director of clinical training in some doctoral programs) to request access to view your records and learn what records may exist for you.  Some but potentially not all of your records were likely transferred to this new school. In some cases, the records that transferred may only be those that were enough to admit you, such as your transcript, GRE scores and immunization records. In other cases, every bit of documentation may have transferred. We understand that each Argosy campus may have handled things somewhat differently, and each degree program or department within an Argosy campus may have handled things differently as well.

If you did not transfer to a new program, vacated your training, or already graduated from Argosy, your existing records will remain for an undisclosed period of time with a keeper of records (see below if you were an Argosy clinical doctoral student, and otherwise contact the agency in the state that licensed a closed school). You can contact the keeper of records to see if they have a policy or procedure for requesting access or check first to see if this process is already described on the keeper’s website. 

For clinical psychology doctoral students only: APA has learned from colleagues at the National Council of Schools of Professional Psychology that many records from Argosy are now housed in the following locations: Alliant International University-CSPP, San Francisco (for students from the San Francisco Bay area); Arizona Board of Psychology (for students from Arizona); Augsburg University (for students from Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota); Chaminade University (for students from Hawaii); Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago (for students who transferred to TSCPP from Chicago and Schaumberg, Illinois, campuses); Chicago School of Professional Psychology. D.C. (for students who transferred to TSCPP from Northern Virginia); and Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Irvine (for students who transferred to TSCPP from Orange County, California).

In addition, for students in clinical doctoral programs, a school may maintain two records for you: A record that is kept with the registrar; and what some call a student’s “training file” that usually stays in the department or program. This training file may or may not contain logs of service/client-contacts hours, sample written documents, copies of contracts for practicum/internship training, copies of syllabi, copies of comprehensive/qualifying examination reports, copies of theses/dissertations, reference letters, advanced training information, and other information relevant to your professional career.  

If you do not already possess, or your record does not contain, an original or official copy of service logs for your practicum, externship or internship, and you need this to apply for internship, postdoctoral training or licensure, you may want to consider asking the training site in question for a document that contains, at minimum: 

• Your full name and school affiliation.
• Start and end dates of your service. 
• Number of hours in direct contact by type (e.g., individual treatment, group treatment, assessment). 
• Number of hours in indirect service-related activities (e.g., consultation, report writing).
• Number of hours in supervision, by supervisor and type (e.g., 13 hours Dr. Jim Jones – individual supervision). 
• Supervisor qualifications (degree type and field license number and state, and year licensed. 
• A summary of any didactic training you received.

This document should be on the site’s letterhead and signed by an official of the site. 

To minimize any challenges down the road with licensure, we also encourage individuals to contact their state of interest for licensing, as each state is governed by its own specific rules and regulations.

If you are a student already on, or about to go on, a doctoral internship in psychology, and you used the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers to help you find/match to an internship, APPIC released the following information on March 7: “...[W]hile recommendations may change when more information is available, APPIC would like to provide the following general guidance at present:

1. "All Argosy students who are currently on internship should continue to move forward toward the successful completion of their internship year.
2. "All Argosy students who recently matched in Phase I, and those who will match in Phase II or get placed via the APPIC Post-Match Vacancy Service, should continue to move forward with plans for attending and successfully completing their internships.
3. "Internship programs who currently have Argosy students on site, or those who have or will soon be matched to Argosy students, should prepare for those students to attend their internships as planned.
4. "Argosy students who experience a closure of their doctoral program (and a resulting period of uncertainty while a new program is found), a "teach out" situation, a change to a different graduate program, or similar situation are not expected to have their internship placements affected by such a change.
5. "APPIC understands that there will be hardships and unanticipated circumstances that are created by the current situation and will consider alternative guidance or exceptions to the above on a case-by-case basis, or as needed as the situation evolves. Should any individual affected by these difficult circumstances wish to consult about their specific situation pertaining to the internship Match, please contact Dr. Greg Keilin, APPIC Match Coordinator. Concerned parties or individuals with information about relevant developments are also welcome to contact me [Dr. Mariella Self, Chair, APPIC Board of Directors].”

APPIC released the following information on March 13, 2019for students from Argosy participating in Phase II: “Due to the fact that students' transitions to other doctoral programs is very much "in process," APPIC has decided that students who are participating in Phase II will remain registered in the Match as affiliated with their now-closed Argosy University doctoral program. In fact, the ability to update that information for Phase II has been disabled in the NMS Match System. There are many reasons for this decision, but a primary one is that we believe it will make it much easier for internship programs to accurately identify and rank students. As you know, when you rank a student in the Match, the system displays that student's school as a method of verification. We believe it is best that the school displayed is consistent with what the student originally put on her/his AAPI. Students have been advised to keep internship programs informed of their current situation as well as their progress in becoming affiliated with another doctoral program.”

If you are a former Argosy clinical psychology doctoral student applying for internship or postdoc through APPIC’S APPI system, please read more about special allowances being made for unofficial transcripts. 

According to an article in the APA Monitor on Psychology, "Should you bank your credentials?" credentials banking involves “submitting documentation about your internship, doctoral degree, postdoc and other credentials to a central repository for verification and storage,” and “can offer peace of mind as well as convenience.” There are two organizations offering banking to Argosy students and alums, and both have stepped in to offer assistance at no cost. Please visit the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards and the National Register of Health Service Psychologists for more information. You may also watch the recording of a webinar APA hosted on March 18, 2019 by signing in to view it.

If you plan to transfer to another program, you must read the laws and regulations from the board of psychology in any jurisdiction where you plan to get licensed to ensure that your transfer will keep you license-eligible. A handful of jurisdictions have requirements that applicants for licensure as a psychologist be in “residency” in the institution that grants their doctorate. For example, Arizona requires at least 18 semester hours completed within 12 months from one’s degree-granting institution; Georgia requires at least one year. Whereas Minnesota requires 24 semester credit hours (7200.1300.Subpart 5), their regulations also state that graduating from an APA- or CPA-accredited program allows requirements such as these to be “considered met” (7200.1300.Subpart 6). These examples do not reflect a complete list and should not be a substitute for one’s investigation of licensing requirements that may be embedded in the rules or regulations of a given state, province, or territory. You can access psychology board homepages from the ASPPB website along with tips for contacting your state board. We recommend reaching out to the board or board administrator to get your questions clarified, as well as checking the public board minutes to see if this matter has been addressed in any recent meetings.

We are currently conducting research about state rules and identifying contacts in each state and nationally that could be helpful partners in supporting systemic solutions for applicants transferring from Argosy to other programs before graduation, especially as students move from one APA-accredited program to another. We understand that this is a time-critical issue for students who are graduating in 2019, 2020 and possibly 2021, depending on where they intend to become licensed. 

The APA OPCA has provided, and will continue to provide, verification of program accreditation per applicable accreditation procedure. Any person may obtain verification of the accreditation status of a program at a given time (e.g., the time of program completion) by contacting the OPCA. Correspondence containing the dates of program accreditation are provided to persons seeking this information.  

If you are applying to a board that does have residency requirements that you may not meet, we encourage you to make your situation known to your future board, while APA works on advocacy strategies with other stakeholders over the long term.

We want all transfer students to consider their options and plan their next steps with eyes wide open. Argosy students are receiving a lot of information from schools interested in taking them on. While we do not rank schools or provide explicit guidance in individual circumstances, we do hope that students will evaluate each of their options carefully. We offer some new tools (PDF, 205KB) to help you think about the best transfer programs for you. Finding one’s own best fit might mean advocating independently for the greatest continuity in standing and credits with a desired program.

The Department of Education previously posted a list of transfer fairs and informational webinars (PDF, 94KB). APA developed, published and updated a list of programs granted "accredited, inactive status" to teach out Argosy University students and a list of accredited programs that former Argosy students could apply to as a transfer student. In some states, the higher education authority also posted information to help students in that state figure out what was to come next.

Agreements may have been established that allowed transfer to other programs. Such agreements are options when institutions cease operations. We are not aware of any requirements that compel you to accept these types of agreements made with new programs for your own educational future. (In fact, our understanding is that exclusive arrangements which prohibit students from going elsewhere are not permissible.) There are individual-level pros and cons to consider in each case. It is possible that the new, transfer program / institution may not fit one’s current needs, constraints or career and professional goals well.

Before continuing, you may want to read the FAQ section on Accreditation below for information about APA’s role in transfers and teach-outs.

APA advises you to think carefully about any of the options open to you, either through articulation agreements or by transferring to another program:

• APA created a resource document (PDF, 205KB) that contains some specific questions you may want to review when considering transfers. APA also hosted a webinar on March 25, 2019 on exploring options for students thinking of transferring. To watch it, register online and you will be taken to the webinar recording. You can also view the slides (PDF, 227KB).
• If one of your training goals was licensure to provide psychological health services, please be sure to consider the licensure outcomes for graduates of the program, and specific licensure laws. Read more in the next question.
• If your closed graduate program was an APA-accredited doctoral program, we urge you to consider enrollment in another APA accredited doctoral program. Program accreditation is tied to ease of licensure, access to employment opportunities, and formal due process for grievances, and many other important factors. You can see a list of accredited programs that offered options for students to transfer, as well as the list of previously unaccredited programs that were granted “accredited, inactive status” to teach-out Argosy University students or check the status of any accredited program by using APA CoA’s searchable database (including transfer and teach-out programs).

APA learned that the Department of Homeland Security’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has been informing various entities that all Active international students from Argosy had until May 21, 2019 to transfer to another SEVP-certified school, change their status, or depart the United States. Argosy was supposed to retain SEVIS access until May 21, 2019, to manage any current student records. For students who leave the US, SEVP will terminate students’ Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records Non-immigrant students who have questions about their options or need assistance transferring their records to a new SEVP-certified school can call the SEVP Response Center at 1-703-603-3400. This number is staffed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except federal holidays. Here is a list of SEVP-certified schools. You can reach the SEVP response center to sort out your transfer or SEVIS record. You may also consider contacting the Department of Education’s helpline for closed schools at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243; TTY for the hearing impaired 1-800-730-8913).

Please note, APA sent a letter (PDF, 95KB) to the Departments of Homeland Security and Education requesting an extension of the deadline but learned nothing of the date being modified. 

A number of media outlets have covered this story. If you would like to read some of the coverage, use the following links:

• The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Google News about Argosy University
• Inside Higher Education
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Please also refer to this page and this page for official updates from the institutional accreditor.

Teach-out plan: 

According to the Department of Education, this is “a written course of action a school that is closing will take to ensure its students are treated fairly with regard to finishing their programs of study. Some plans include written agreements between the closed school and other schools that are still open for teaching.” (Read more about the institutional accreditor’s Teach-Out Plans and Agreements Policy.)

Receiver: 

A receiver is someone appointed by a government body to take possession and charge of designated assets or property and to administer them in accordance with government or court directives. In this case the receiver was court-appointed.

Institutional accreditor or regional accreditor: Western Senior College and University Commission accredited Argosy and its campuses as an institution.

Programmatic accreditor: 

The APA Commission on Accreditation accredited 10 doctoral programs in Clinical psychology at Argosy University. APA CoA was not recognized to accredit master’s programs, so none of the MA programs at Argosy held APA accreditation.

Surety bond: 

An agreement between three parties, in which one (the surety or guarantor) agrees to pay a certain amount to a second (obligee), if and when a third party (principal) does not meet an obligation.

The current accreditation status for all programs accredited by the APA is provided on the APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation (OPCA) webpage. The OPCA webpage contains an online directory of program accreditation statuses. A change in accreditation status, when made, is posted in this directory as soon as possible. When situations arise that affect an APA-accredited program’s ability to operate, the APA Commission on Accreditation (CoA) considers the circumstances and works with appropriate regulatory, institutional and other authorities managing the situation in an effort to facilitate the provision of quality education and training in health service psychology for those concerned.

APA has been informed that some Argosy students were told about exclusive transfer arrangements established with specific programs that were allegedly approved by the APA.  As the APA does not mandate or require exclusive transfer arrangements, these statements are not accurate. When an institution closes, the parties involved in approving plans for students to transfer to a new university may include the closing university, the university accepting students, institutional accrediting bodies, relevant state boards of higher education, specialized programmatic accrediting agencies and the U.S. Department of Education. The APA Commission on Accreditation, in collaboration with other involved parties, works to help facilitate high quality transfer arrangements. Please see this statement for more details on APA's role.

On March 15, 2019, guidance was offered to receiving institutions and programs to facilitate mobility of Argosy students. Two different pathways were described for APA-accredited programs and those being developed that were not accredited. 

In the first pathway, OPCA staff contacted APA accredited programs, inviting those interested to respond with their intention to accept transferring Argosy students. Information was also provided on the CoA review process for these transfer programs. Programs that accepted former Argosy students responded to a series of items that outlined details of the transfer process and how the program would continue to comply with the Standards of Accreditation (SoA). The CoA reviewed these submissions and, as needed, asked for clarification. For several months, OPCA published and updated a list of accredited programs that stated they would accept transfers from Argosy. The published list was dismantled in December 2019, nine months after Argosy closed.

The second pathway was for institutions without existing APA-accredited programs that wanted to receive Argosy students via teach-out programs that would be implemented. These institutions were asked to submit proposals that responded to a series of items which explored details of the proposed teach-out programs and the sponsoring institution’s ability to provide educational experiences consistent with the SoA. The CoA completed the initial review of teach-out submissions from four institutions before the beginning of the Summer 2019 semester. The CoA has since received an application from a fifth program, which has been reviewed and CoA has granted the program accredited, inactive status for the teach out. As accreditation statuses can and do change, a searchable, current database of accredited programs is available for the public’s use. Accredited teach-out programs for Argosy students are included in this data base.

In concert with all other appropriate authorities, CoA’s review and approval of these teach-out program proposals, as well as allowing accredited programs to accept former Argosy students on transfer, created paths toward degree completion for those whose education was suspended with the institution’s closure.

It is important to note that the accredited inactive status for teaching students who’d been enrolled in the closed Argosy Clinical psychology doctoral programs is a temporary accreditation status. These programs are not eligible to admit students who were not enrolled in one of the closed, accredited, Clinical psychology doctorate programs provided by Argosy. Should an institution, whether approved for teach-out or not, wish to attain APA accreditation, the program must follow APA accreditation policies and procedures that begin with submitting a self-study and continue through the site visit and Commission review.

The following information was obtained through consultation with the APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation (OPCA). Additional requests for accreditation-related information can be addressed via email to OPCA.

The CoA’s Accreditation Operating Procedures (PDF, 780KB) define "Accredited, inactive” status in Section 8.2.d - D, as follows: "'Accredited inactive' designates a doctoral program that has not admitted students for 2 successive academic years or has provided the CoA with notice that it has decided to phase out and close the program." In addition, this section states that "requests for inactive status are granted by the CoA for one year at a time. Request for renewal of inactive status must be done prior to the beginning of the academic/training year. Programs not granted renewal of inactive status are given notice that they are no longer compliant with the provisions of accreditation and then may be placed on probation." 

To maintain “accredited, inactive” status, a program is required to follow accreditation standards and submit a request for continuation of inactive status each year, before the beginning of an academic year (e.g., typically this is during the late spring - early summer). The CoA reviews submitted requests for renewal of inactive status and consequently determines if the continuation is to be granted. Programs requesting inactive status that are seen as remaining consistent with accreditation standards are typically renewed for the subsequent year. If, though, a program is seen as operating inconsistently with accreditation standards, the program could receive an adverse decision in accord with CoA policies and procedures. Adverse decisions allow for a time when programs are given the opportunity to show how they are consistent, prior to placement on probation. These processes are described in sections 8.2 and 8.3D of the Accreditation Operating Procedures.

The “accredited, inactive” status will remain in place if the program maintains consistency and files requests to continue as an inactive program through the time when its students have completed their degrees, unless the program requests that its accreditation be withdrawn or the program is found to not be compliant with accreditation standards. When admitted students have completed all degree requirements, the inactive program would then request to withdraw from accreditation.  

As part of its listings of currently accredited programs, the directory of accredited programs  lists the programs that have ‘accredited, inactive’ status.

The APA Commission on Accreditation has a process by which members of the public may file a complaint if it is believed that an APA-accredited program is not in compliance with accreditation standards (PDF, 780KB). The procedures for handling complaints against accredited programs are intended to deal only with complaints based on purported lack of program consistency with the Standards of Accreditation for Health Service Psychology (SoA). It is not a mechanism for adjudication of disputes between individuals and programs. You may download the complaint form (DOC, 24KB) and you may contact OPCA staff for more information or to respond to questions about the complaint submission and review process.

Staff in the APA offices on Early Career and Graduate Student Affairs are available to respond to questions during standard business hours. You can reach them via phone at (202) 336-6014 or via email.