Kirk Riedinger and Jamie Turner acquired the company in 1987 and began expanding into technical programs.
Westwood College offered 27 degree programs, including in business, design, technology, industrial services, justice and health care.
"Over 75 percent of adult Americans don't have bachelor's degrees," Alta College co-founder Kirk Riedinger told the Denver Business Journal[2] in June 2002.
On April 20, 2009, the United States Department of Justice announced that Alta Colleges had agreed to pay the U.S. government $7 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that Alta's Texas schools submitted false claims for federal student aid funds.
[3] In January 2012 the Illinois attorney general's office announced it would sue Westwood College for misleading students.