[4][5] Its main campus (for accreditation purposes) is in West Lafayette, Indiana, and its online law school is based out of California.

According to the contract terms, Kaplan would receive 12.5-13 percent of the university's revenue, in addition to reimbursement for its costs of providing support to the school, as long as funds are available after all operating expenses and guaranteed payments to Purdue have been covered.

In 2017, Daniels stated that the Purdue University deal with Kaplan incurred "virtually no financial risk", and had a "strong upside potential".

[20] Critics and analysts disagreed with Daniels' assessment, and in order to obtain regulatory approval, the U.S. Department of Education required Purdue to assume responsibility for Kaplan University's debt and liability "whether they are known or unknown, and whether they accrue prior to, or after the closing of the transaction" noting the debts and liabilities backed by Purdue "constitute an instrumentality of the state of Indiana for the purpose of the department's regulations".

[34] In May 2020, Jon Harbor took over as provost of Purdue Global[35] and Marilyn Wideman, dean of the School of Nursing, announced her retirement.

According to the contract terms, Kaplan would receive 12.5-13 percent of the university's revenue, and reimbursement for its costs of providing support to the school as long as funds were available after all operating expenses and guaranteed payments to Purdue have been covered.

[45] Since the acquisition, Purdue's leadership made several changes including closing several physical locations where Kaplan University had operated.

[55] In July 2019, Purdue Polytechnic Institute announced it had received a $12 million grant from the US Department of Labor to enable 5,000 students to go through a cybersecurity apprenticeship program over the next four years.

The Polytechnic Institute will partner with Purdue Global to offer online instruction nationwide for "nontraditional students" seeking work in the cybersecurity industry.

The 2017–18 statistics are:[52] On November 1, 2023, Graham Holdings stated that Purdue Global owed Kaplan Higher Education $127.8 million.

[75] In 2020, the National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education designated Purdue Global as a member school.

[2] In February 2019, Papa John's Pizza announced that all its employees would receive free tuition at Purdue Global.

"[80] In June 2019, security services firm Securitas announced an arrangement to cover at least 90% of the tuition costs toward four custom certificate programs developed in partnership with Purdue Global.

[81] In October 2019, ManTech began offering its employees tuition-free access to Purdue Global's Bachelor of Science in analytics degree.

[82] Other organizations that have announced partnerships with Purdue Global to offer their employees a tuition-free or reduced-tuition college degree include New Balance.

[83] In September 2020, Purdue Global announced an agreement with Gallup "to develop and deliver an academic program to support Gallup's Straight to Business initiative...an undergraduate microcredential, aligned with and stackable into bachelor's degree opportunities in analytics, business administration, communication, and industrial/organizational psychology.

[86] In 2024, Purdue Global became the preferred online university and degree provider of the Guild & Team USA Learning Network.

[87] Purdue University Global is an open admissions school that offers both traditional programs and standardized competency-based learning.

[88] This allows Purdue Global to offer college credit to students who can demonstrate they have mastered certain learning outcomes[88] through professional and military training.

Its Master of Science degree in finance is also registered with the Certified Financial Planner board and qualifies graduates to sit the CFP examination.

Ruhl served as the senior vice president, chief financial officer, and general counsel at Ivy Tech Community College from 2012 to 2017.

"[107][108] In January 2018, the former Under Secretary of Education under Barack Obama, Ted Mitchell, praised the university that would become Purdue Global for its massive investments "in a learning platform that is, in my estimation, among the best in the country ...

Mitchell, the force behind Obama's Gainful Employment rules, also praised Kaplan for strong results and for taking action when they came up short, saying "Kaplan's results have been strong, and where they haven't, as in the failure of a number of their programs to meet the Gainful Employment thresholds, they have taken action to either remediate or close the programs...That's how we want institutions to react to troubling outcomes.

"[109] Arne Duncan, the former U.S. Secretary of Education under Obama who, with Mitchell, led a crackdown on the for-profit sector, praised the potential behind Purdue's acquisition of Kaplan University, saying "...I'm excited by this opportunity for a world-class university to expand its reach and help educate adult learners by acquiring a strong for-profit college.

"[110] Harvard researcher Todd Rogers praised the launch of Purdue Global for its potential to generate "more learning and greater scaled implementation of interventions that help students succeed" and that the university had "...a genuine commitment to using learning and motivational sciences to improve student outcomes, and to conducting high quality research to become a leader in contributing to those sciences".

The American Association of University Professors called this policy "the stuff of predatory for-profit colleges, not a leading public research institution".

[121] Biologist David Sanders, a Purdue professor, university senate member, and local Democratic politician, hypothesized that the deal was enacted to help pay for the tuition freeze at the West Lafayette campus or that "'certain people see this as the future.

Sullivan added that "In negotiating the acquisition of Kaplan University, we crafted an agreement that provided a nearly impenetrable defense of Purdue's finances.

[125] In September 2020, the Century Foundation "raised questions about the documents Purdue University Global presented to the Internal Revenue Service when it applied for tax-exempt status in August 2019."

[126] In the February issue of Emergency Medical News, two doctors questioned the vetting process of Purdue Global's nursing master's degree programs, which admitted all 500 applicants in Fall, 2019.