[3] It provides current and future borrowers with free services,[4] and employs an ombudsman to assist with complaints and disputes, questions, and to clarify processes.
One initiative provides aid for students dealing with unforeseen financial emergencies through its affiliate ECMC Foundation.
[12] ECMC has been controversial for its alleged "ruthless" tactics in recovering loans and for the large bonuses it paid its collectors.
[2][13] In 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was investigating, alleging that ECMC deliberately made student debtors incur additional fees when their accounts went into debt collection.
[20] In November 2018, ECMC Foundation funded an effort by Education Design Lab focused on single mothers in college.
[21] In December 2018, ECMC opened a college access center in Alexandria, VA.[22] In March 2019, the group invested in Cluster, Inc., a company focused on the industrial manufacturing workforce.
[29] In August 2020, national refrigeration company CoolSys announced a partnership with ECMC Education that is said to be focused on employee training.
[37] In 2014, US Representative Steve Cohen from Tennessee said ECMC's purchase of Everest Colleges and Wyotech "raises great questions about their purposes."
[39] The deal included the forgiveness of $480 million in loans Corinthian students took out, earning praise from federal agencies and some consumer groups.
[42][10] In 2016, the Associated Press reported that the remaining colleges continued to recruit students through telemarketing and advertisements on daytime TV talk shows, and had not made substantive changes to its curriculum.
[11] In November 2018, Altierus Career College launched new programs at its Tampa, FL, location including nursing associate of science, computer information technology and dental assisting.
"[52] In 2014, Emory professor Rafael Pardo wrote a piece in the University of Florida Law Review that criticized ECMC for its "pollutive litigation" against powerless student loan debtors.
[53] In January 2020, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that a debtor with more than $200,000 in student loan debt was entitled to an undue hardship discharge pursuant to 11 U.S.C.