Hanover, MD – ITT Technical Institute, a for-profit college chain with over 130 campuses across the U.S. and two in Maryland, announced last week that it would immediately shut down all of its operations.

The announcement came just as more than 40,000 students and 8,000 employees were gearing up for the new school semester. The decision followed a mandate from the U.S. Department of Education last month preventing ITT Tech from enrolling any new students using federal financial aid to pay for their education.

The “actions of sanctions by the U.S. Department of Education have forced us to cease operations,” the college said, “with what we believe is a complete disregard by the U.S. Department of Education for due process to the company.”

The government has recently increased its scrutiny of for-profit colleges such as ITT Tech, previously the fifth-largest educational chain in the nation. Officials claim that the institution used deceptive marketing tactics to encourage students to enroll in sub-standard degree programs and accrue high amounts of debt in the process.

“The school’s decisions have put its students and millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal student aid at risk,” said U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. in a message to ITT Tech students. “Ultimately, we made a difficult choice to pursue additional oversight in order to protect you, other students, and taxpayers from potentially worse educational and financial damage in the future if ITT was allowed to continue operating without increased oversight and assurances to better serve students.”

The campuses in Owings Mills and Hanover will be affected, where students could choose between six program areas including information technology, electronics technology, drafting and design, business, criminal justice and nursing.

The Education Department insists that these areas of study are not without their merits, especially at a time when more industries are turning to web technology and 80% of Internet users use search engines to find results.

“Higher education remains the clearest path to economic opportunity and security,” King said. “Restarting or continuing your education at a high-quality, reputable institution may feel like a setback today, but odds are it will pay off in the long run.”