Amity filed paperwork in July proposing to buy two US campuses. (File Photo)
After facing scrutiny from state officials in Massachusetts, the Amity University chain of colleges has canceled its plans to buy two US for-profit colleges.
Amity filed paperwork in July proposing to buy the New England Institute of Art, located near Boston, and the Art Institute of New York City, which are now owned by the Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corp. The deal would have helped Amity gain a foothold in the US amid the chain's global expansion.
But Education Management Corporation officials said on Tuesday that Amity has withdrawn from the proposed sale. Anne Dean, a spokeswoman for the corporation, would not say why the deal fell through. Officials from Amity, which is based in New Delhi, did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.
The sale would have required approval from state officials in Massachusetts, but some had said they were skeptical of the chain, saying it had no track record in the US.
In September, the state's Department of Higher Education sent a letter to the New England Institute of Art asking what steps had been taken to ensure that Amity would provide a quality education and whether the chain had the finances to support it. Department officials said they didn't receive a formal response and hadn't been notified that the sale was canceled.
Maura Healey, the state's attorney general, said Tuesday that the sale was a "bad idea from the beginning," describing Amity as a "foreign entity with no experience in American higher education."
Amity has already bought a campus on Long Island in New York, which is intended to become the chain's first US branch. The company paid $22 million in September to buy the 170-acre site from St John's University in New York City, which was selling its Long Island branch campus and shifting to a smaller location.
The Amity chain has spread rapidly from India in recent years, opening campuses in England, China, South Africa and five other countries. Aseem Chauhan, one of the chain's chancellors, said in an interview last month that he hoped a US campus would be popular among international students seeking an American education.