Argosy University — which once boasted 19 campuses and an online division — shuttered this month after failing to distribute millions of dollars in federal aid to students. That led the federal government to disqualify the school from the student aid programs.

Thousands without a degree:A college closed. How to keep it from happening to you

The for-profit school converted to nonprofit in late 2017, but still collapsed. It's the latest for-profit chain to implode in recent years.

What’s happening to for-profit colleges?

For-profit schools tout their flexible degree programs that offer training for practical careers like dental assisting and business administration. But while mainline colleges operate as nonprofits, meaning their income is redirected to their educational offerings, for-profit colleges are tasked with bringing in money.

Those for-profit schools have poorer outcomes than other institutions. They show lower six-year graduation rates than other universities and their alumni are more likely to default on their student loans, according to the Department of Education’s most recent data.

Research has shown their graduates can expect lower lifetime earnings, too.

For-profit schools proliferated throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, when more schools became eligible to receive federal student aid money and their administrations ramped up their student recruitment efforts. Enrollment at two- and four-year schools topped 2 million in 2010.

Since then, enrollment has fallen more than 40 percent.

The Obama administration increased oversight of for-profit colleges and eventually de-authorized the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which accredited major for-profit chains. For-profit colleges have been targets of numerous lawsuits, too, by students alleging they were misled about the education their schools offered.

Those pressures have led to campus closures nationwide.

Many chains are owned by holding companies that operate several schools, and the financial strain has led companies to sell off or shutter some brands. One company, the Education Corporation of America, collapsed last December, closing its Brightwood Career Institute, Brightwood College, Ecotech Institute, Golf Academy of America and Virginia College campuses.

More closures could be imminent, as more than 270 for-profit schools were under federal cash monitoring as of December. That monitoring status — which can result from problems with accreditation or administration, among other issues — can presage collapse.

But the most recent data from the Department of Education still finds that more than 1 million students were enrolled at degree-granting for-profit schools in 2017.