(CNN) The US Department of Education has opened an investigation into The Ohio State University's handling of former students' allegations of sexual misconduct by a school doctor, according to the university.

The federal investigation will be conducted by the department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which oversees Title IX complaints, the school said in a statement Thursday.

The inquiry, led by the OCR's regional office in Cleveland, Ohio, "will examine whether the university is responding promptly and equitably to complaints and reports by former students," the statement said, "including allegations that employees knew or should have known about the sexual misconduct and allowed the abuse to continue."

The scandal surrounding the alleged actions of the late Dr. Richard Strauss has grown since the university first announced in April its own investigation, headed by the law firm Perkins Coie, to look into claims made by male former athletes on 14 sports teams.

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