Laureate Education

name: Laureate Education
description: |
  Laureate Education, Inc. is a for-profit higher-education network founded
  in 1989 as Sylvan Learning Systems and renamed Laureate Education in May
  2004. At its 2017 IPO peak the company operated more than 200 campuses
  across 28 countries serving over one million students; it became only the
  third B Corporation to go public when it listed on NASDAQ (ticker: LAUR)
  on 1 February 2017. Between 2018 and 2021 Laureate executed one of the
  largest sector-wide divestiture programs in the history of higher
  education, exiting Brazil (sold to Ânima Holding for ~$765M), the United
  States (Walden University sold to Adtalem for $1.48B), Australia / New
  Zealand (sold to Strategic Education), Chile (Universidad Andrés Bello
  transferred to Fundación Educación y Cultura in September 2020), Spain,
  Portugal, Morocco, Turkey, Malaysia, China, Italy, Cyprus and the United
  Kingdom — returning $1.29B to shareholders in October 2021. After the
  divestiture cycle Laureate continued as a pure-play Mexico / Peru
  operator with five remaining institutions and approximately 460,000
  students. In May 2024 the company was acquired by an investor group led
  by the International Finance Corporation (IFC, a member of the World
  Bank Group) and Sterling Capital, taking Laureate Education private and
  delisting it from NASDAQ. The company is headquartered at 1000 Brickell
  Avenue, Suite 715, Miami, FL.

  Laureate does not publish a public developer API, OpenAPI specification,
  SDK, webhook surface, or status page. There is no Laureate Education
  GitHub organization. This profile therefore captures the corporate
  surface — institutions, divestiture history, leadership, investor
  status, news — rather than a programmable interface. The five remaining
  campus-network institutions each publish their own consumer-facing
  websites (UVM, UNITEC in Mexico; UPC, UPN, Cibertec in Peru) but none
  expose machine-readable APIs documented from the parent.
url: https://github.com/api-evangelist/laureate-education
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/api-evangelist-logo.png
created: '2026-05-22'
modified: '2026-05-23'
specificationVersion: '0.18'
tags:
- Education
- Higher Education
- For Profit Education
- University Network
- Mexico
- Peru
- Latin America
- Private Equity
- B Corporation
- Take Private
apis:
- name: Laureate Education Corporate Surface
  description: |
    Laureate Education does not expose a public developer API, OpenAPI
    specification, SDK, CLI, webhook, GraphQL endpoint, status page or
    changelog. This entry documents the company's public corporate
    surface — institutional network, leadership, news room, investor
    and contact pages — for completeness within the API Evangelist
    network. No machine-readable contracts are produced or referenced
    here because none exist.
  humanURL: https://www.laureate.net/
  baseURL: https://www.laureate.net/
  tags:
  - Corporate Surface
  - Higher Education
  - No Public API
  properties:
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.laureate.net/
  - type: Leadership
    url: https://www.laureate.net/leadership/
  - type: Contact
    url: https://www.laureate.net/contact/
  - type: Compliance
    url: https://www.laureate.net/ethics-and-compliance/
  - url: graphql/laureate-education-graphql.md
    type: GraphQL
- name: Universidad del Valle de México (UVM)
  description: |
    Private Mexican university founded in 1960 with more than 22 physical
    campuses plus an online campus, offering more than 180 academic
    programs from high-school preparatoria through master's degrees.
    Wholly-owned subsidiary of Laureate Education's Mexico operating
    group.
  humanURL: https://uvm.mx/
  baseURL: https://uvm.mx/
  tags:
  - Mexico
  - Higher Education
  - Member Institution
  properties:
  - type: Portal
    url: https://uvm.mx/
- name: Universidad Tecnológica de México (UNITEC)
  description: |
    Private Mexican university with more than 59 years of academic
    operations, 13 physical campuses across CDMX, State of Mexico,
    Guadalajara, León, Querétaro, Monterrey and Puebla, plus an online
    offering. Holds QS Stars 5-star rating (2025) and FIMPES
    "Lisa y Llana" accreditation. Wholly-owned by Laureate Mexico.
  humanURL: https://www.unitec.mx/
  baseURL: https://www.unitec.mx/
  tags:
  - Mexico
  - Higher Education
  - Member Institution
  properties:
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.unitec.mx/
- name: Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC)
  description: |
    Peruvian private university; first Peruvian university to earn the
    QS Stars 5-star rating and ranked first among private universities
    in Peru in the QS World University Rankings 2026. Holds WSCUC
    institutional accreditation (unique in Peru). Wholly-owned by
    Laureate Peru.
  humanURL: https://www.upc.edu.pe/
  baseURL: https://www.upc.edu.pe/
  tags:
  - Peru
  - Higher Education
  - Member Institution
  properties:
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.upc.edu.pe/
- name: Universidad Privada del Norte (UPN)
  description: |
    Peruvian private university operating across multiple campuses in
    Lima, Trujillo, Cajamarca and other regional cities. Wholly-owned
    by Laureate Peru and one of the five remaining institutions in the
    Laureate network.
  humanURL: https://www.upn.edu.pe/
  baseURL: https://www.upn.edu.pe/
  tags:
  - Peru
  - Higher Education
  - Member Institution
  properties:
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.upn.edu.pe/
- name: Cibertec
  description: |
    Peruvian technical / professional institute offering short-cycle
    careers in technology, business, hospitality and communications.
    Part of Laureate Peru.
  humanURL: https://www.cibertec.edu.pe/
  baseURL: https://www.cibertec.edu.pe/
  tags:
  - Peru
  - Technical Education
  - Member Institution
  properties:
  - type: Portal
    url: https://www.cibertec.edu.pe/
common:
- type: Portal
  url: https://www.laureate.net/
- type: Leadership
  url: https://www.laureate.net/leadership/
- type: Contact
  url: https://www.laureate.net/contact/
- type: Compliance
  url: https://www.laureate.net/ethics-and-compliance/

maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: info@apievangelist.com
  url: https://apievangelist.com

x-corporate-history:
  description: |
    Major events in Laureate Education's corporate history, captured here
    because there is no public developer surface to profile. Sources:
    Wikipedia (Laureate Education), Wikipedia (Universidad Andrés Bello),
    laureate.net, and the user-supplied brief for the May 2024 IFC /
    Sterling Capital take-private.
  events:
  - year: 1989
    event: Founded as Sylvan Learning Systems (K-12 tutoring origin).
  - year: 1998
    event: Sylvan International Universities division established by Douglas Becker.
  - year: 1999
    event: First university acquisition — Universidad Europea de Madrid (Spain) for $51M.
  - year: 2003
    event: Divested K-12 business and Sylvan name/trademark to Apollo Management.
  - year: 2004
    event: Renamed Laureate Education in May 2004; took full control of Walden University in September for $109M.
  - year: 2007
    event: Taken private by an investor group led by founder Douglas Becker.
  - year: 2010
    event: 50+ institutions across 21 countries serving ~550,000 students. Bill Clinton begins term as honorary chancellor.
  - year: 2013
    event: International Finance Corporation invests $150M in equity. Acquires Brazilian chain FMU for $412M.
  - year: 2015
    event: Ernesto Zedillo replaces Bill Clinton as Presidential Counselor. Becomes largest B Corporation; IPO filing discloses $4.7B in debt.
  - year: 2016
    event: Sold Glion and four Les Roches campuses to Eurazeo for $384.9M.
  - year: 2017
    event: IPO on NASDAQ (LAUR) at $14 on 1 February — raised $490M. Third B Corporation to go public after Etsy and Rally Software. 1M+ students across 200+ campuses in 28 countries.
  - year: 2018
    event: Divestitures begin — exits Morocco, U.S. (Kendall), China, Malaysia, Italy, Cyprus. CEO Doug Becker steps down; Eilif Serck-Hanssen becomes CEO.
  - year: 2019
    event: Exits Turkey (Istanbul Bilgi), U.S. (University of St Augustine for Health Sciences, Santa Fe University of Art and Design), Brazil (Centro Universitário do Norte), Spain (UE Madrid, Valencia, Canarias), Portugal (Universidade Europeia, IPAM), wind-down of UK programs (Liverpool, Roehampton).
  - year: 2020
    event: Sells Australia / New Zealand network to Strategic Education. Transfers Universidad Andrés Bello and the Chilean operations to Fundación Educación y Cultura on 11 September 2020. Announces sale of Walden to Adtalem for $1.48B and of Brazilian operations to Ânima Holding for $765M.
  - year: 2021
    event: Closes Brazil sale to Ânima (May), Walden sale to Adtalem (August). Returns $1.29B in cash to shareholders (October). Continuing operations now focused on Mexico and Peru — revenue $522M, ~349,000 students.
  - year: 2024
    event: Take-private transaction — investor group led by International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Sterling Capital acquires Laureate Education in May 2024; delisted from NASDAQ. Headquarters remains in Miami; Mexico and Peru institutional network preserved intact.
  - year: 2025
    event: Operates as a privately held Mexico + Peru higher-education group — five institutions, ~460,000 students across 50+ campuses (250,000+ across 30+ campuses in Mexico; 210,000+ across 20 campuses in Peru).

x-divestiture-summary:
  description: Country-level inventory of geographies Laureate has exited since 2016.
  exited:
  - country: Switzerland
    year: 2016
    transaction: Glion + Les Roches campuses sold to Eurazeo for $384.9M.
  - country: Morocco
    year: 2018
    transaction: Université Internationale de Casablanca divested.
  - country: Italy
    year: 2018
    transaction: Italian operations divested.
  - country: Malaysia
    year: 2018
    transaction: Malaysian operations divested.
  - country: China
    year: 2018
    transaction: Chinese operations divested.
  - country: Cyprus
    year: 2018
    transaction: Cypriot operations divested.
  - country: Turkey
    year: 2019
    transaction: Istanbul Bilgi University partnership ended.
  - country: United States
    year: 2019-2021
    transaction: University of St Augustine for Health Sciences (2019); Santa Fe University of Art and Design (2019); Kendall College (2018); Walden University to Adtalem for $1.48B (closed August 2021).
  - country: Spain
    year: 2019
    transaction: Universidad Europea de Madrid, Valencia, Canarias divested.
  - country: Portugal
    year: 2019
    transaction: Universidade Europeia and IPAM campuses divested.
  - country: United Kingdom
    year: 2020
    transaction: Stopped enrolling new students at University of Liverpool and Roehampton; wound down.
  - country: Australia
    year: 2020
    transaction: Australian network sold to Strategic Education, Inc.
  - country: New Zealand
    year: 2020
    transaction: New Zealand network sold to Strategic Education, Inc.
  - country: Chile
    year: 2020
    transaction: Universidad Andrés Bello and Chilean assets transferred to Fundación Educación y Cultura on 11 September 2020.
  - country: Brazil
    year: 2021
    transaction: 11-institution network sold to Ânima Holding for ~$765M (closed May 2021).
  retained:
  - country: Mexico
    institutions:
    - UVM (Universidad del Valle de México)
    - UNITEC (Universidad Tecnológica de México)
    enrollment: 250,000+ across 30+ campuses
  - country: Peru
    institutions:
    - UPC (Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas)
    - UPN (Universidad Privada del Norte)
    - Cibertec
    enrollment: 210,000+ across 20 campuses