Leon Wiggins II had been looking forward to the start of classes next week as he closed it on a degree in ITT Technical Institute in Torrance and what he expected would be a future in cybersecurity.

But on Tuesday, the 30 years old from Long Beach and thousands of other students nationwide discovered that they would never receive an ITT diploma.

The company that operates the for-profit chain, one of the the largest in the country, had announced that it was permanently closing all its campuses nationwide. It blamed the recent move by the U.S. Education Department, to ban ITT from enrolling new students who use federal financial aid.

Wiggins, who works as the assistant manager for a family-run auto parts business and went to ITT to open new opportunities said, "Two quarters ago there were rumors about the school having problems, but they told us that anyone who was already a student would be allowed to finish”. He added, “Am I angry? I'm like angry times 10 million."

The shutdown will affect about 35,000 students who had been preparing for the start of classes this month. It will also cost more than 8,000 employees, their jobs.

Education Department officials have informed that those students and others who had left the school within the last 120 days would be eligible to have federal loans for their ITT education forgiven if they want to start over at another school.

And students in California would also be able to apply.

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By Prakriti Neogi