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-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/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/ - 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