Laureate Education

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.

6 APIs 0 Features

EducationHigher EducationFor Profit EducationUniversity NetworkMexicoPeruLatin AmericaPrivate EquityB CorporationTake Private

Laureate Education publishes 6 APIs on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Education, Higher Education, For Profit Education, University Network, and Mexico.

Laureate Education’s developer surface includes developer portal and 3 more developer resources.

Sources

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: [email protected]
    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