Indian university withdraws from plan to buy 2 US campuses

The Amity University chain filed paperwork in July proposing to buy the New England Institute of Art, located near Boston, and the Art Institute of New York, which are now owned by the Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corp. The deal would have helped Amity gain a foothold in the U.S. amid the chain's global expansion.

In September, the state's Department of Higher Education sent a letter to the New England Institute of Art asking what steps had been taken to ensure that Amity would provide a quality education and whether the chain had the finances to support it.

The Santa Fe University of Art and Design, a for-profit college in New Mexico, announced this year that it was being bought by the Singapore-based firm Raffles, which operates 30 colleges in more than a dozen countries.

Before colleges that receive federal funding can be sold, their buyers must gain approval from the state government, the U.S. Department of Education and from an accrediting agency, according to federal education officials.