U. S. officials have said that an investigation of 15 for-profit colleges found that all misled potential students about cost, quality and duration of their programs.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that undercover investigators posing as students interested in enrolling in the schools said recruiters at four schools encouraged prospective students to lie on their financial aid applications.

The report also says that at a college in California, an undercover investigator filling out a financial aid application was encouraged to list three non-existent dependents.

Prepared for the Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions, which will open oversight hearings beginning Wednesday on for-profit colleges, the report does not identify the colleges involved, but says it includes both privately held and publicly traded institutions in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington, D. C.

The Times further said that many lawmaker suggest the fast-growing for-profit education industry, which got more than $4 billion in federal grants and $20 billion in Department of Education loans last year, is using taxpayer money to generate profits for the schools instead of providing students with a meaningful college-quality education. (With Inputs from Agencies)