Career Education Corporation Amends Culinary Royalty Agreement.

Business Editors

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 2002

Career Education Corporation (NASDAQ:CECO) today announced it has amended its North American royalty agreement with Le Cordon Bleu. The amendment provides for a $40 million upfront cash payment and reduces the culinary royalty rate from 8 to 2 percent on CEC's culinary revenues through the end of 2008. The transaction is expected to be accretive to CEC's earnings.

"Le Cordon Bleu is the best known and most highly respected name in culinary education," said John M. Larson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Career Education Corporation. "Since its inception in 1998, our partnership has been extraordinarily successful and beneficial to both parties. The new agreement ensures that our partnership will continue to flourish as we broaden the availability of a world-class culinary education throughout North America," Larson said.

With 10 culinary campuses and more than 6,000 students, CEC is the world's largest provider of culinary arts education. All of CEC's culinary colleges feature the Le Cordon Bleu program and include: Atlantic Culinary Academy at McIntosh College in Dover, N.H.; California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Calif.; California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, Calif.; The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Ill.; Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Program at Brown College in Mendota Heights, Minn.; Orlando Culinary Academy in Orlando, Fla.; Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, Texas; and Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Ore.

Career Education Corporation (www.careered.com) is one of the world's largest providers of private, for-profit postsecondary education in the career-oriented disciplines of visual communication and design technologies, information technology, business studies, culinary arts and healthcare. CEC operates 43 campuses throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates, and offers a full online program through AIU Online, its E-learning division. Total student population as of July 31, 2002 was approximately 41,000 students.

CEC colleges enjoy long operating histories and offer a wide variety of master's degree, bachelor's degree, associate degree and diploma programs. The CEC family includes American InterContinental University (six campuses), the International Academy of Design & Technology (eight campuses), the Katharine Gibbs Schools (nine campuses), Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Program North America (10 campuses) and other well-known educational institutions in the College Division (11 campuses).

The forward-looking statements contained in this release are based upon various assumptions, and certain risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated. Factors that could cause such differences include costs and difficulties associated with opening new campuses and in integrating acquisitions, costs associated with the E-learning Division, changes in the regulatory environment and those matters disclosed in Career Education Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Career Education Corporation assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements.