What is the significance of regional in regional accreditation?
Harvard is regionally accredited but it gets students from all over the world. MC: The nomenclature is confusing because you have nationally accredited and regionally accredited schools. It is a 100- year-old term, but regionally accredited schools are deemed to be higher quality academic schools. The background is that 100 years ago the government divided the nation into six regions, and they made a regional accrediting body for each of the regions. Most of your major state public and private institutions, such as Arizona State or Stanford, are regionally accredited. Students come from all over the world to attend those schools. Nationally accredited schools grew out of vocational schools such as ITT. We are now seeing that as market-driven schools are getting larger, they are merging and gaining both accreditations. We are seeing a merger of those accreditations. One important aspect is that you cannot get student loans without being either nationally or regionally accredited. SM: Wh
