Yes, National University is regionally accredited. It holds institutional accreditation from the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), which is the regional accreditor for colleges and universities in the western United States. This is the same accrediting body that oversees Stanford, UCLA, and other well-known institutions in the region. National University received the maximum 10-year accreditation cycle from WSCUC, the longest approval period the commission grants.
What Regional Accreditation Means for You
Regional accreditation is widely considered the gold standard for U.S. colleges and universities. It matters in three practical ways: credit transfers, employer recognition, and financial aid eligibility.
Credits earned at a regionally accredited school are far more likely to transfer to other regionally accredited institutions. If you start a degree at National University and later want to continue at a state university, or vice versa, the receiving school will generally evaluate your coursework for transfer. Schools that only hold national accreditation (a different, less selective category despite the name) often see their credits rejected by regionally accredited universities.
Regional accreditation also qualifies students for federal financial aid, including Pell Grants, federal student loans, and GI Bill benefits. Many employers and graduate programs specifically look for degrees from regionally accredited schools when evaluating candidates. A degree from a regionally accredited institution carries the same baseline credibility whether the school is a large state flagship or a smaller private university like National University.
Regional vs. National Accreditation
The terminology can be confusing because “national accreditation” sounds more prestigious than “regional accreditation,” but the opposite is true in practice. Regional accreditors evaluate nonprofit and for-profit institutions against rigorous academic standards, while national accreditors have historically focused on vocational, trade, and career-oriented schools with different criteria. National University’s name has nothing to do with national accreditation. It is regionally accredited through WSCUC.
Program-Specific Accreditations
Beyond its institutional accreditation, National University holds specialized accreditations for several of its professional programs. These matter if you’re entering a field where licensing boards or employers require graduation from a program accredited by a specific agency.
- Nursing: The bachelor’s, master’s, Doctor of Nursing Practice, and post-graduate APRN certificate programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). This is important for sitting for licensing exams and meeting employer hiring requirements in healthcare.
- Business: Select business programs within the School of Business and Economics are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), which evaluates teaching quality and program standards.
- Education: Teacher preparation programs are accredited by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), which matters for earning a teaching credential or license.
Not every program at the university carries a specialized accreditation, and not every field has a relevant programmatic accreditor. If you’re enrolling in a professional program where licensure is the goal, check whether the specific degree you’re considering holds the accreditation your state licensing board requires.
How to Verify Accreditation Yourself
You can confirm National University’s accreditation status directly through the U.S. Department of Education’s database of accredited institutions or through the WSCUC website. Both list every institution’s current accreditation status, the date of the most recent review, and when the next review is scheduled. This is worth doing for any school you’re considering, not because schools routinely lose accreditation, but because it takes less than a minute and removes any doubt.
National University’s own accreditation page at nu.edu also lists its institutional and programmatic accreditations with links to each accrediting body. If you’re comparing schools, checking this page side by side with competitor institutions gives you a quick read on how each stacks up in terms of recognized quality markers.