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Bridgepoint Education's gaining accreditation for its Ashford University subsidiary was good news for the for-profit, online business, its staff and students, but it was also a relief to the San Diego region.
Denied accreditation from one accrediting agency a year ago, Ashford's initial accreditor, called the Higher Learning Commission, pressured the company to comply with requirements to maintain a substantial presence within the group's 19-state Midwest jurisdiction.
San Diego-Centric
While Ashford's campus is located in Clinton, Iowa, most of the school's operations and staff are in San Diego.
Had the Western Association of Schools and Colleges denied Ashford the accreditation, the school planned to relocate a big part of Bridgepoint's offices, personnel, and operations to the Midwest, according to the company's plans revealed in securities filings.
Bridgepoint's presence in San Diego is considerable. It had about 3,900 employees locally and a total payroll of $227.5 million at the end of 2011, according to a study done for the San Diego Economic Development Corp. by the London Group. Using a multiplier formula that counted direct, indirect and induced employment effects, the report pegged Bridgepoint's total economic impact to the region at $1.08 billion.
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