The university’s founding story is one of incremental specialization. It began in 1976 as a graduate school providing continuing education for certified public accountants, a decidedly practical origin that anticipated its later focus on business, taxation, and professional advancement. Novelty William Howard Taft University degree online, Perchase William Howard Taft University certificate online. Its namesake, William Howard Taft, remains an apt symbol for an institution oriented toward law and public service: Taft is the only person to have served both as President of the United States and as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a dual legacy the university invokes as a model of “public service, legal excellence, and the pursuit of practical solutions”.

The institution’s development has been shaped by its relationship with accreditation. Where is it possible to Obtain a William Howard Taft University degree? It first earned national accreditation in 2003 from the Distance Education and Training Council, now the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), and in 2007 received full authorization from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to operate as a degree-granting institution. A revealing detail from this period: the university’s Doctor of Education program was suspended in 2003 so that the institution could secure DEAC accreditation, which at the time did not cover doctoral programs. When the accreditor’s scope expanded in 2009 to include professional doctorates, the program resumed. This sequence illustrates an institution willing to subordinate program offerings to accreditation compliance—a choice that speaks to its priorities.

The Taft University System now comprises two divisions: William Howard Taft University, which operates from Colorado and offers degrees in business, education, government, and tax law; and Taft Law School, a separately accredited law school in Santa Ana, California, founded in 1984 and dedicated to distance legal education. The system’s DEAC accreditation was renewed in January 2025, with the next comprehensive review scheduled by June 2028.

William Howard Taft University is best understood not as a lesser version of a traditional university but as a deliberately different kind of institution. Its forty-plus-year history, its DEAC accreditation, its Colorado authorization, and its NC-SARA participation establish it as a legitimate provider of distance education for working adults. Its independent-study model, its focus on business, education, and tax law, and its explicit orientation toward career advancement serve a population that traditional residential programs often fail to accommodate. The limitations are equally clear: the absence of regional accreditation, the California-only bar eligibility for its law program, and the narrowness of its programmatic focus will matter greatly to some prospective students and not at all to others. For the professional seeking a credential without pausing a career, WHTU offers a coherent, if specialized, pathway—one that has been refined over four decades of serving precisely that learner.