Newport International University (NIU) is a non-accredited

Educational accreditation

Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met...

 for-profit

For-Profit School

For-profit education refers to educational institutions operated by private, profit-seeking businesses....

 educational institution incorporated in Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

 and operating from Hayward

Hayward, California

Hayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County, California. With a population of 144,186, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 37th most populous municipality in California. It is included in...

 in Northern California

Northern California

Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...

.

NIU was incorporated in Wyoming in 2002 and formerly operated there under a permissive state higher education

Higher education

Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...

 law. After the state enacted a new law in 2006 requiring higher education institutions to be accredited or seek accreditation in order to remain in the state, NIU filed a lawsuit

Lawsuit

A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

 challenging the constitutionality

Constitutionality

Constitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution. Acts that are not in accordance with the rules laid down in the constitution are deemed to be ultra vires.-See also:*ultra vires*Company law*Constitutional law...

 of the new state law. The Wyoming Supreme Court

Wyoming Supreme Court

The Wyoming Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices. Each Justice is appointed by the Governor of Wyoming for an eight-year term. The five Justices select the Chief Justice from amongst themselves. The person...

 upheld the law in a June 2008 ruling, and in April 2009 NIU relinquished its Wyoming registration and announced plans to merge with Newport University

Newport University (California)

Newport University is a private university located in Newport Beach, California. It was founded in 1976 and was licensed by the former State of California Bureau of Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education...

 in California.

While based in Wyoming, NIU operated educational programs in about 14 countries around the world. In 2005 the government of Kenya nullified more than 200 degree

Academic degree

An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...

s that NIU had awarded in that country.