Grand Canyon University (GCU) is a for-profit Christian university located in Phoenix, Arizona. It is owned by Grand Canyon Education (NASDAQ: LOPE). GCU was founded in 1949 as a non-profit liberal arts college. Grand Canyon Education, Inc. purchased Grand Canyon University in February 2004. Grand Canyon Education, through its subsidiary Grand Canyon University is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and provides online and campus-based postsecondary education services focused on graduate and undergraduate degree programs in education, liberal arts, business, and healthcare through its six colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Doctoral Studies, the College of Education, the College of Fine Arts and Production, the College of Nursing, and the Ken Blanchard College of Business. The College was founded as a nonprofit institution in 1949. Arizona Southern Baptists felt the need to establish a faith-based institution that would allow local Baptists the opportunity to obtain a Bachelor's or Master's degree without going "back east" to one of the Baptist colleges in Texas, Oklahoma or Missouri.