Tidewater Community College, also known as "TCC," is a two-year higher education institution in South Hampton Roads with campuses in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award the associate degree; among two-year institutions in the U.S., it is the 19th largest associate degree producer. The school was founded in 1968, when a local philanthropist, Fred W. Beazley, closed the existing Frederick College and deeded the land to the Commonwealth of Virginia for the creation of Tidewater Community College.