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Northwest Community College was created by an act of the state legislature in 1976, when the college began offering classes.

In 1987, Northwest Community College became a branch of the  and was renamed UAF Northwest Campus. Though now affiliated with a preeminent research institution, Northwest Campus has kept its community college mission as a foremost goal.

The organization of UAF's rural campuses into their own college, the , and the priority that UAF gave to the development of a cross-regional network and a highly qualified instructional faculty have been critical to NWC's continued viability. The mission of Northwest Campus and UAF's College of Indigenous Studies is to provide higher education to the people of the Bering Straits Region and to other rural regions through telecommunications links.

In addition to Nome, UAF Northwest Campus serves 15 Alaska Native villages in the surrounding 36,000 square miles, an area the size of the state of Indiana.

The majority of the region's population is Inuit and resides in villages across the Seward Peninsula. NWC and its service villages are entirely off the road system requiring commercial airline or private charter for the majority of travel, even between villages. The nearest major airport is in Anchorage, 550 air miles from Nome. Travel to or from the villages requires an additional flight in and out of Nome via small commercial aircraft.