Somerset Community College[1], located in south-central Kentucky, is a publicly controlled comprehensive community and technical college. The college offers academic, general education, and technical curricula leading to certificates, diplomas, and associate's degrees. Somerset Community College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). A certificate is an official document affirming some fact. ... A diploma (from Greek diploma) is a document issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that is one of the following: A certificate testifying that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study, A deed conferring an academic degree. ... An associates degree is a degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges and some bachelors degree-granting colleges and universities in Canada and the United States upon completion of a course of study equivalent to the first two years in a four-year college or university. ... The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional accreditor for over 12,000 public and private educational institutions ranging from preschool to college level in the Southeastern United States. ...

The 2002 merger of Laurel Technical College, Somerset Community College, and Somerset Technical College produced a comprehensive community and technical college whose beginning reaches back to 1940. The three institutions became members of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS)[2] in 1998 and began their merger plans soon after.

Originally a part of the University of Kentucky Community College System, Somerset Community College opened in 1965 with approximately 300 students on a single campus in Somerset, Kentucky. The College extended its campus east to London, Kentucky and south to Whitley City, Kentucky in 1992. The College operated an off-campus program in several surrounding counties before 1992, but the Laurel Center in London and the McCreary Center in Whitley City were the first two permanent centers outside Somerset Community College’s original Pulaski County, Kentucky home. The Russell Center in Russell Springs, Kentucky opened in 2003 and the Clinton Center in Albany, Kentucky opened in 2004. The University of Kentucky (also as UK or simply Kentucky) is a public, co-educational university located in Lexington, Kentucky. ...

Laurel Technical College began in London, Kentucky in 1971 as a vocational school governed by the Kentucky Department of Education. The school added a post-secondary component in 1985 and began offering programs designed to teach adult learners both academic and technical skills.

Somerset Technical College began in 1940 under the Somerset Board of Education’s control. Originally named the Somerset Vocational School, the institution came under Kentucky Department of Education governance in 1970. The school offered Kentucky’s first publicly supported aviation maintenance program, and began accepting post-secondary students in 1970.

Somerset Community College serves students on two campuses and three centers in south-central Kentucky. The College also offers distance learning opportunities through on-line classes, televised courses, and courses at off-campus sites throughout southern Kentucky. In Academic Year 2004-2005 Somerset Community College served 5,850 students from sixty-six of Kentucky’s 120 counties. The College's primary service region of fourteen south-central Kentucky counties had a 2000 population of 431,722.