What Is A .EDU Domain ?
Created in January 1985 as one of the seven first generic top-level domains, the domain was originally intended for educational institutions anywhere in the world.
However, due to broad usage of country-level domains by non-U.S. educational institutions, e.g., ubc.ca for the University of British Columbia in Canada, was later restricted to only bona fide U.S.-accredited postsecondary educational institutions.
On April 24, 1985, cmu.edu, berkeley.edu, columbia.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu, and ucla.edu became the first six registered domain names.
Starting on October 29, 2001, only post-secondary institutions and organizations that are accredited by an agency on the U.S. Department of Education's list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies are eligible to apply for a edu domain.
Most such agencies accredit only US institutions, so very few non-US institutions qualify, and edu remains almost exclusively a top-level domain of the United States.