The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia has authorized Founders College, a for-profit start-up institution, to open. According to the Associated Press, the owners of the college hope to purchase a $12-million, 1,100-acre estate in southern Virginia for a campus, which they plan to open by next fall.

The chief founders of Founders are two Duke University professors who are advocates of the objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand, although they say the college will be a traditional liberal-arts institution.

The council’s authorization does not indicate approval of the college’s educational vision or the quality of its planned curriculum or campus. Such authorization shows only that the college has been able to produce a business plan, a financial statement, and a financial instrument that would protect students if the college closed suddenly. Under that authority, the college is required to win national or regional accreditation within six years.