What is SARA?

March 2021

On March 11, Jeremy and Wei attended an NC-SARA data reporting webinar. There were approximately 1,200 attendees in that Zoom call, and they were representatives from colleges and universities across the nation.

As an educational institution innovative in teaching and learning, NPC is a member of several distance learning-related organizations such as OLC, AZ Statewide QM Consortium, and SARA. The one we recently joined is The State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, commonly known as SARA. SARA provides a voluntary, regional approach to state oversight of postsecondary distance education. SARA's policies help protect students and provide benefits to both states and institutions carrying out distance education in multiple states. Here are some quick facts about SARA:

As of April 2020, 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are members of SARA.
Over 2,100 colleges and universities participate in SARA, with about 3 million students enrolled in their distance education programs.
NPC is one of the 32 SARA institutions in the state of Arizona.

How can the SARA membership benefit NPC?

The membership enables more efficient provision of distance education to a broader market and can potentially lead to enrollment growth. Without SARA membership, NPC would need to start denying admission to online students that live out of state. This is extremely problematic for students that live just across state lines in Utah or New Mexico.
It provides better resolution of complaints from students in SARA states.
The cooperation helps reduce a rapidly growing institutional cost that is in one way or another passed along to students.
SARA’s streamlined process and best practices help enhance overall quality of distance education.

What are our commitments as a SARA institution?

Report annual distance education data between May 15 and June 15.
Allow distance students ample opportunities to voice any complaints (Procedure 2606).
Work cooperatively with other SARA institutions to enable program success.

While serving out-of-state students is a great side-benefit of this process, the real impetus behind providing distance learning programs is to better serve our students. As a community college, we value access to higher education. With our geographically dispersed service area, distance learning programs help to improve access to students that wouldn’t otherwise attend or complete their degrees at NPC. Our students are really the ones that will benefit most with NPC’s SARA membership and quality online educational opportunities.

Wei Ma, PhD, Dean of Instructional Innovation

Jeremy Raisor, Director of Enrollment Services