The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements is saving colleges millions of dollars annually, a new report from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems estimated.
NC-SARA is a membership organization that sets national shared standards for postsecondary distance education courses and programs that are offered across state lines.
Institutions that are NC-SARA members do not have to undergo separate authorization processes in every state where they wish to operate — a perk that the organization has long claimed saves institutions money and saves staff time, easing the administrative burden of offering classes online.
The NCHEMS report, published yesterday, quantifies those savings for the first time. The organization gathered survey responses from a total of 171 institutions.
For initial authorization to operate across state lines, SARA-participating institutions responding to the survey paid between $3,351 and $11,221. The figure for institutions that do not participate in SARA was much higher, at $219,000 on average, the report estimates.