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Release Date: 
Monday, June 24, 2019

HFC joins NC-SARA to improve access to online courses

NC-SARA logo

HFC has joined the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) initiative. It is one of 55 colleges and universities in Michigan to join the organization.

NC-SARA oversees distance education. It is a voluntary agreement among its member states (every state, with the exception of California) and U.S. territories (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) that establishes comparable national standards for interstate offering of postsecondary distance-education courses and programs.

Making it easier to take online classes across states

NC-SARA’s purpose is to make it easier for students to take online courses offered by higher education institutions based in a different state. It establishes a state-level reciprocity process that will support efforts to increase the educational attainment by making state authorization:
• More efficient, effective, and uniform for necessary and reasonable standards that could span multiple states
• More effective in dealing with quality and integrity issues that have arisen in some online/distance education
• Less costly for states and institutions and the students they serve

Students will see the benefit of increased access as colleges such as HFC are able to make their academic programs more widely available and accept enrollments from students in different states.

All NC-SARA educational institutions commit to making sure that courses and programs offered through this initiative provide high-quality learning opportunities that can help students reach their educational goals.