The U.S. Department of Education requires higher education institutions to be authorized to provide post-secondary educational instruction in their states. Many of these state laws and regulations also apply to online, distance, and correspondence educational instruction offered in that state.
MassBay is a member of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA). SARA is an agreement among member states, districts, and territories of the United States. It establishes national standards for the interstate offering of distance education courses and programs. It simplifies the process of taking online classes at an institution of higher education based in another state. The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) is one of four regional education compacts and is the compact that administers SARA for institutions located in Massachusetts. A national council (NC-SARA) oversees SARA and the regional compacts.
Massachusetts Bay Community College (MBCC) was approved by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to participate in SARA, and became a SARA institution in 2019. At this time, only California is not a member state. If you reside in California and are interested in taking an online class at MBCC, please contact our Admissions Office by email: admissions@massbay.edu.