Provisions of the SARA Policy Manual, including those for consumer protection and the resolution of complaints, apply to interstate distance education offered by participating SARA institutions to students in other SARA states. As a critical element of transparency and student consumer protections afforded through SARA policy, NC-SARA collects and shares data on SARA student complaints from SARA-member states on a quarterly basis.
Only those complaints resulting from distance education courses, activities, and operations provided by SARA-participating institutions to students in other SARA states come under the scope of SARA. Complaints about a SARA institution’s in-state operations are to be resolved under the state’s normal provisions, not those of SARA.
SARA consumer protection provisions require institutions’ home states, through their SARA State Portal Entities, to investigate and resolve allegations of dishonest or fraudulent activity by the state’s SARA-participating institutions, including the provision of false or misleading information. The State Portal Entity is responsible for conducting the investigation and resolution of complaints that are not resolved at the institutional level.
More information about Student Consumer Protections and the Student Complaint Process can be found in the Students section of this website.