Application Approved! UMKC is Now a Participating SARA Institution

Forty-eight. That's the number of states (including Washington, DC) that the University of Missouri-Kansas City will soon be able to accept and enroll distance education students from. On June 30, UMKC was accepted as a participating SARA institution. This event marks a milestone in our work of building an eLearning campus of excellence. Before SARA (the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement), each university had to obtain authorization via the door-to-door approach to offer distance education to residents outside of the home state. Each state had its own unique rules and regulations regarding state authorization. As you can imagine, the process of obtaining authorization or an exemption was a long, arduous, and expensive one. More >

Devon Cancilla, Vice Provost for Online Learning

Cost and Change in Higher Education: The Rise of Alternative Providers

Did you know that the average family will spend between 16 and 40-plus percent of its annual income on college related costs? Think about this for a minute! The median US household income in 2014 was $51,939. That represents between $7,272 and $20,776 of a family’s income going to pay for college expenses. At the same time, the average US undergraduate loan debt for a student graduating in 2014 was $28,950. More >