For online students living outside California

Due to changes in state authorization regulations under the Federal Higher Education Act, JPCatholic most likely will be unable to offer our MA in Biblical Theology to any online students outside of the State of California effective July 1, 2018.

We were hopeful that legislation would be passed this year to allow the State of California to join the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA), which offers a streamlined and cost-effective method for institutions to be authorized to offer distance education in other states. However, current legislative efforts have stalled, and it is not clear whether California will join NC-SARA before July 1, 2018.

The Federal regulation reads as follows:

CFR 600.9(c): If an institution is offering postsecondary education through distance or correspondence education to students in a State in which it is not physically located or in which it is otherwise subject to State jurisdiction as determined by the State, the institution must meet any State requirements for it to be legally offering postsecondary distance or correspondence education in that State. An institution must be able to document to the Secretary the State's approval upon request.

The above regulation mandates that effective July 1, 2018, we must obtain authorization from the individual states in which we operate — the states where you, our online students, reside. The regulatory costs of obtaining authorization from each individual state are an insurmountable financial obligation for JPCatholic, and therefore we will not be able to offer the MA program online to students who reside outside the State of California (where we are authorized to operate). This regulatory challenge may change if the State of California joins NC-SARA before July 1, 2018. However, we have to plan as if the regulations will go into effect as currently written. JPCatholic will continue to advocate for California to join NC-SARA, both through our own efforts and the work of the Association for Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU), of which we are a member.

For on-campus students and California Resident online students

We will continue to offer the MA in Biblical Theology to currently enrolled students online with some classes being offered on-campus. We are not enrolling new students at this time.