Profile of a State Authorization Professional: An Analysis of a Growing Field in Higher Education

July 2017 

This paper presents and analyzes results of research into occupational data from state authorization professionals across the country. State authorization regulations have only recently been enforced for distance education, and no research into the employment expectations of this growing field exists. The authors created a survey addressing topics from the participants’ salary to institutional and positional information and analyzed the data to find commonalities of the position across the United States. The results showed that there are shared and variable traits in salary, tasks, position title, and department. The results encourage further research to shape the field as it continues to grow.

Authors: 

Tyson Heath
Manager of State Authorization
Western Governors University
tyson.heath@wgu.edu 

Liz Carney
Compliance Coordinator
Western Governors University
liz.carney@wgu.edu

Trevor Jonsson
Compliance Coordinator
Western Governors University
trevor.jonsson@wgu.edu

Attached is a 2021 list of Job Description examples for those Managing Out-of-State Activity Compliance.