By Naishtat H.B. No. 1882
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to requiring the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
1-3 to approve formula funding for certain doctoral students.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 54.066, Education Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 54.066. TUITION RATES FOR CERTAIN DOCTORAL STUDENTS.
1-8 The governing board of an institution of higher education may
1-9 charge a resident doctoral student who has more semester credit
1-10 hours of doctoral work than allowed for purposes of state funding
1-11 for the current state fiscal biennium under Section 61.059(l)
1-12 tuition at the rate charged nonresident doctoral students. In its
1-13 appropriations to institutions of higher education, the legislature
1-14 shall compute the local funds available to each institution as if
1-15 the tuition collected under this section were not collected.
1-16 [Tuition charged at the rate provided by this section shall be
1-17 accounted for as if collected under Section 54.008.]
1-18 SECTION 2. Section 61.059(l), Education Code, is amended to
1-19 read as follows:
1-20 (l)(1) Except as provided by this subsection [Subdivision
1-21 (2)], the board may not include in any formula under this section
1-22 funding based on the number of doctoral students who have a total
1-23 of 100 or more semester credit hours of doctoral work at an
1-24 institution of higher education.
2-1 (2) The [Notwithstanding Subdivision (1), the] board
2-2 may approve formula funding for semester credit hours in excess of
2-3 99 [100], not to exceed 130 total semester credit hours, for a
2-4 doctoral student if the institution:
2-5 (A) provides the board with substantial evidence
2-6 that the particular field of study in which the student is enrolled
2-7 requires a higher number of semester credit hours to maintain
2-8 nationally competitive standards;
2-9 (B) provides the board with evidence that the
2-10 student's program or research is likely to provide substantial
2-11 benefit to medical or scientific advancement and that the program
2-12 or research requires the additional semester credit hours; or
2-13 (C) provides the board with other compelling
2-14 academic reasons that support the finding of an exception.
2-15 (3) The board may establish guidelines recognizing
2-16 other reasonable exceptions to Subdivision (1), under which an
2-17 institution may designate doctoral students for whom the board
2-18 shall approve formula funding for semester credit hours in excess
2-19 of 99, not to exceed 130 total semester credit hours.
2-20 (4) The board shall approve formula funding for all
2-21 doctoral students who are enrolled in a doctoral program that is
2-22 substantially similar to a doctoral program that commonly requires
2-23 completion of 100 or more semester credit hours, that is offered by
2-24 a medical and dental unit, and that is funded in a manner that does
2-25 not directly depend on whether a student in the program pays
2-26 tuition at the rate charged other Texas residents or at a higher
2-27 rate.
3-1 (5) [(3)] The board shall report to the Legislative
3-2 Budget Board, as part of its report on formula funding
3-3 recommendations, a listing of the exceptions approved under this
3-4 subsection [Subdivision (2)] and the associated costs in
3-5 formula-based funding.
3-6 (6) Each institution shall inform in writing each new
3-7 doctoral student enrolling at the institution of the limitation
3-8 provided by this subsection on the number of hours that a Texas
3-9 resident enrolled in a doctoral program is entitled to complete
3-10 while paying tuition at the rate provided for Texas residents.
3-11 (7) Subdivision (1) does not apply to funding for a
3-12 doctoral student who initially enrolled as a doctoral student in
3-13 any institution of higher education before the 1999 fall semester.
3-14 In the formulas established under this section, the board shall
3-15 include funding for a doctoral student described by this
3-16 subdivision without consideration of Subdivision (1).
3-17 SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only
3-18 to a formula established under Section 61.059, Education Code, on
3-19 or after September 1, 1999.
3-20 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-21 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-22 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-23 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-24 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-25 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-26 passage, and it is so enacted.