BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2999

By: Lewis

Higher Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties contend that students currently are given little incentive to complete an associate's degree at a junior college or technical college before transferring to a four-year university. Transfer students may even be penalized if tuition rates at the university to which they transfer have risen from the level the rates would have been had the transfer students entered as freshmen. C.S.H.B. 2999 seeks to allow four-year universities to implement a fixed tuition rate program for certain students who transfer to such a university after completing an associate degree program.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2999 amends the Education Code to authorize a general academic teaching institution to develop a fixed tuition rate program for qualified students who agree to transfer to the institution within 12 months after successfully earning an associate degree at a lower-division institution of higher education. The bill requires a general academic teaching institution, under a fixed tuition rate program, to guarantee to a participating student enrolled in an associate degree program at a lower-division institution of higher education, on successful completion of the associate degree program, transfer admission to the general academic teaching institution within 12 months and to charge tuition to a participating student for any semester or other academic term at the same rate the general academic teaching institution would have charged to the student during the later of the fall semester of the student's freshman year at another institution of higher education had the student entered the general academic teaching institution as a freshman student or the fall semester of the second academic year preceding the academic year of the student's initial enrollment in the general academic teaching institution. The bill requires a general academic teaching institution that develops a fixed tuition rate program to prescribe eligibility requirements for participation in the program and to notify applicants for transfer admission from lower-division institutions of higher education regarding the program.

C.S.H.B. 2999 defines "lower-division institution of higher education" and "coordinating board" and provides for the meaning of "general academic teaching institution" by reference.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2999 contains a specification not included in the original that certain qualified students who agree to transfer to a general academic teaching institution under a fixed rate tuition program developed by the institution after successfully earning an associate degree at a lower-division institution of higher education agree to transfer to the institution within 12 months after earning the associate degree.

C.S.H.B. 2999 differs from the original by requiring a general academic teaching institution, under a fixed tuition rate program, to guarantee to a participating student enrolled in an associate degree program at a lower-division institution of higher education, on successful completion of the associate degree program, transfer admission to the general academic teaching institution within 12 months, whereas the original requires such an institution to guarantee transfer admission to the institution and acceptance into the student's degree program of choice.

C.S.H.B. 2999 differs from the original by requiring a general academic teaching institution to charge tuition to a student participating in a fixed rate tuition program for any semester or other academic term at the same rate the institution would have charged to the student during the later of the fall semester of the student's freshman year at another institution of higher education had the student entered the general academic teaching institution as a freshman student or the fall semester of the second academic year preceding the academic year of the student's initial enrollment in the general academic teaching institution, whereas the original requires a general academic teaching institution to charge tuition to a participating student for any semester or other academic term at the same rate the general academic teaching institution would have charged to the student during the fall semester of the student's freshman year at another institution of higher education had the student entered the general academic teaching institution as a freshman student.

C.S.H.B. 2999 omits a provision included in the original requiring the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, in consultation with general academic teaching institutions, to adopt any rules the coordinating board considers appropriate for the administration of the bill's provisions.