LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 82ND LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

May 28, 2011

TO:	Honorable David Dewhurst, Lieutenant Governor, Senate Honorable Joe Straus, Speaker of the House, House of Representatives
FROM:	John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB3025 by Branch (Relating to measures to facilitate the timely completion of degrees by students of public institutions of higher education.), Conference Committee Report

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

Under provisions of the bill, students would be required to file a degree plan with an institution of higher education not later than the end of the second regular semester or term, in which the student earned a cumulative total of 45 or more semester credit hours, including transfer courses, international baccalaureate courses, and dual credit courses.

The bill would require institutions to provide information regarding the degree plan filing requirement and options for consulting with an academic advisor for that purpose, which may include electronic communication.  For a student, to whom this section applies, that does not timely file a degree plan, the bill would require the institution to notify the student that the degree plan is required by law and require the student to consult with an advisor during the semester when the notice was recieved. The student may not obtain an official transcript until the student has filed a degree plan with the institution. This section would apply to undergraduate students who initially enroll in 2012 fall semester.
 
This bill also amends Section 61.833 of the Education Code that would require institutions to alert transfer students when they have successfully completed a total of at least 90 credit hours to earn their associate degree. Lower-division institutions, after recieving a student transcript from a general academic institution would be required to review the transcript for determining whether the student earned the credit required to receive an associate degree.
 
This analysis assumes that the provisions of this bill could be implemented using current resources.

Local Government Impact

No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.

Source Agencies:

781 Higher Education Coordinating Board, 710 Texas A&M University System Administrative and General Offices, 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 758 Texas State University System, 769 University of North Texas System Administration, 783 University of Houston System Administration, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration

LBB Staff:

JOB, KK, JI, SDE, GO, RT