BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1843

By: Branch

Higher Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Recent legislation authorized certain limitations on the automatic admission of undergraduate students to general academic teaching institutions under the state's top 10 percent rule if the number of qualified applicants exceeded a specified percentage of the institution's enrollment capacity designated for the next year's incoming class of first-time resident undergraduate students. The legislation provided that the authority to limit the admission of students who qualify for automatic admission would expire after the 2015-2016 academic year or would be negated if either a final court order applicable to The University of Texas at Austin or a rule or policy of the institution's governing board prohibits the institution from considering race or ethnicity as a factor in the institution's undergraduate admissions process. H.B. 1843 seeks to permit The University of Texas at Austin to continue its currently authorized procedure for limiting its offers of admission to students who qualify for automatic admissions under the state's top 10 percent rule through the 2017-2018 academic year.

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

H.B. 1843 amends the Education Code to postpone from the 2015-2016 academic year to the 2017-2018 academic year the last academic year for which The University of Texas at Austin is authorized to limit offers of automatic admission to first-time resident undergraduate students who qualify for such admission under the state's top 10 percent rule, if the number of qualified applicants exceeds the number required to fill 75 percent of the university's enrollment capacity designated for that year for first-time resident undergraduate students, by using a percentile ranking system until enough qualified applicants have been offered admission to fill that percentage of capacity, after which academic year the university is prohibited from limiting its offers of such admissions using percentile rankings.

H.B. 1843 repeals a provision relating to a prohibition against a general academic teaching institution's limiting the institution's offers of automatic admission using the percentile ranking system if the institution is prevented, either by a court order or by the institution's governing board, from considering an applicant's race or ethnicity as a factor in its admissions policy.

H.B. 1843 repeals Section 51.803(k), Education Code.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.