BILL ANALYSIS |
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C.S.H.B. 61 |
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By: McClendon |
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Higher Education |
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Committee Report (Substituted) |
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
According to interested parties, students in Texas pursuing an undergraduate degree in a state-supported institution of higher education need to be able to select the core courses that will transfer and apply to their degree plan should the student transfer to another institution. The parties suggest that this selection is currently difficult for students and their advisors, as there is no single comprehensive statewide resource that allows for determining the core undergraduate courses that would be compatible between institutions. Postsecondary transfers are common, the parties continue, and negotiating how to transfer applicable courses is time-consuming for both students and schools, indicating a need to implement a more streamlined approach. C.S.H.B. 61 seeks to address that need.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 61 amends the Education Code to clarify that the course numbering system to be approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for lower-division courses to facilitate the transfer of such courses among institutions of higher education is a single common course numbering system. The bill requires the coordinating board to solicit input from institutions of higher education regarding the development of the single common course numbering system and requires each institution of higher education to use the approved common course numbering system in the institution's guidelines regarding the transfer of course credit for each course for which a common course number designation and course description are included by the board in that system and to include the applicable course numbers from that system in its course catalogs and other course listings. The bill, in an existing provision limiting the coordinating board's approval of a common course numbering system to a system already in common use in Texas by institutions of higher education, specifies that the system is to be already in use by one or more institutions in Texas.
C.S.H.B. 61 requires each institution of higher education to certify annually to the coordinating board the accuracy of the institution's identification, in its course catalogs and other course listings, of each course offered by the institution for which a common number designation and course description are included by the coordinating board in the common course numbering system. The bill requires the institution, as part of the certification, to specify each of its offered courses for which a common number designation and course description are included in that system and each of its offered courses for which a common number designation and course description are not included in that system. The bill requires the institution also to include with its certification a current, publicly accessible website address at which the institution publishes its guidelines regarding the transfer of course credit. The bill authorizes the coordinating board, based on its review of the information certified, to recommend corrective action to an institution's governing board if the institution fails to comply with the requirements relating to the common course numbering system. The bill requires the coordinating board, in its next legislative appropriations request made to the legislature, to identify each institution that fails to comply with the coordinating board's recommended corrective action. These provisions apply beginning with the 2020–2021 academic year.
C.S.H.B. 61 adds a temporary provision, set to expire January 1, 2022, requiring the coordinating board, not later than June 1, 2016, to approve a single common course numbering system and to establish a timetable that requires institutions of higher education to phase in the inclusion of the applicable course numbers from the approved system in their individual guidelines regarding the transfer of course credit and in their individual course numbering systems so that each institution fully complies with the numbering system for each course that is offered during the 2020–2021 academic year or a subsequent academic year and for which a common number designation and course description are included by the coordinating board in that system.
C.S.H.B. 61 removes the coordinating board's authority to grant an institution of higher education, for good cause, an exemption from the requirement to include in the institution's course listings the applicable course numbers from the board-approved common course numbering system. The bill's provisions apply beginning with the 2016–2017 academic year, except as otherwise provided.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2015.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 61 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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