Honorable Kel Seliger, Chair, Senate Committee on Higher Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB2086 by West (Relating to measures to facilitate the transfer of students and course credit within the public higher education system.), As Introduced
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would amend the Education Code as it pertains to course credit transfer between institutions of higher education. Under the provisions of the bill, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) would be required to establish regional consortia of institutions of higher education and, with information provided by the institutions, identify the 25 degree programs with the highest enrollment across general academic institutions within each consortium. Each regional consortium would be required to develop transfer compacts within the region related to the 25 identified degree programs. THECB would be required to develop rules for the operation of regional consortia established by the bill.
THECB indicates the bill would result in some costs associated with rule adoption, organization and analysis of reports from institutions on their top 25 degree programs by enrollment, and sharing findings on degree program enrollment for use by the consortia. This analysis assumes these costs would not be significant and could be absorbed within existing agency resources.
THECB would be required to establish regional consortia under the bill by January 1, 2018. Each regional consortium would be required to develop transfer compacts to apply beginning with the fall 2019 semester. The bill would take immediate effect if it receives a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature. Otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2017.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies:
710 Texas A&M University System Administrative and General Offices, 719 Texas State Technical College System Administration, 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 758 Texas State University System, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board, 783 University of Houston System Administration