BILL ANALYSIS |
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C.S.H.B. 82 |
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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
Interested parties note that students transferring from two-year institutions of higher education to four-year institutions often encounter challenges like having to retake courses not recognized by the receiving institution or having to pay additional tuition to take courses that will be recognized. This can cost such students both money and valuable time. Negotiating how to transfer credit between courses is also time-consuming and difficult for colleges and universities and both have recognized the need for a more streamlined approach. C.S.H.B. 82 seeks to reduce the costs for all involved through a single common course numbering system that will be phased in over a period of time.
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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. 82 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, other than The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, to use the approved common course numbering system for each course for which a common number designation and course description are included in that system and to include the applicable course numbers from that system in its course catalogs and other course listings. The bill, in a 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 such a numbering system already be in use by one or more institutions in Texas.
C.S.H.B. 82 adds a temporary provision, set to expire January 1, 2020, to require the coordinating board, not later than June 1, 2014, to approve a single common course numbering system and to establish a timetable that requires the applicable institutions to phase in the inclusion of applicable course numbers from the numbering system in their individual course listings and course numbering systems so that each institution fully complies with the numbering system for all courses offered for the 2018-2019 academic year and subsequent years.
C.S.H.B. 82 removes a provision authorizing the coordinating board 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.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 82 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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