(a) An academic course may be approved for unique need
if it meets the following criteria:
(1) The course must have college-level rigor. A course
designed to meet a community service, leisure, career/technical, or
avocational need is inappropriate for unique need approval.
(2) The course must be freshman or sophomore level.
Upper-division courses shall not be approved for unique need. For
purposes of this subchapter, a course may be considered to be lower-division
if a majority of the public universities in Texas offering an equivalent
course classify it as lower-division in their catalogs.
(3) The course must be acceptable for transfer and
apply toward baccalaureate degree requirements at a minimum of three
Texas public universities. If a university's degree program requirements
could be satisfied by an existing course in the ACGM, then that university
cannot count as one of the required three.
(4) An exception may be granted for a unique need course
that transfers to a single university if the college documents that
its students transfer to that university on a yearly basis into a
discipline-specific major of which the course is a required component,
and the course is part of a current, documented articulation agreement
between the two-year college and the university. The articulation
agreement documentation must demonstrate that the course is a degree
program requirement and not merely an option or elective.
(b) Procedures for unique need approval.
(1) The application for each unique need course submitted
must be accompanied by a statement of need for the course and a syllabus
which includes a course description, detailed course outline, and
objectives. Except as specified in subsection (a)(4) of this section,
the application must be accompanied by documentation from universities
that clearly indicate the basis for transferability of the course
as a degree program requirement.
(2) Once approved, a unique need course shall be placed
on the college inventory for three years. Colleges must reapply for
approval of unique need courses every three years.
(3) If an institution is seeking re-approval of a course
previously approved for unique need, the institution must submit,
in addition to the requirements listed in paragraph (1) of this subsection,
the number of students who transferred in the last three years to
the specific baccalaureate program(s) for which the unique need permission
was requested.
(c) Courses listed in the ACGM but offered for a greater
number of contact hours or semester credit hours than specified must
be submitted for unique need approval.
(d) Unique need courses which have been offered at
public community colleges, public technical colleges, or public state
colleges in different geographic regions of the state may be recommended
for addition to the ACGM upon request of a sponsoring institution.
(e) Unique need courses may not be included in an institution's
core curriculum.
(f) Community Colleges that have been approved by the
Board to offer one or more Applied Baccalaureate degree programs may
request authorization to offer courses in support of those degrees
under the following provisions:
(1) The course must be a degree program requirement
of one or more Applied Baccalaureate degree programs approved by the
Board for the requesting college.
(2) The course must be upper division.
(3) The request must include a completed "Applied Baccalaureate
Course Proposal" form and must be submitted on a schedule set by the
Board.
(4) Any college approved to offer an Applied Baccalaureate
course must notify the Board of any significant changes to the course,
including its semester credit hour value, contact hour value, title,
or CIP code, prior to offering the revised course to students in order
to continue to receive state funding for the course.
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Source Note: The provisions of this §9.74 adopted to be effective May 25, 2004, 29 TexReg 5067; amended to be effective November 29, 2011, 36 TexReg 8013; amended to be effective May 26, 2013, 38 TexReg 3342 |