The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board adopts new §§13.100 - 13.109, concerning formula funding and tuition charged for repeated and excess hours of undergraduate students, with changes to the proposed text as published in the September 9, 2005, issue of the Texas Register (30 TexReg 5471). Specifically, adopted new §13.100 and §13.101 provide the purpose and authority for these rules. Definitions for all the terms used in these sections are provided in proposed new §13.102. Institutions are not permitted to submit excess hours to the Board for formula funding under §13.103, unless those hours are exempted from this provision under §13.104. Likewise, institutions are not permitted to submit repeated hours for attempted courses to the Board for formula funding under §13.105, unless those hours are exempted under §13.106. Hours for remedial and developmental courses which exceed the limits set out in §13.107 may not be submitted for formula funding, also. New §13.108 provides that a higher tuition rate may be charged to students who take excess hours or certain repeated courses by the institutions but, if a higher tuition rate is charged, institutions must adopt a policy which exempts a student from the payment of the increased tuition rate upon the showing of an economic hardship to the student. Finally, new §13.109 requires the institutions to provide reports to the Board and to publish information about excess and repeated hours in their catalogs. Institutions are also required to track the progress of students and notify those students who are approaching the limitations on formula funding set out in these sections.

The following comments were received regarding the new sections:

Comment: Texarkana College, The University of Texas System and Texas Tech University commented that there was an error in the wording of §13.105 and §13.102(6). The word "three" should be replaced with "two."

Response: §13.105 and 13.102(6) have been corrected to replace "three" with "two."

Comment: Texas A&M - Galveston commented that not making a high enough grade to satisfactorily meet a degree requirement should constitute "good cause" to exempt the student from higher tuition.

Response: §13.108(d) has been changed to reflect this comment.

Comment: Texarkana College also commented that the term "economic hardship" is not clearly defined in §13.108(c).

Response: No change was made to §13.108(c) because each institution is required to determine what constitutes economic hardship under their policies.

Comment: Texas Tech University commented that the definition of excess hour in §13.102(3) should be clarified to specify that the provision applies only to those students paying resident undergraduate tuition.

Response: §13.102(3) has been added to refer to resident undergraduate students and non-resident students paying resident undergraduate tuition.

Comment: Texas Tech University commented that the definition of a student in §13.102(8) should be changed to exclude the reference to a nonresident student paying resident tuition.

Response: No change was made to §13.102(8) since the definition of excess hours has been changed to clarify its applicability.

Comment: The University of Texas System commented that §13.109(a) be changed to provide that institutions that do not charge higher tuition rates for hours not eligible for formula funding be exempted from the reporting and publishing requirements.

Response: No change was made as a result of this comment.

The new sections are adopted under Texas Education Code, §61.027, which provides the Board with the authority to adopt rules, Texas Education Code, §54.068, which permits the institutions to charge a higher rate of tuition to students who enroll in excess or repeated hours, Texas Education Code, §61.059(h), which requires the Board to distribute appropriated funds for the purposes as described by law, Texas Education Code, §51.3062(l), which limits the number of hours for remedial and developmental courses that are eligible for formula funding, and Texas Education Code, §61.0595, which limits formula funding for certain excess or repeated hours.