Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board was created by the Texas Legislature in 1965 to provide leadership and coordination for the Texas higher education system to achieve excellence for the college education of Texas students. Working with higher education institutions, the Governor, and the Legislature, the Board ensures that all Texans have access to high quality programs at different instructional levels, administers the state’s student financial aid programs, and attempts to apply the state’s resources most efficiently in accomplishing its educational goals for Texans.
Some of the Board’s key initiatives have addressed the transferability of credit within the network of state institutions of higher education. Through its support of a statewide common course numbering system, the development of specific guidelines for lower division academic and workforce education courses, the standardization of core curricula, and the lower division curricula for specific fields of study, the Board has made it possible for a mobile student population to gain confidence that their educational achievements will be properly recognized throughout the state’s system of higher education.
Texas Common Course Numbering System
The Texas Common Course Numbering System (TCCNS) is a voluntary, co-operative effort among Texas community colleges and universities to facilitate transfer of freshman and sophomore level general academic coursework. The TCCNS provides a shared, uniform set of course designations for students and their advisors to use in determining both course equivalency and degree applicability of transfer credit on a statewide basis.
Brazosport College was one of the first institutions in the State to adopt the common course numbering system that has now grown to include most of the colleges and universities in Texas. While almost all of the community colleges in Texas have course numbers equivalent to those in this catalog, some universities will maintain their current numbers; however, as their new catalogs are published they will include information on how courses from schools that have adopted the common numbers will transfer into their colleges. In addition, all colleges and universities that are part of the system have identified key personnel on their campus to provide information to students and parents about course transfer. For information concerning this system, please check with the Brazosport College Registrar’s Office.
The Academic Course Guide Manual
The Lower Division Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM) is the official list of courses approved for general academic transfer that may be offered by public community and technical colleges in Texas for state funding. Brazosport College offers courses in the academic disciplines consistent with the ACGM to provide the best assurance that work completed at Brazosport College will be recognized by other institutions in Texas for the purpose of transfer of credit.
The Workforce Education Course Manual
The Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM) is the official list of courses approved for workforce programs that may be offered by public community and technical colleges in Texas for state funding. Brazosport College offers courses in the workforce disciplines consistent with the WECM to provide the best assurance that work completed at Brazosport College will be recognized by other institutions in Texas for the purpose of transfer of credit.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has adopted rules and regulations for core curriculum transfer, the objective of which is to provide a “basic core of general academic courses that shall be freely transferable among all public institutions of higher education in Texas who are members of recognized accrediting agencies on the same basis as if the work had been taken at the receiving institution” (Texas Education Code, Chapter 61.051, paragraph g).
The following policies have been adopted by the Coordinating Board and apply to all public colleges and universities in Texas. Private colleges and universities usually implement these policies voluntarily.
Requirements and Limitations
- Each institution of higher education shall identify in its undergraduate catalog each lower division course that is substantially equivalent to an academic course listed in the current edition of the “Community College General Academic Course Guide Manual.”
- Each university must identify at least 42 semester credit hours of academic courses that are substantially equivalent to courses listed in the “Community College General Academic Course Guide Manual” including those that fulfill the lower-division portion of the institution’s Core Curriculum.
- All public colleges and universities must accept transfer of credit for successfully completed courses identified in (a) and (b) above as applicable to an associate or baccalaureate degree in the same manner as credit awarded to non-transfer students in that major.
- Each institution shall be required to accept for transfer into a baccalaureate degree the number of lower division credit hours in a major which are allowed for their non-transfer students in that major; however,
- No institution shall be required to accept in transfer more credit hours in a major than the number set out in the applicable Coordinating Board approved Transfer Curriculum for that major, as prescribed by the current issue of the Coordinating Board’s guide to transfer curricula and transfer of credit, Transfer of Credit Policies and Curricula.
- In any major for which there is no Coordinating Board approved Transfer Curriculum, no institution shall be required to accept in transfer more lower division course credit in the major applicable to a baccalaureate degree than the institution allows their non-transfer students in that major.
- A university may deny the transfer of credit in courses with a grade of “D” as applicable to the student’s field of study courses, core curriculum courses, or major.
- All senior institutions of higher education in Texas shall provide support services for transfer students equivalent to those provided to non-transfer students regularly enrolled at the institutions, including an orientation program for transfer students equivalent to that provided for entering freshman enrollees.
- No university shall be required to accept in transfer or toward a degree, more than 66 semester credit hours of academic credits earned by a student in a community college. Universities, however, may choose to accept additional credit hours.
Resolution of Transfer Disputes for Lower-Division Courses
The following procedures shall be followed by public institutions of higher education in the resolution of credit transfer disputes involving lower division courses:
- If an institution of higher education does not accept course credit earned by a student at another institution of higher education, the receiving institution shall give written notice to the student and to the sending institution that transfer of the course credit is denied. A receiving institution shall also provide written notice of the reasons for denying credit for a particular course or set of courses at the request of the sending institution.
- Students who receive notice as specified in Subsection (1) may dispute the denial of credit by contacting a designated official at either the sending or the receiving institution.
- The two institutions and the student shall attempt to resolve the transfer of the course credit in accordance with Board rules and guidelines.
- If the transfer dispute is not resolved to the satisfaction of the student or the sending institution within 45 days after the date the student received written notice of denial, the institution that denies the course credit for transfer shall notify the Commissioner of its denial and the reasons for the denial.
The Commissioner of Higher Education or the Commissioner’s designee shall make the final determination about a dispute concerning the transfer of course credit and give written notice of the determination to the involved student and institutions.
State Core Curriculum Guidelines
If a student successfully completes the 42-semester credit hour core curriculum at an institution of higher education, that block of courses may be transferred to any other institution of higher education and must be substituted for the receiving institution’s core curriculum. Students shall receive academic credit for each of the courses transferred and may not be required to take additional core curriculum courses at the receiving institution.
Students concurrently enrolled at more than one institution of higher education shall follow the core curriculum requirements in effect for the institution at which they are classified as a degree-seeking student.
Students who transfer from one institution of higher education to another without completing the core curriculum of the sending institution shall receive academic credit within the core curriculum of the receiving institution for each of the courses that the student has successfully completed in the core curriculum of the sending institution. Following receipt of credit for these courses, the student may be required to satisfy the remaining course requirements in the core curriculum of the receiving institution.
Each institution must publish and make readily available to students its core curriculum requirements stated in terms consistent with the “Texas Common Course Numbering System.”