ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: GRADUATION

Graduation

Requirements for

Transfer Students

Each institution of higher education, including each college district, shall permit a student who transfers from another Texas public institution of higher education to choose a catalog for the purpose of specifying graduation requirements, based upon the dates of attendance at the receiving institution and at the transferring institution, in the same manner that a non-transfer student may choose a catalog. Each Texas public institution of higher education shall include information about graduation requirements under a particular catalog in its official publications, including print and electronic catalogs. 19 TAC 4.25(g)

Associate Degree for

Certain Former

Students

After receiving student information from a general academic teaching institution under Education Code 61.833(c) or (c-1), a lower-division institution of higher education, including a college district, shall review the information and, if the lower-division institution of higher education determines the student has earned the credits required to receive an associate degree awarded by the lower-division institution of higher education, may award the student the degree. Education Code 61.833(d)

Annual Report

Annually, each lower-division institution of higher education shall produce a report recording the number of degrees awarded by the institution in the previous academic year under this section. An institution shall make the report publicly available and submit the information to a reverse transfer data-sharing platform. "Reverse transfer data-sharing platform" means the National Student Clearinghouse or a similar national electronic data sharing and exchange platform operated by an agent of the institution that meets nationally accepted standards, conventions, and practices. Education Code 61.833(a)(2), (f)

Diploma Designation

in Event of Merger,

Acquisition, or Name

Change

If, during the period of a student’s enrollment at an institution of higher education, including a college district, the institution merges with or is acquired by another postsecondary educational institution or changes the institution’s name, the institution shall provide to the student on the student’s graduation from the institution two diplomas as follows:

1. One diploma in the same style, design, or format, including symbols or other insignia, designating the original name of the

institution on the date the student initially enrolled; and

2. One diploma designating the name of the institution after the merger, acquisition, or name change.

Education Code 51.995(b)

Eligibility

A student is eligible to receive two diplomas only if the student graduates from the institution of higher education within six years of the merger, acquisition, or name change. Education Code 51.995(c)

Fee

An institution of higher education may not charge an eligible student an additional fee to receive a diploma. Education Code

51.995(d)

Completion and

Transfer-out Rates

First-Time, Full-

Time

Undergraduate

Students

Required Rate

Calculations

An institution, including a college district, annually must prepare the completion or graduation rate of its certificate- or degree-seeking, first-time, full-time undergraduate students. In calculating the completion or graduation rate, an institution must count as completed or graduated:

1. Students who have completed or graduated by the end of the 12-month period ending August 31 during which 150 percent

of the normal time for completion or graduation from their program has lapsed; and

2. Students who have completed a program described in 34 C.F.R. 668.8(b)(1)(ii), or an equivalent program, by the end of

the 12-month period ending August 31 during which 150 percent of normal time for completion from that program has

lapsed.

An institution that determines that its mission includes providing substantial preparation for students to enroll in another eligible institution must prepare the transfer-out rate of its certificate- or degree-seeking, first-time, full-time undergraduate students. In calculating the transfer-out rate, an institution must count as transfer-out students who by the end of the 12-month period ending August 31 during which 150 percent of the normal time for completion or graduation from the program in which they were enrolled has lapsed, have not completed or graduated but have subsequently enrolled in any program of an eligible institution for which its program provided substantial preparation.

34 C.F.R. 668.45(a)(1)–(2), (b)–(c)

Optional Rate

Calculations

In addition to calculating the completion or graduation rate, an institution may, but is not required to:

1. Calculate a completion or graduation rate for students who transfer into the institution;

2. Calculate a completion or graduation rate for students described in 34 C.F.R. 668.45(d)(1)(i)–(iv); and

3. Calculate a transfer-out rate as specified below, if the institution determines that its mission does not include providing

substantial preparation for its students to enroll in another eligible institution.

34 C.F.R. 668.45(f)

Basis for Rate Calculations

Institutions Using the Semester, Trimester, or Quarter System

An institution that offers a predominant number of its programs based on semesters, trimesters, or quarters must base its completion or graduation rate, retention rate, and, if applicable, transfer-out rate calculations, on the cohort of certificate- or degree-seeking, first-time, full-time undergraduate students who enter the institution during the fall term of each year.

An institution that offers a predominant number of its programs based on semesters, trimesters, or quarters must count as an entering student a first-time undergraduate student who is enrolled as of October 15, the end of the institution's drop-add period, or another official reporting date as defined in 34 C.F.R. 668.41(a).

34 C.F.R. 668.45(a)(3)(i), (4)(i)

Other Institutions

An institution that does not offer a predominant number of its programs based on semesters, trimesters, or quarters must base its completion or graduation rate, retention rate, and, if applicable, transfer-out rate calculations, on the cohort of certificate- or degree-seeking, first-time, full-time undergraduate students who enter the institution between September 1 of one year and August 31 of the following year.

Those institutions must count as an entering student a first-time undergraduate student who is enrolled for at least 15 days, in a program of up to, and including, one year in length or 30 days, in a program of greater than one year in length.

34 C.F.R. 668.45(a)(3)(ii), (4)(ii)

Exceptions

For the purpose of calculating a completion or graduation rate and a transfer-out rate, an institution may:

1. Exclude students who have left school to serve in the Armed Forces; have left school to serve on official church missions;

have left school to serve with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; are totally and

permanently disabled; or are deceased.

2. In cases where the students who have left school to serve in the Armed Forces, to serve on official church missions, or to

serve with a foreign aid service of the federal government represent 20 percent or more of the certificate- or degree-seeking, full-time, undergraduate students at the institution, recalculate the completion or graduation rates of those students by adding to the 150 percent time-frame they normally have to complete or graduate, the time period the students were not enrolled due to their service in the Armed Forces, on official church missions, or with a recognized foreign aid service of the federal government.

34 C.F.R. 668.45(d)

Presentation of Rates

If the number of students in such group or with such status is sufficient to yield statistically reliable information and reporting will not reveal personally identifiable information about an individual student, completion or graduation rate information must be disaggregated by:

1. Gender;

2. Each major racial and ethnic subgroup (as defined in IPEDS);

3. Recipients of a Federal Pell Grant;

4. Recipients of a Federal Family Education Loan or a Federal Direct Loan (other than an Unsubsidized Stafford Loan made

under the Federal Family Education Loan Program or a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan) who did not receive a

Federal Pell Grant; and

5. Recipients of neither a Federal Pell Grant nor a Federal Family Education Loan or a Federal Direct Loan (other than an

Unsubsidized Stafford Loan made under the Federal Family Education Loan Program or a Federal Direct Unsubsidized

Loan).

If such number is not sufficient for such purpose, i.e., is too small to be meaningful, then the institution shall note that the institution enrolled too few of such students to so disclose or report with confidence and confidentiality.

With respect to the requirement above to disaggregate the completion or graduation rate information by the receipt or nonreceipt of federal student aid, students shall be considered to have received the aid in question only if they received such aid for the period specified in 34 C.F.R. 668.45(a)(3).

34 C.F.R. 668.45(a)(6)

Deadline

An institution must make available its completion or graduation rate and, if applicable, transfer-out rate, no later than the July 1 immediately following the 12-month period ending August 31 during which 150 percent of the normal time for completion or graduation has elapsed for all of the students in the group on which the institution bases its completion or graduation rate and, if applicable, transfer-out rate calculations. [See AFA] 34 C.F.R. 668.45(a)(5)

Waiver

The U.S. Secretary of Education grants a waiver of the requirements of this section dealing with completion and graduation rate

data to any institution that is a member of an athletic association or conference that has voluntarily published completion or graduation rate data, or has agreed to publish data, that the Secretary determines are substantially comparable to the data required by this section. An institution that receives a waiver must still comply with the requirements of 34 C.F.R. 668.41(d)(3) and (f). An institution, or athletic association or conference applying on behalf of an institution, that seeks a waiver must submit a written application to the Secretary that explains why it believes the data the athletic association or conference publishes are accurate and substantially comparable to the information required by this section. 34 C.F.R.668.45(e)

Student Athletes

Annually, by July 1, an institution that is attended by students receiving athletically-related student aid must produce a report containing the following information:

1. The number of students, categorized by race and gender, who attended that institution during the year prior to the sub-

mission of the report.

2. The number of students described by item 1 who received athletically-related student aid, categorized by race

and gender within each sport.

3. The completion or graduation rate and if applicable, transfer-out rate of all the entering, certificate- or degree-seeking, full-time, undergraduate students described in 34 C.F.R.

668.45(a)(1), categorized by race and gender.

4. The completion or graduation rate and if applicable, transfer-out rate of the entering students described in 34 C.F.R.

668.45(a)(1) who received athletically-related student aid, categorized by race and gender within each sport. If a category

of students contains five or fewer students, the institution need not disclose information on that category of students.

5. The average completion or graduation rate and if applicable, transfer-out rate for the four most recent completing or graduating classes of entering students described in 34 C.F.R.668.45(a)(1), (3), and (4) categorized by race and gender. If

an institution has completion or graduation rates and, if applicable, transfer-out rates for fewer than four of those classes, it

must disclose the average rate of those classes for which it has rates.

6. The average completion or graduation rate and if applicable, transfer-out rate of the four most recent completing or graduating classes of entering students described in 34 C.F.R.668.45(a)(1) who received athletically-related student aid, categorized by race and gender within each sport. If an institution has completion or graduation rates and if applicable,

transfer-out rates for fewer than four of those classes, it must disclose the average rate of those classes for which it has

rates.

The provisions of 34 C.F.R. 668.45(a), (b), (c), and (d) apply for purposes of calculating the completion or graduation rates and, if

applicable, transfer-out rates required under items 3 through 6.

For purposes of 34 C.F.R. 668.48, “sport” means basketball, football, baseball, cross-country and track combined, and all other

sports combined.

34 C.F.R. 668.48(a–b)

Availability

When an institution offers a prospective student-athlete athletically-related student aid, it must provide to the prospective student-athlete, and the student-athlete’s parents, high school coach, and guidance counselor, the report. 34 C.F.R. 668.41(f)(1)(i)

Exception

An institution's responsibility with reference to a prospective student athlete's high school coach and guidance counselor is satisfied if:

1. The institution is a member of a national collegiate athletic association;

2. The association compiles data on behalf of its member institutions, which data the U.S. Secretary of Education determines

are substantially comparable to those required by 34 C.F.R.668.48(a); and

3. The association distributes the compilation to all secondary schools in the United States.

34 C.F.R. 668.41(f)(1)(ii)

Submission

By July 1 of each year, an institution must submit to the U.S. Secretary of Education the report produced pursuant to 34 C.F.R.

668.48. 34 C.F.R. 668.41(f)(2)

Supplemental Information

Each institution of higher education may also provide to students and the Secretary supplemental information containing:

1. The graduation or completion rate of the students who transferred into the institution; and

2. The number of students who transferred out of the institution.

34 C.F.R. 668.48(c)

Waiver

The provisions of 34 C.F.R. 668.45(e) apply for purposes of 34 C.F.R. 668.48. 34 C.F.R. 668.48(d)