SECTION 9.74. Unique Need Courses

(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.

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