Guaranteed Transfer

Texas Education Code (TEC) 61.823 imposes a legal requirement that a Field of Study (FOS) curriculum must be accepted and applied for credit to the degree program upon a student’s acceptance into the program. It additionally requires that academic credit toward the major be given for individual courses in the FOS if the full curriculum hasn’t been completed.

Course credit may be given for one or more equivalent courses in the degree program instead of the specific course listed on the transcript. (For example, a course named "Mechanics of Materials" may be transferred in as a course named "Mechanics of Solids").

Related to the FOS statute are the rules of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), Texas Administrative Code (TAC) 4.32. The final version of four Engineering FOS curricula, which were approved by the THECB at its meeting on July 27, 2017, stipulates that they must be implemented at all institutions no later than fall 2018.

To put it another way:

  • If you are studying Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, or Civil Engineering at any Texas Community College
    • And you take courses listed in that particular Field of Study (FOS)
    • And you earn a C or better
  • Upon admission to a Texas public four-year engineering program in your field (Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, or Civil Engineering)
    • All your FOS classes must be applied to your engineering degree
    • Not as an "engineering elective," but applied to graduation requirements
    • By state law
    • Period
  • If your courses are not accepted or you believe you have been denied admission to the program because of your FOS courses, you have the right to file a complaint

“It is state law that courses in an FOS must transfer and apply toward a degree program. If a student transfers in with a complete FOS, then the university cannot add any additional lower-division requirements for the major. (Additional non-major specific lower division requirements from the university or college, like Introduction to University Studies, can still be required.) For example, assuming a student comes in with the full Field of Study for Civil Engineering…

  • Institution A requires Intro to Civil Engineering. (Mechanical Engineers take Intro to Mechanical Engineering.) The student DOES NOT have to take Intro to Civil.
  • Institution B requires Intro to Engineering, which applies to all engineering majors. The student DOES have to take Intro to Engineering.
  • Institution C requires Intro to College, which applies to all majors. The student DOES have to take Intro to College.”

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