Transfer Credit within Nursing Education.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) is committed to aligning pathways to promote efficient time to degree through transfer initiatives to reduce excess semester credits and maximize credits earned by students toward their degrees and certificates at institutions of higher education.?Additional information regarding the Transfer of Credit Rules can be found at?the Resolution of Transfer Disputes for Lower-Division Courses.?

Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM):

As outlined in the Texas Administrative Code – Rule 1.220: The Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM) Advisory Committee (WAC) is created to provide the Board with advice and recommendation(s) regarding content, structure, currency, and presentation of the Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM) and its courses; recommendations regarding field engagement in processes, maintenance, and use of the WECM; and assistance in identifying new programs of study, developments within existing programs represented by courses in the manual, vertical and horizontal alignment of courses within programs, and obsolescence of programs of study and courses.?

As of March 2021, the Coordinating Board adopted revised transfer rules that establish a new framework for transfer curricula and a new governance committee, the?Texas Transfer Advisory Committee (TTAC). The TTAC will manage and maintain the Texas Transfer Framework and the rolling out of new curricula, supported by the expertise of faculty in the discipline.

Texas Administrative Code:

TITLE 19 EDUCATION PART 1 TEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION COORDINATING BOARD CHAPTER 4 RULES APPLYING TO ALL PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN TEXAS SUBCHAPTER TRANSFER OF CREDIT, CORE CURRICULUM, AND FIELD OF STUDY CURRICULA RULE §4.21

Purpose: The purpose of this subchapter is to provide for the development and implementation of policies that encourage the free and appropriate transferability of lower-division course credit among institutions of higher education, and especially to provide for the smooth transfer of lower-division credit through core curricula, the field of study curricula, and a procedure for the resolution of transfer disputes.

Texas Board Of Nursing (TBON) is in alignment with the Texas Administrative Code

TITLE 22 EXAMINING BOARDS PART 11 TEXAS BOARD OF NURSING CHAPTER 215 PROFESSIONAL NURSING EDUCATION RULE §215.8 Students subsection (h) states: (h) Acceptance of transfer students and evaluation of allowable credit for advanced placement remains at the discretion of the dean or director of the program and the governing entity. Upon completing the program's requirements, the transferred student is considered to be a graduate of the program.

Field of Study Curriculum for Nursing:

Field of Study Curricula:

A critical component of the Texas Transfer Framework is the?Field of Study Curriculum (FOSC), which is a set of lower-division courses that transfer and apply to a degree program, as required by state law, Texas Education Code, Chapter 61,?Section 61.823?and?Coordinating Board rules, Texas Administrative Code, Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 4,?Subchapter B.

Under the new framework, a complete FOSC will consist of the following elements:

• Discipline-relevant Texas Core Curriculum courses?
• Up to 12 semester credit hours of Discipline Foundation Courses
• At least 6 semester credit hours of Directed Electives, which will be submitted by the relevant faculty of each general academic institution and shared through the THECB website

If a student completes all the courses in an FOSC and transfers to another Texas public institution of higher education, the FOSC courses transfer as a block and are applied to the student’s selected major. If a student completes the FOSC, the Texas Core Curriculum, and any college or university courses required of all students regardless of major, then the student is finished with all the lower-division courses.

If a student transfers with an incomplete FOSC, then each completed FOSC course transfers and applies to the degree program, and the institution may require the student to complete additional lower-division courses.

Field of Study Curriculum for Nursing:

The following annotated set of courses, totaling 28 semester credit hours (SCH) of fully transferable and applicable lower-division academic courses, and an additional set of Workforce Education (WECM) nursing courses, make up the Field of Study Curriculum for Nursing

Nursing Content Courses NOTE: Lower-division nursing content is offered at community colleges through one of two general types of programs: Blocked or Integrated. Because of the distribution of content, it is extremely difficult to align curricula from one type of program to another. Students who desire to transfer from a program utilizing one type of program into the other type of program should be prepared to make up some content through a “bridge” course or through the repetition of some content within courses.

It is recommended that a student make every effort to avoid transferring from one type of program to the other before completing the associate degree in nursing to avoid losing credit. Lower-division nursing content courses being transferred from a blocked-curriculum program to another blocked-curriculum program should be applied to the degree on a course-for-course substitution basis, in which the course transferred is applied IN LIEU OF the course at the receiving institution, even if the number of semester credit hours awarded upon the completion of the course varies between the sending and receiving institutions. The same procedure should be used when a student transfers from an integrated-curriculum program into another integrated-curriculum program.?

The following notes address special circumstances and are also part of the field of study curriculum:

(1) Wherever possible, courses applied to fulfill field of study curriculum requirements should also be used to satisfy the general academic core curriculum requirements. Generally, the math course, the biology or chemistry course(s), and one psychology course should be able to fulfill requirements in both curricula.

(2) Courses selected for inclusion in the field of study curriculum are those that are common to most baccalaureate nursing programs.

(3) Completion of the field of study curriculum shall not prevent a receiving institution from requiring additional courses/content for specific degree programs.

(4) Students should not be required to repeat courses that they have completed successfully.

(5) The academic courses and the unmodified WECM courses that are included in the Field of Study Curriculum for Nursing should transfer immediately upon approval of the field of study curriculum by the Coordinating Board. New WECM courses and courses that need modification should be accepted in transfer as soon as those modifications have been approved by the WECM Maintenance committee and added to the WECM inventory. Implementation of the complete field of study curriculum should not take more than one calendar year following the addition of the new and modified courses to the WECM inventory. New or modified WECM courses will be initiated with entering students. Programs may allow sophomore students to continue with the previous curricula to prevent changing courses in the middle of their programs. Full implementation of new and modified WECM courses must be complete within two years after their addition to the WECM inventory.?

Texas Board Of Nursing (TBON) is in alignment with the Texas Administrative Code and states the following:

TITLE 22 EXAMINING BOARDS PART 11 TEXAS BOARD OF NURSING CHAPTER 215 PROFESSIONAL NURSING EDUCATION RULE §215.8 Students subsection (h) states: (h) Acceptance of transfer students and evaluation of allowable credit for advanced placement remains at the discretion of the dean or director of the program and the governing entity. Upon completing the program's requirements, the transferred student is considered to be a graduate of the program.

References:

https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPagesl=T&app=9&p_dir=N&p_rloc=204504&p_tloc=&p_ploc=1&pg=17&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=1&ch=4&rl=21

Texas Transfer Framework: https://www.highered.texas.gov/institutional-resources-programs/public-universities-health-related-institutions/transfer-resources/texas-transfer-framework/

Texas Board of Nursing - Education - Remediation Education: https://www.bon.texas.gov/rr_current/215-8.asp

https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPagesl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=1&ch=4&rl=21

https://reportcenter.highered.texas.gov/agency-publication/miscellaneous/aqw-fos-nursing-fall-2018/