Tuition Rebate for Certain Undergraduates

Purpose

The tuition rebate program allows eligible students to receive up to $1,000 in tuition rebates. The purpose of this program is to provide a financial incentive for students to prepare for university studies while completing their high school work, avail themselves of academic counseling, make early career decisions, and complete their baccalaureate studies with as few courses outside the degree plan as possible. Minimizing the number of courses taken by students results in financial savings to students, parents, and the state.

Authority

The program is authorized by Texas Education Code, § 54.0065.

Eligible Students

To be eligible for a rebate under this program, a student must meet all of the following requirements:

  1. Have enrolled for the first time in an institution of higher education in the Fall 1997 semester or later.
  2. Request a rebate for coursework related to a first baccalaureate degree received from a general academic teaching institution.
  3. Have been a resident of Texas and have been entitled to pay resident tuition at all times while pursuing the degree.
  4. Have attempted no more than three hours in excess of the minimum number of semester credit hours required to complete the degree under the catalog under which the student graduated. For example, if the degree requires the student to have a minimum of 120 semester credit hours to graduate, the student must graduate with no more than 123 hours attempted to qualify for a rebate.
    1. Hours attempted include transfer credits, courses dropped after the official Census Date, for-credit developmental courses, optional internship and cooperative education courses, repeated courses, and course credit earned exclusively by examination that is in excess of nine semester credit hours. [For the purpose of the rebate program, hours attempted taking UTSA developmental courses are not counted toward the total semester credit hours attempted.]
    2. Hours earned to satisfy the requirements for a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program but that are not required to complete the degree program shall not be counted.
    3. Hours earned before graduating from high school (dual credit hours), other than hours earned exclusively by examination, shall not be counted.
    4. Courses dropped for reasons determined by the institution to be totally beyond the student's control shall not be counted.
    5. For students concurrently earning a baccalaureate degree and a Texas teaching certificate, required teacher education courses shall not be counted to the extent that they are over and above the free electives allowed in the baccalaureate degree program.
  5. If enrolled for the first time in the Fall 2005 semester or later, graduate within four calendar years for a four-year degree. If the degree is in architecture, engineering, or any other program determined by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to require more than four years to complete, the student must graduate within five calendar years. A student unable to meet the provisions of this paragraph because of a hardship may seek an exception to this requirement from the Associate Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies.

Amount of Tuition Rebate

The amount of the tuition rebate is equal to the amount of undergraduate tuition paid by the student to the institution up to a maximum of $1,000.

A student who paid the institution awarding the degree an amount of undergraduate tuition less than $1,000 may qualify for an increase in the rebate, not to exceed a total rebate of $1,000, for any undergraduate tuition the student paid to other Texas public institutions of higher education by providing the institution awarding the degree with proof of the total amount of tuition paid to those other institutions.

Tuition rebates shall be reduced by the amount of any outstanding student loan, including an emergency loan, owed to or guaranteed by this state, including the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation. If a student has more than one outstanding student loan, the institution shall apply the rebate to the loans as directed by the student. If the student fails to provide timely instructions on the application of the amount, the institution shall apply the rebate to retire the loans with the highest interest rates first.

Responsibilities of Students

Students must apply for the tuition rebate prior to receiving their baccalaureate degree using forms provided by the institution. The Application for Tuition Rebate form may be downloaded from the UTSA One Stop Enrollment website.

Further Information

For more information on the tuition rebate program, visit the website www.CollegeForAllTexans.com and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Laws and Rules website (Chapter 13, Subchapter E).