Purpose:
Policy establishing the percentage of tuition to be set aside and
guidelines for awarding grants through the Texas Public Educational Grants
(TPEG) program
Date Approved:
August
10, 1989 (Editorially amended September
2000)
Background:
Pursuant
to Sections 56.033 and 56.034 of the Texas Education Code, the Board
amended the policy adopted in June 1985, and amended in August 1987, related to
the percentage of tuition to be used for the Texas Public Educational Grants
Program (TPEG) and Emergency Loans at The University of Texas System
degree-granting component institutions as set forth below:
The U. T. Board of
Regents authorizes each degree-granting component institution to set aside from
each resident student's tuition charge the percentage specified by the General
Appropriations Act for the applicable academic year as provided by Section
56.033(a)(2) of the Texas Education Code and 3% of each nonresident's tuition charge for use as Texas Public Educational
Grants and Emergency Loans. In
allocating the set-aside funds, the allocation shall reflect the legislatively
mandated parameter that "not less than 90 percent [of the set-aside funds]
shall be used for Texas Public Educational Grants and not more than 10 percent
[of the set-aside funds] shall be use for emergency loans...." Within this parameter, each institution may
adjust the allocation in accordance with its needs after consultation with the
appropriate Executive Vice Chancellor. Each institution shall establish administrative procedures to insure
that Texas Public Educational Grants and Emergency Loans are awarded on the
basis of projected set-aside revenues for each semester or annual academic
term.
In addition, the
"Guidelines for Awarding Grants Through the Texas Public Educational
Grants Program" approved by the U. T. Board of Regents in October
1985, were amended to read as follows effective with the Fall Semester 1989:
Guidelines for Awarding Grants Through
the Texas Public Educational Grants Program
a. In order
to provide a program to supply grants of money to students of component
institutions, each degree-granting component institution of The University of
Texas System shall set aside for use as Texas Public Educational Grants a
percentage of each resident student's tuition and a percentage of each
nonresident or foreign student's tuition as authorized in Section 54.051 of the Texas Education Code and specified by the Legislature in the General
Appropriations Act.
b. Criteria
for Awarding Grants
(1) Grants
are to be made only to students who have been accepted for enrollment and who
actually enroll in the term or terms for which the grant is awarded.
(2) Grants
are to be awarded based upon the financial need of the applicant.
(3) Financial
need is to be determined by use of accepted needs analysis procedures generally
in use in other "needs based" financial assistance programs. Deviation from such procedures shall be
properly documented.
(4) Awards to
residents may only be funded through funds set aside from resident student
tuition revenues. Awards to nonresident
and foreign students may only come from funds set aside from the tuition
revenues of such students. After the
end of the sixth class week of each semester, an institution may transfer any
excess funds set aside from tuition paid by resident or nonresident students to
the funds set aside for grants awarded to the other class of students. Priority for awarding grants from any excess
funds set aside from tuition paid by resident students shall be given to resident
students.
(5) Beginning
with the Fall Semester 1989, interest earned from the funds set aside for Texas
Public Educational Grants may be spent only for grants to students under the
Texas Public Educational Grants Program.
(6) Any or
all of the funds set aside for making Texas Public Educational Grants may be
transferred to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to be used for
matching federal or other grant funds for awarding to students at each
U. T. System institution. Generally
only such amounts as can be equally matched by funds held by the Coordinating
Board shall be transferred to the Coordinating Board and any unmatched funds
transferred to the Coordinating Board shall be returned to each institution
upon request of the president.
(7) At the
end of a fiscal year, if the total amount of unencumbered funds that has been
set aside under this program by each U. T. System institution, together
with the total amount of unencumbered funds transferred to the Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board, exceeds 150 percent of the amount of funds set
aside by that institution in the fiscal year, each institution within the
U. T. System shall transfer the excess amount to the Coordinating Board
for the purpose of awarding scholarships as provided by law to students at institutions
other than the institution that transferred funds.
(8) These guidelines shall be submitted to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for review and approval and shall be effective upon such approval.
Last reviewed September 2000