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FISCAL MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS GUIDE

Extended Education

Regents Rules

The Board of Regents delegated to each chief administrative officer the authority to establish an extended education policy consistent with Texas Education Code Section 54.545.

Texas Education Code 54.545

The governing board of an institution of higher education shall charge a reasonable fee to each person registered in a continuing education course at the institution. The board shall set fee in an amount sufficient to permit the institution to recover the costs to the institution does not collect tuition or receives formula funding, including an extension course, correspondence course, or other self-supporting course.

UTSA Policy

Pursuant to Texas Education Code Section 54.545, each participant (person) registered in an extension, correspondence or other self-supporting course at the University of Texas at San Antonio will be charged a reasonable fee set in an amount sufficient to recover the costs of providing the course. This includes expenditures for formally organized and/or separately budgeted instructional activities that do not generally result in credit toward any formal post secondary degree or certificate. It includes noncredit offerings that are part of the adult education or continuing education programs. This also includes those activities associated with programs leading toward a degree or certificate at a level below the higher education level, such as adult basic education. All course budgets and fee structures must be submitted to the appropriate Vice President for review and recommendation prior to offering the course. All proposed fees or changes in previously approved fees must receive approval prior to assessment.

The cost basis for a proposed fee should include all costs of creating, marketing and delivering the course. This includes salaries and applicable benefits for staff and administrators (including clerical and administrative support), faculty, teaching assistants, seminar speakers, tutors, graders and other instructional personnel; travel costs for both staff and instructional personnel; all facility charges, charges for provision, maintenance and necessary upgrades of required equipment and software used by course participants or required to support the course offering; charges for textbooks, materials and supplies if provided directly to participants; miscellaneous costs including postage, fax and telephone(s) expenses; and, for certain courses, the cost of supplemental seminars, events and activities required of participants.

Pricing

Charges for individual courses should be priced to take advantage of market forces. Each course must recover its direct costs plus some portion of the facility and overhead costs, but each and every course does not have to recover a full share. Since some courses may be able to achieve premium rates because of market conditions, others may be priced more competitively as long as well as costs as outlined in the policy are recovered during the fiscal year.

Facility Costs

Such costs (depreciation, debt, utilities) should be passed along to the consumer if the space in use is not supported by the higher education funding formula for both maintenance and utilities. However, even if the space being used is supported by formula funding, the consumer may be asked to pay a facility charge to cover administrative or set-up costs for a particular course or program.

Special programs that include aspects of faculty development, academic student development, academic research, University development, the offering of academic equivalency and closed enrollment programs are not governed by this policy and thus will not be assessed the administrative overhead charge.