GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2013

H                                                                                                                                                   2

HOUSE BILL 255

Committee Substitute Favorable 3/19/13

Short Title:        UNC Tuition Surcharge/Advance Notice.	(Public)
Sponsors:
Referred to:

March 11, 2013

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to provide that certain courses and academic credit hours transferred to a constituent institution shall not be included in the calculation of credit hours for purposes of the tuition surcharge and to require that uniform procedures be implemented in the university of north carolina system to provide appropriate advance notice to a student when the student is approaching the credit hour limit regarding the tuition surcharge.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 116-143.7 reads as rewritten:

"§ 116-143.7.  Tuition surcharge.

(a)        The Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina shall impose a fifty percent (50%) tuition surcharge on students who take more than 140 degree credit hours to complete a baccalaureate degree in a four-year program or more than one hundred ten percent (110%) of the credit hours necessary to complete a baccalaureate degree in any program officially designated by the Board of Governors as a five-year program. Courses and credit hours taken include those taken at that constituent institution or and those taken at another constituent institution or a community college under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Community Colleges accepted for transfer. In calculating the number of degree credit hours taken:

(1)        Included are courses that a student:

a.         Fails.

b.         Does not complete unless the course was officially dropped by the student pursuant to the academic policy of the appropriate constituent institution.

(2)        Excluded are credit hours earned through:

a.         The College Board's Advanced Placement Program, CLEP examinations, or similar programs.

b.         Institutional advanced placement, course validation, or any similar procedure for awarding course credit.

c.         Summer term or extension programs.

d. Courses and credit hours transferred and accepted for credit from an institution of higher education that is not a constituent institution or a community college that is not under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Community Colleges.

(b)        No surcharge shall be imposed on any student who exceeds the degree credit hour limits within the equivalent of four academic years of regular term enrollment or within five academic years of regular term enrollment in a degree program officially designated by the Board of Governors as a five-year program.

(c)        Upon application by a student, the tuition surcharge shall be waived if the student demonstrates that any of the following have substantially disrupted or interrupted the student's pursuit of a degree: (i) a military service obligation, (ii) serious medical debilitation, (iii) a short-term or long-term disability, or (iv) other extraordinary hardship. The Board of Governors shall establish the appropriate procedures to implement the waiver provided by this subsection.

(d) Each constituent institution shall implement procedures to notify students and parents regarding the tuition surcharge and to provide appropriate advance notice to a student when the student is approaching the credit hour limit regarding the tuition surcharge. The procedures shall comply with the tuition surcharge notification principles established by the Board of Governors."

SECTION 2.  G.S. 116-11 is amended by adding a new subdivision to read:

"(7a) The Board of Governors shall develop a uniform core set of notification principles regarding the tuition surcharge, including a process for each campus to notify students and parents at orientation and through each semester's tuition statements and a process to provide appropriate advance notification to a student when the student is approaching the credit hour limit regarding the tuition surcharge. The Board of Governors shall direct each constituent institution to implement these procedures."

SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to the 2013 fall academic semester and each subsequent academic semester.