Undergraduate Tuition for Excessive Hours

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) calculates the total number of attempted hours (including passed or failed) from all Texas schools attended.

Courses included in the excess credit hour calculations are as follows:

• Earned and unearned hours (including non-passing grades).
• Withdrawn courses.
• Repeated courses.

Courses that are excluded from the excess credit hour calculation are as follows:

• Credit hours earned after receiving a baccalaureate degree.
• Credit hours earned by examination or any other procedure by which credit is earned where tuition was not charged.
• Credit hours from remedial and developmental courses.
• Credit hours earned at a private institution or out of state institution.
• Credit hours taken as dual-credit prior to high school graduation.

Yes, you will be able to register for classes. However, you will be charged the additional excessive credit hour fee ($168 per credit hour) for credit hours in excess of the state mandated semester credit hours.

Credit hour limits are dependent on the following criteria:

• For students who enrolled for the first time in a Texas public institution of higher education beginning with the Fall 2006 semester and thereafter have a limit of 30 hours over their degree program.
• For students who enrolled for the first time in a Texas public institution of higher education from the Fall 1999 semester through the Summer 2006 semester have a limit of 45 hours over their degree program.
• Any student enrolled in a Texas public institution of higher education prior to Fall 1999 are exempt from the excessive hours limit.

Students are held to the limit for the degree plan in which they enrolled.

Before requesting an official record count, students who want to know how many credit hours they've earned should meet with their academic advisor. Your advisor can review your progress and let you know how many hours you need to finish your program. This will also help confirm whether you will exceed the threshold for excessive tuition, or if you will remain in the approaching threshold category.

You can contact your academic advisor to discuss your current degree plan. Your academic advisor will be able to discuss how many hours you have remaining to complete your current degree and can explore if there are other options that could reduce time to graduation. However, your current degree plan might be the quickest route to graduation and another route that shortens time to graduation may not be a possibility.

If you believe there is an error in your hour calculation and want to appeal, your first step is to meet with your academic advisor. Your advisor will review your records and total the hours you still need to complete your degree. Once that information is compiled, it will be sent to the Director of Advising for further review. The completed appeal will then be forwarded to the Provost's Office, where it will be reviewed, and a final decision will be made.