Sec. 61.0777. UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR PUBLICATION OF COST OF ATTENDANCE INFORMATION. (a) The board shall prescribe uniform standards intended to ensure that information regarding the cost of attendance at institutions of higher education is available to the public in a manner that is consumer-friendly and readily understandable to prospective students and their families. In developing the standards, the board shall examine common and recommended practices regarding the publication of such information and shall solicit recommendations and comments from institutions of higher education and interested private or independent institutions of higher education.

(b) The uniform standards must:

(1) address all of the elements that constitute the total cost of attendance, including tuition and fees, room and board costs, book and supply costs, transportation costs, and other personal expenses; and

(2) prescribe model language to be used to describe each element of the cost of attendance.

(c) Each institution of higher education that offers an undergraduate degree or certificate program shall:

(1) prominently display on the institution's Internet website in accordance with the uniform standards prescribed under this section information regarding the cost of attendance at the institution by a full-time entering first-year student; and

(2) conform to the uniform standards in any electronic or printed materials intended to provide to prospective undergraduate students information regarding the cost of attendance at the institution.

(d) Each institution of higher education shall consider the uniform standards prescribed under this section when providing information to the public or to prospective students regarding the cost of attendance at the institution by nonresident students, graduate students, or students enrolled in professional programs.

(e) The board shall prescribe requirements for an institution of higher education to provide on the institution's Internet website consumer-friendly and readily understandable information regarding student financial aid opportunities. The required information must be provided in connection with the information displayed under Subsection (c)(1) and must include a link to the primary federal student financial aid Internet website intended to assist persons applying for student financial aid.

(f) The board shall provide on the board's Internet website a program or similar tool that will compute for a person accessing the website the estimated net cost of attendance for a full-time entering first-year student attending an institution of higher education. The board shall require each institution to provide the board with the information the board requires to administer this subsection.

(g) Expired.

(h) The board shall encourage private or independent institutions of higher education approved under Subchapter F to participate in the tuition equalization grant program, to the greatest extent practicable, to prominently display the information described by Subsections (a) and (b) on their Internet websites in accordance with the standards established under those subsections, and to conform to those standards in electronic and printed materials intended to provide to prospective undergraduate students information regarding the cost of attendance at the institutions. The board shall also encourage those institutions to include on their Internet websites a link to the primary federal student financial aid Internet website intended to assist persons applying for student financial aid.

(i) The board shall make the program or tool described by Subsection (f) available to private or independent institutions of higher education described by Subsection (h), and those institutions shall make that program or tool, or another program or tool that complies with the requirements for the net price calculator required under Section 132(h)(3), Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Section 1015a), available on their Internet websites not later than the date by which the institutions are required by Section 132(h)(3) to make the net price calculator publicly available on their Internet websites.

Added by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 681 (H.B. 2504), Sec. 3, eff. June 19, 2009.

Added by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1233 (S.B. 1764), Sec. 1, eff. June 19, 2009.