Graduate Guarantee

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Transfer Credit

Howard College/SWCD guarantees to its Associate of Arts and Associate of Science students who have met the requirements for the degree that course credits will transfer to other Texas public colleges or universities provided the following conditions are met:

1. Transferability means acceptance of credits toward a specific major and degree at a specific institution. These three components must be identified by the student during the application for admission process prior to the first semester of enrollment at Howard College/SWCD.
2. Limitations on total number of credits accepted in transfer, grades required, relevant grade point average, and duration of transferability apply as stated in the catalog of the receiving institution.
3. Transferability refers to courses in a written transfer/degree plan filed in student’s file in the registrar’s office.
4. Only college level courses with Lower-Division Academic Course Guide Manual approval numbers will be included in this guarantee. If all conditions are met and a course or courses are not accepted by a receiving institution in transfer, the student must notify the appropriate instructional administrator within 10 days so the “Transfer Dispute Resolution” process can be initiated. If course denial is not resolved, the college will allow the student to take tuition-free alternate courses, semester hour for semester hour, which are acceptable to the receiving institution within a one-year period from granting of degree at Howard College/SWCD.

Guarantee for Job Competence
If an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) graduate is judged by his/her employer to be lacking in technical job skills identified as exit competencies of his/her specific degree program, the graduate will be provided up to twelve tuition-free credit hours of additional skill training by Howard College/SWCD under the conditions of the guarantee policy. Special conditions that apply to the guarantee include the following:

1. The graduate must have earned the Associate of Applied Science degree or Certificate of Proficiency beginning May, 1992, or thereafter in a Career Technical Education program identified in the college catalog.
2. The graduate must have completed the Associate of Applied Science Degree or Certificate of Proficiency at Howard College/SWCD (with 75% of credits earned at Howard College) and must have completed the degree within a five-year time span.
3. Graduates must be employed full-time in an area directly related to the area of program concentration as certified by the appropriate division chair.
4. Employment must commence within twelve (12) months of graduation.
5. The employer must certify in writing that the employee is lacking entry-level skills identified by Howard College/SWCD as the employer’s program competencies and must specify the areas of deficiency within ninety (90) days of the graduate’s initial employment.
6. The employer, graduate, division director, counselor, and appropriate faculty member will develop a written educational plan for retraining.
7. Retraining will be limited to twelve credit hours related to the identified skill deficiency and to those classes regularly scheduled during the period covered by the retraining plan.
8. All retraining must be completed within a calendar year from the time the educational plan is agreed upon.
9. The graduate and/or employer are responsible for the cost of books, insurance, uniforms, fees, and other course-related expenses.
10. The guarantee does not imply that the graduate will pass any licensing or qualifying examination for a particular career.
11. Students’ sole remedy against Howard College/SWCD and its employees for skills deficiencies shall be limited to twelve (12) credit hours of tuition-free education under conditions described above.
12. Activation of the “Graduate Guarantee Program” may be initiated by the graduate through contact of the appropriate administrator within ninety (90) days of graduate’s initial employment.