Lower-Division Academic Courses

Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM)

The Lower-Division Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM) is the official list of approved courses for general academic transfer to public universities offered for state funding by public community, state, and technical colleges in Texas. The ACGM lists courses alphabetically by discipline.

ACGM Advisory Committee

Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 9, Subchapter D outlines the provisions for approval of general academic courses for state funding.  Senate Bill 215 passed by the 83rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, requires the Coordinating Board to adopt rules regarding advisory committees, including rules governing an advisory committee’s purpose, tasks, reporting requirements, and abolishment date. The rules include size and quorum requirements; qualifications for membership; appointment procedures; terms of service; and compliance with the requirements for open meetings. Rules adopted concerning the ACGM Advisory Committee are in the TAC Chapter 1, Subchapter P. The ACGM Advisory Committee has equal representation from public two-year colleges and public universities. The Advisory Committee meets at least annually to make recommendations to the Coordinating Board. The members of the committee who contributed to this edition of the ACGM appear in the membership roster at the beginning of this manual.

Unique Needs Course Requests

Unique need courses are academic courses created by a college to satisfy a unique need and designed to transfer into a baccalaureate program. These provisions are found here in the Texas Administrative Code. Using the online submission system, the college must apply to the Coordinating Board for permission to offer the course. The request must be submitted at least four months prior to the date of student enrollment. Please review the forms and rules below prior to submitting course requests.

The application form for each unique need course must be accompanied by at least three unique need course recommendation forms that have been completed by public universities; a statement of need for the course; and a that which includes a course description, detailed course outline, and objectives. Colleges are allowed to receive formula funding for contact hours generated by all current, approved unique need courses. A separate form is provided for courses that are offered at the upper-division level in an approved applied bachelor’s degree program.

• Unique Need Lower-Division Course Proposal Form
• Evaluation of Unique Need Course Transferability Form
• Applied Baccalaureate Degree Upper-Division Course Proposal Form

Please submit all requests via the online document submission system below: