99-Hour Cap

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99-Hour Cap

The State of Texas subsidizes a large portion of the costs of doctoral education at its public universities, and the State Legislature has decided to limit the length of time the state will continue this subsidy for individual students. The Legislature has voted to stop providing state money for educating graduate students who have 100 or more semester credit hours of doctoral work. This law has come to be called the “99-hour doctoral cap.”

All doctoral students who accumulate more than ninety-nine doctoral semester credit hours at any Texas public institution of higher education will be charged the nonresident tuition rates irrespective of student residency status or any appointment, fellowship, or other circumstance that would normally entitle them to resident tuition rates.

Exemptions

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved the following programs for exemption to the 99-hour limit:

Clinical Psychology
Counseling Psychology
Pharmacology/Pharmaceutics
Vision Science/Physiological Optics

Note: Students in these programs are governed by an absolute limit of 130 doctoral semester credit hours. Any hours beyond this limit will be charged at the non-resident tuition rate. It is important that doctoral students continue to work closely with their advisors to monitor progress through the degree program so that studies are concluded within the “99-hour doctoral cap” to avoid having to pay significantly higher tuition. Furthermore, students on graduate student appointments who go beyond the 99-hour doctoral cap will be charged at the non-resident tuition rate. (Also see section on “Leaves of Absence.”)