Texas Tech University is in compliance with Comprehensive Standard 3.4.7.

Texas Tech University has agreements with 80 different institutions whereby students may take courses abroad and receive credit at the university. These agreements are on file in the Study Abroad Office in the International Cultural Center. A list of agreements is available at http://www.irim.ttu.edu/SACS/TTUAgreements.pdf. The procedure whereby programs and courses are approved may be accessed at the following link (http://www.irim.ttu.edu/SACS/StudyAbroadAgreementProcedures.pdf)

All of these exchange agreements have been sponsored by Texas Tech University faculty or administrators and they are consistent with the university’s mission to provide a broad-based educational experience for students. The university strategic plan also lists increasing the percentage of Texas Tech University students who study abroad as a critical success factor in the area of academic excellence. Exchange programs provide opportunities for Texas Tech students to live and study in a foreign environment and they also bring foreign students to the Texas Tech campus. Having foreign exchange students provides opportunities for Texas Tech students to broaden their perspectives, increases the range of discussion in courses and elsewhere on campus, and generally enriches the campus environment.

Texas Tech University also has the following agreements with other institutions and consortia:

1. West Texas A&M University: a cooperative agreement for Master of Arts degrees in sociology and criminal justice. This agreement provides for West Texas A&M students to enroll in courses in the Master of Arts in Sociology degree program at Texas Tech University and for Texas Tech University students to enroll in courses in the M.A in Criminology program at West Texas A&M University. Courses taken at one institution may be counted toward graduation at the other institution. 
    

2. Texas A&M University a cooperative agreement to offer a joint Doctor of Education degree in Agricultural Education via distance education. This program, which was initiated in summer of 2000, graduated its first cohort in August 2004. Because of its innovative nature (distance education, and offered by two institutions in cooperation), this program has been very carefully monitored. Information on assessment and response is available through the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications (Dr. Matt Baker).  
    

3. Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance: for a Master’s degree program in gerontology offered jointly by Texas Tech University in collaboration with the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (comprised of 10 human sciences colleges at accredited universities located in the Great Plains area, including Texas Tech University). Seven of the member institutions are participating in the Master’s program in gerontology. Students will enroll at a “home” university, from which they will be awarded the degree upon completion of the requirements. They will take courses at the home institution as well as via distance education at the other participating institutions. This program has been approved at all levels of Texas Tech University and final approval is pending at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
    

4. Family and Consumer Sciences Distance Education Alliance: agreement among Texas public and private universities to facilitate certification in family and consumer sciences education. The agreement seeks to develop distance education courses for FCS teachers, to maximize inter-institutional coordination and resource utilization by identifying existing distance education courses that can be used in FCS programs, to identify courses for funded development, to establish a priority sequence for such development, and to establish criteria for course development, and to develop and coordinate the operation of an inter-institutional system to offer, access, and support, distance education courses available through the FCS Alliance. 

These programs have all been approved at the various levels of the university (department, college, Graduate School, provost) and by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Cooperating institutions are all accredited by SACS or a counterpart accreditation agency in a different region. The programs have also passed through an approval process on the home campus of the cooperating institution(s) that is comparable with that at Texas Tech University. All of the programs have learning objectives and assessment procedures built into their proposals that also involve response to student evaluation and faculty judgment about the effectiveness of the entire program and the courses included in it. Copies of the agreements are available in the Graduate School office, Holden Hall #02, or in the SACS Office, Holden Hall #209B.

Providing access to programs at other universities and/or collaborating in the delivery of programs via distance education are efficient uses of university resources and serve to broaden the range of options available to Texas Tech University students. Therefore, such agreements are well within the mission of the university. 

In addition to the agreements listed above, the university also has agreements with South Plains College to cover the following: 

5. Teaching of first year Spanish courses (SPAN 1501/1502). Students enroll for course at South Plains College, but the classes are held in Texas Tech University facilities and credit is applied toward the foreign language requirements at Texas Tech University. 
    

6. Teaching developmental education courses in English and mathematics. These courses are taught in Texas Tech University facilities and students are able to register for them through the Texas Tech University registration system. Developmental education courses are not counted toward graduation. 

South Plains College is a SACS accredited institution; therefore, faculty who teach courses for South Plains College credit on the Texas Tech University campus must meet association standards and courses must also meet those standards for establishing learning objectives, assessment, and response to assessment. These agreements allow Texas Tech University  more effectively to utilize faculty and other personnel while meeting the needs of certain groups of students on the campus. These agreements are within the mission of the university to provide a wide range of educational opportunities to Texas students.  
 

7. Gateway Program, an agreement between Texas Tech University and South Plains College for a pilot program whereby students who were denied admission to Texas Tech University could enroll at South Plains College and live on the Texas Tech University campus and have access to all TTU facilities and services. Students who successfully met transfer admission requirements were eligible to apply for admission to Texas Tech University. This program is currently inactive and discussions are under way on whether to reinstate it or not.
    

8. Pathway Program, an agreement between Texas Tech University and the following community colleges in Texas and one in New Mexico:

Amarillo College
Austin Community College
Clarendon College
Dallas County Community College District
El Paso Community College
Frank Phillips College
Houston Community College System
Howard College, McLennan Community College
Midland College
Navarro College
New Mexico Junior College
North Central Texas College
North Harris Montgomery Community College District
Northwest Vista College
Odessa College
Palo Alto College
San Antonio College
South Plains College
Southwest Texas Junior College
St. Phillips College
Tarrant Country College District
Temple College
Tyler Junior College
Weatherford College
Western Texas College
 

The agreement provides for students from the above named institutions to visit the Texas Tech University and TTU Health Sciences campuses, to receive information and advisement from Texas Tech University admissions counselors, to determine transferability of courses and other transfer information, to participate in on-line chats with TTU advisors, and, in certain cases, to receive a retroactive associate degree after enrolling at TTU. Neither the Gateway or the Pathway program involve any student course work delivered by Texas Tech University. 

Both of these programs facilitate the transfer of students from community colleges to Texas Tech University. Inasmuch as one of the goals of the university strategic plan is to increase enrollment, any program that has the potential to stimulate enrollment is within the mission of the university. Such agreements may also help to increase the diversity of the student body, which is another goal of the university strategic plan.