Compact With Texans

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s responsibilities fall into three major areas:

• Coordination
  The THECB works with the Governor, Legislature and colleges and universities to coordinate Texas higher education and expand access, improve equality and promote efficiency through actions like the following:
  *Develops long-term higher education plan
  *Reviews and approves academic and technical degree programs offered by public institutions of higher education

• Information
  Provides data and information on higher education to state policy makers and citizens

• Administration
  Administers state and federal programs such as:
  *Hinson-Hazlewood College Student Loan Program
  *Graduate Medical Education Grant Programs
  *Carl D. Perkins Technical Vocational Funds

The THECB is committed to meeting the highest customer service standards. In this Compact with Texans, we reaffirm the THECB’s commitment to professional service, responsiveness, effective communication, and follow-through with each of our customers. Our customers can expect THECB employees to be courteous, knowledgeable, and efficient when providing services. The THECB is dedicated to the continual improvement of service delivery, using customer comments to help improve services and minimize response times.

• General information requests not requiring research and analysis are acknowledged and answered within one working day. Information requests that require either new data to be collected or existing data to be compiled in a new format may require additional days within which to respond.
• Information requests requiring research and analysis, as well as materials submitted for processing, are processed within 10 working days (or customers will receive notification of additional information needed to complete their request).
• On average, phone calls will be answered in less than two minutes, though peak periods may experience longer wait times.
• Academic and technical degree program proposals submitted by public institutions of higher education are deemed complete – unless otherwise indicated by staff – within five working days after receipt of the proposal.
• Doctoral program proposals are considered within one year following submission of a completed proposal.

• Payments are applied to loan accounts using an effective date of the day the funds are received.  (Please note that it may take up to three days for this to be reflected on your account.)
• Loan applications require active processing by the borrower, the agency, and the institution where the student will be attending.  Thus, borrowers should allow for at least 30 days between submitting a complete loan application and the delivery of the funds to the institution.
• Loan repayment program applications require active processing by the borrower, the agency, the borrower’s employer, and the lender(s) holding the borrower’s loan(s). Thus, loan repayment program applicants should allow for at least 30 days after the application deadline date for an eligibility determination to be made by the agency.

• To file a complaint related to THECB activities or to inquire about the agency’s customer service policies, contact John Wyatt, Director, Office of External Relations, at (512) 427-6111 or via email at John.Wyatt@highered.texas.gov.Complaints and inquiries are entered into and maintained on an electronic tracking system and are assigned to the appropriate agency division personnel for resolution. When complaints are not resolved within 10 working days, the system notifies the customer service coordinator who intervenes to facilitate resolution, referring the matter to the appropriate assistant commissioner if necessary. Matters not able to be resolved by an assistant commissioner are forwarded to the Commissioner for resolution. For quality control, the customer service coordinator may follow up on complaints that have been resolved by a division.

• After exhausting the institution’s grievance/complaint process, current, former and prospective students may initiate a complaint against an institution of higher education with the THECB by following the procedures outlined at https://www.highered.texas.gov/student-complaints/.

• For information regarding financial aid services, contact Student Financial Aid Programs at 1-800-242-3062 or (512) 427-6340 if inside the Austin area. For general public information, contact John Wyatt, Director, Office of External Relations, at (512) 427-6111 or via email at John.Wyatt@highered.texas.gov. For media inquiries and interview requests, contact Mike Eddleman, Communications Specialist, Communications Division, via email at Mike.Eddleman@highered.texas.gov.