Texas Direct

We’re excited to introduce Texas Direct, to improve communications and advising about transfer pathways across the state. This strategic initiative will increase the visibility and impact of the important work of the Texas Transfer Advisory Committee and the discipline specific subcommittees to streamline pathways that save students and families time, money, and effort.

What is Texas Direct? 

Texas Direct is the state’s effort to articulate seamless degree pathways between two- and four-year institutions.

Students who complete the Texas Core Curriculum and Field of Study at any public two-year institution automatically qualify to receive an associate degree – the Texas Direct Transfer Degree. They are also qualified to transfer their courses as a block applied directly to their selected major.

The Fields of Study now part of Texas Direct are:  

• *Business Administration
• *Criminal Justice
• *Political Science
• Social Work
• *Sociology
  *Revised as of July 2023 based upon submitted corrections

Beginning in March 2021, the Coordinating Board adopted revised transfer rules that establish a new framework for transfer curricula and a new governance committee, the Texas Transfer Advisory Committee (TTAC). The TTAC will manage and maintain the Texas Transfer Framework and the rolling out of new curricula, supported by the expertise of faculty in the discipline.

Please consult the Texas Transfer Framework overview document for more information about the policy framework and governance.

Field of Study Curricula

A critical component of the Texas Transfer Framework is the Field of Study Curriculum (FOSC), which is a set of lower-division courses that transfer and apply to a degree program, as required by state law, Texas Education Code, Chapter 61, Section 61.823, and Coordinating Board rules, Texas Administrative Code, Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 4, Subchapter B.

Under the new framework, a complete FOSC will consist of the following elements:

• Discipline-relevant Texas Core Curriculum courses
• Up to 12 semester credit hours of Discipline Foundation Courses
• At least 6 semester credit hours of Directed Electives, which will be submitted by the relevant faculty of each general academic institution and shared through the THECB website

If a student completes all the courses in an FOSC and transfers to another Texas public institution of higher education, the FOSC courses transfer as a block and are applied to the student’s selected major. If a student completes the FOSC, the Texas Core Curriculum, and any college or university courses required of all students regardless of major, the student is finished with all the lower-division courses.

If a student transfers with an incomplete FOSC, each completed FOSC course transfers and applies to the to the degree program, and the institution may require the student to complete additional lower-division courses.