BILL ANALYSIS
AB 440
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 440 (Beall)
As Amended April 27, 2009
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 8-0
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|Ayes:|Portantino, Block, Cook, |
| |Fong, Galgiani, Huber, |
| |Ma, Ruskin |
| | |
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SUMMARY : Authorizes California Community College (CCC)
districts to grant an associate in arts (AA) degree in transfer
studies to a student who meets specified requirements.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes CCC districts to grant an AA degree in transfer
studies or an equivalent program to a student who meets the
following requirements:
a) Completes a minimum of 60 units; and,
b) Meets the minimum requirements for transfer to a campus
of the California State University (CSU) or the University
of California (UC).
2)States that a degree granted pursuant to this bill shall
recognize the completion of lower division general education
requirements and does not guarantee admission to any
institution.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : In February 2008, the CCC Board of Governors (BOG)
adopted guidelines for associate's degrees that effectively
discontinued the awarding of a "transfer" AA degree, which was
earned when a student had enough credits to transfer to UC and
CSU. The CCC BOG determined that the transfer AA degree was not
compliant with the California Code of Regulations (Title 5),
which requires each AA or associate in science degree to include
a major of at least 18 semester units or 27 quarter units of
study in a single discipline. This requirement disallows
AB 440
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"majors" and "areas of emphasis" with no discernible focus or
majors constructed of loosely structured items of interest
selected individually by students. Lower division preparation
may or may not meet the major focus or area of emphasis
requirements for an associate degree. When lower division
preparation does not meet the major/area of emphasis
requirements, students who complete the transfer curriculum will
not have met the requirements for an associate degree.
Major focus units for an associate degree are defined by CCC
faculty and articulated with the four-year institution, and
lower division transfer preparation requirements are defined by
the receiving institution. Currently, CSU has different lower
division requirements by major and by campus. Thus, according
to the CCC Chancellor's Office, for students to earn an
associate degree that makes them competitive for admission as an
upper division student at CSU, each CCC would need to offer an
AA degree in Psychology for CSU Sacramento and a different AA
degree in Psychology for San Diego State, etc.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960 FN:
0000600