Description of Fee
The Maintenance Fee is a charge to students enrolled in credit courses. It is an enrollment or registration fee and is calculated based on the number of Student Credit Hours (SCHs) for which the student enrolls. A student is considered enrolled full-time if he/she is enrolled in twelve credit hours or more. Fees are established by the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR).
The same fee is applicable to courses for which the student is enrolled on an audit basis.
Rates
Rates are established by the TBR and incorporated in a fee schedule.
Maintenance fees may not be waived. However, specific exceptions are provided in the following instances:
- Pursuant to TCA 49-7-113, exceptions exist for certain disabled and elderly students, as well as state service retirees. For audit courses, no fee is required for persons with a permanent, total disability and persons 60 years of age or older and domiciled in Tennessee, and persons who have retired from state service with 30 or more years of service, regardless of age. For credit, a reduced fee found in TBR Guideline B-060 may be charged to persons with a permanent, total disability, and persons who will become 65 years of age or older during the academic semester in which they begin classes and who are domiciled in Tennessee. This fee includes maintenance fees, student activity fees, technology access fees, and registration fees. It does not include the application fee, late fee, campus access fee, special course fee, etc. This only applies to enrollment on a space-available basis.
- Pursuant to TCA 49-7-102, certain statutory fee exceptions exist for dependents and spouses of military personnel killed, missing in action, or officially declared a prisoner of war while serving honorably as a member of the armed forces during a period of armed conflict. If these provisions are invoked by a student, the correct applicable law should be determined.
- Military reserve and national guard personnel who are mobilized to active military service within six months of attendance at a TBR institution and whose mobilization lasts more than six months shall be charged upon re-enrollment at such institution the tuition, maintenance fees, student activity fees, and required registration or matriculation fees that were in effect when such student was enrolled prior to mobilization. After re-enrollment, no increase in tuition, maintenance fees, student activity fees, or required registration or matriculation fees shall be assessed to such student until a period of time equal to one year plus the combined length of all military mobilizations has elapsed. In no event, however, shall a student’s tuition and fees be frozen after re-enrollment for more than four years.
To be eligible for the tuition and fee freeze, the student shall have completed military service under honorable conditions and shall reenroll in a TBR institution within six months of release from active duty.
A student eligible for the tuition and fee freeze may transfer from one state institution of higher education to another state institution of higher education one time with such student’s tuition and fees calculated at the institution to which the student transfers as if the student had been in attendance at that institution before the mobilization that resulted in the student’s tuition and fee freeze at the initial institution.
Accounting Treatment
A revenue account for Maintenance Fees is used to record both the revenue assessed and refunds made.
As provided in GASB Statements 34 and 35, summer school revenues and expenditures must be accrued at fiscal year-end. Summer school activity will not be allocated to only one fiscal year.
In some cases, full fees are not assessed to students. These occur when statutes establish separate rates for such groups as the disabled, elderly, and military dependents. The difference between normal fees and special fees is not assessed. Fees not assessed in these cases do not represent revenue. For administrative purposes, the fees may be calculated and credited to revenue, then written off against a contra-revenue account.
Agreements/contracts may be executed with a third party (federal agency, corporation, institution, etc.), but not with the individual student, to deliver routine courses at a fixed rate or for the cost of delivering the course and may provide for fees not to be charged to individual students. Individual student fees will be assessed as usual and charged to the functional category of Scholarships and Fellowships. The amount charged to or paid by the third party is credited to the appropriate Grants and Contracts revenue account.
In some cases, a non-credit course provides an option to grant regular credit. If a separate (or additional) fee is collected because of the credit, that amount is reported as Maintenance Fee revenue.
Full-time employees of the Tennessee Board of Regents and the University of Tennessee systems may enroll in one course per term at any public postsecondary institution, with fees waived for the employee. No tuition-paying student shall be denied enrollment in a course because of enrollment of TBR and UT employees. Spouses and dependents of certain employees of the Tennessee Board of Regents system may be eligible for a student fee discount for undergraduate courses at Tennessee Board of Regents institutions (including Technology Centers) and the University of Tennessee.
Tennessee Board of Regents institutions shall exchange funds for tuition fees of employees' spouses and dependents who participate in a Tennessee Board of Regents educational assistance program. Effective Fall term 1990, the charging and exchanging of funds for maintenance fee discounts between Tennessee Board of Regents institutions and the University of Tennessee shall begin. To the extent they are not reimbursed by the State, fee waivers for full-time State employees and fee discounts to children of certified public school teachers shall be accounted for as a scholarship.
Exceptions
Exceptions to the rules regarding the applicability of maintenance fees and approval of exceptions in instances of unusual circumstances may be granted by the president or a designee.
Appeals
Appeals concerning maintenance fees may be made to the president or a designee.
Refundable Status
Maintenance Fees are refundable based on the VSCC refund policy (IV:07:09).
TBR Source: December 2, 1977 TBR meeting. Revised March 14, 1980 TBR meeting; November 13, 1991 presidents meeting; November 8, 1982 presidents meeting; July 1, 1984; November 1, 1988; May 15, 1990 presidents meeting; August 14, 1990 presidents meeting; November 10, 1992 presidents meeting; August 10, 1993 presidents meeting; November 9, 1993 presidents meeting; August 9, 1994 presidents meeting; May 8, 1995 presidents meeting, August 8, 1995 presidents meeting, November 8, 1995 presidents meeting, February 6, 1996 presidents meeting, May 14, 1996 presidents meeting, November 12, 1996 presidents meeting, May 6, 1997 presidents meeting, July 16, 1997 called Board meeting, November 5, 1997 presidents meeting, February 17, 1998 presidents meeting via conference call, August 25, 1998 presidents meeting, May 9, 2000 presidents meeting, August 8, 2000 presidents meeting, November 8, 2000 presidents meeting, February 13, 2001 presidents meeting, August 21, 2001 presidents meeting, May 21, 2002 presidents meeting, February 11, 2003 presidents meeting, May 20, 2003 presidents meeting, February 10, 2004 presidents meeting, August 17, 2004 presidents meeting, February 8, 2005 presidents meeting, May 17, 2005 presidents meeting, February 8, 2006 presidents meeting, May 16, 2006 presidents meeting, August 16, 2006 presidents meeting, May 15, 2007 presidents meeting, August 21, 2007 presidents meeting, November 6, 2007 presidents meeting , February 17, 2009 presidents meeting; May 12, 2009 presidents meeting.
VSCC Source: March 11, 1997, January 2, 2003, President; November 10, 2008, President’s Cabinet; July 24, 2009, President
