Background Information: Department of Defense Memorandum of Understanding for Tuition Assistance Programs

University of California campuses and extensions have historically participated in Tuition Assistance (TA) programs associated with various branches of the U.S. armed services in order to make it possible for members of the active duty military and certain ROTC students to obtain additional federal funding to pay for course enrollment toward a college degree.

Objections to the 2011 version of the MOU

The Department of Defense (DoD) issued a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in an attempt to standardize the practices of institutions participating in the T A program in 2011 that was modeled on an agreement negotiated with a group of community and state colleges with very different enrollment standards and practices from those of the University of California and other flagship public institutions. This group, the Servicemembers' Opportunity Colleges (SOC) Consortium, agreed to academic and administrative practices that would have required UC to recognize transfer units for activities that do not conform to the transfer unit standards set forth by UC's Academic Senate. For example, the MOU would have required signatory institutions to accept as academic transfer units toward a degree based on student performance in non-academic career activities, e.g., leadership performance coursework; commercial test performance, e.g., CLEP tests; and college work not taught at the University of California, e.g. refrigeration maintenance.

New MOU represents requirements consistent with UC academic credit policies

The revised (current) version of the MOU requires that students be apprised of the institution's transfer of credit policy prior to enrolling, and that students be provided an individual education plan reflecting the inclusion of any transferred units within sixty days of the institution receiving all of the relevant transcript information regarding prior college work. Thus, it will be possible to uphold the Academic Senate' s policy of not granting transfer credit toward a UC degree for activity that is not substantially similar to something taught at UC for academic credit toward a UC degree.

New MOU poses additional administrative and workload challenges

Campuses that agree to the MOU should anticipate: being required to accept government payments via a version of VISA card, including unreimbursed transaction fees; staffing counselors to provide individual education plans for TA beneficiaries within the 60-day time frames; and using systems and/or administrators to track the enrollment and performance (and convey the information to various military overseers) ofTA beneficiaries. UC Extension programs enroll more students using these particular benefits than do main campuses, but institutional participation comes as a single package: the Chancellor or his or her designee must agree on behalf of the entire campus, including the Extension, to comply with the provisions of the MOU. A complete version of the MOU, including instructions on how to sign it electronically using an institutional user account, can be found at http://www.dodmou.com.

The deadline for signing the MOU for continued participation is March 1, 2013.