Texas A&M University – Commerce offers a Texas Affordable Baccalaureate (TAB) program which includes a financial subscription model with seven-week terms in which state residents have the opportunity to complete as many courses and competencies as they can for $750. Compared to students in traditional programs, CBE students have an average cost-to-degree savings of $6,650 and accelerated time to degree completion by more than 19%. This affordable degree program was designed to financially serve the needs of the over three million nontraditional/adult working students in Texas with some college and no degree, providing an effective and high quality pathway for “stop-outs” to return and complete their degree. Since program launch, the TAB – Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) has graduated almost 400 students since 2014. On average, TAB graduates are completing their BAAS degree in a little over a year with an average cost of less than $6,000. A&M-Commerce recently received additional funding from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Higher Education Foundation to launch a second TAB degree, a BS in Criminal Justice in late Fall 2018, designed specifically for first-responders and working criminal justice professionals. [1]

[1] Data provided by the Texas A&M University – Commerce. Published data may be retrieved at

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cbe2.1042
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/12/competency-based-education-saving-students-time-and-money

Competency-Based Education: The Importance of Metrics and Data Collection