2021 Tennessee Code
Title 49 - Education
Chapter 7 - Postsecondary and Higher Education Generally
Part 20 - Tennessee Higher Education Authorization Act of 2016
§ 49-7-2003. Part Definitions

As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Agent” means any person representing a postsecondary educational institution for payment, who solicits in any form and enrolls, or seeks to enroll, a student for education offered by an authorized institution, or offers to award educational credentials, for remuneration, on behalf of any such institution. Persons owning an interest in an institution and the institution's full-time employees and directors shall not be considered agents under this part;


2. “Agent's permit” means a nontransferable written authorization issued to a natural person by the commission that allows that person to solicit or enroll students for education in an authorized postsecondary educational institution;


3. “Authorization to operate,” or like term, means approval of the commission to operate or to contract to operate a postsecondary educational institution in this state;


4. “Certificate program” means, generally, one (1) or more technical courses usually completed in one (1) to twenty-six (26) weeks, or up to and including five hundred (500) contact hours normally with a single skill objective;


5. “College” means:
   
   
   1. A unit of a university offering specialized degrees; or
   
   
   2. A postsecondary educational institution offering courses of study leading to a degree;


6. “Commission” means the Tennessee higher education commission;


7. “Degree-granting postsecondary educational institution” includes institutions offering education or training above the high school level and where the institution awards degrees or similar credentials, such as associate, bachelors, masters, specialist or doctoral degrees;


8. “Diploma mill” means a nontraditional, unaccredited postsecondary school that offers degrees for a relatively low flat fee, promotes the award of academic credits based on life experience and does not require any classroom instruction;


9. “Education,” “educational services” or like term includes, but is not limited to, any class, course or program of training, instruction or study;


10. “Educational credentials” means degrees, diplomas, certificates, transcripts, reports, documents, or letters of designation, marks, appellations, series of letters, numbers or words which signify, purport or are generally taken to signify enrollment, attendance, progress or satisfactory completion of the requirements or prerequisites for education at a postsecondary educational institution;


11. “Entity” includes, but is not limited to, any company, firm, society, association, partnership, corporation and trust;


12. “Non-degree-granting postsecondary educational institution” includes all postsecondary educational institutions that do not meet the definition of a degree-granting postsecondary educational institution. Non-degree granting postsecondary institutions are frequently referred to as “career”, “vocational”, or “technical” schools. Non-degree granting postsecondary educational institutions are institutions offering programs designed primarily for job entry or upgrading of skills and usually measured in “clock” or “contact” hours. These programs typically prepare individuals for employment and do not require courses beyond those specific to the job or its field with program length sufficient to affect outcomes;


13. “Optional expedited authorization” means the alternative optional authorization available under this part to accredited degree-granting institutions;


14. “Postsecondary educational institution” includes, but is not limited to, an academic, vocational, technical, online/distance learning, business, professional or other school, college or university, or other organization or person, offering educational credentials, or offering instruction or educational services, primarily to persons who have completed or terminated their secondary education or who are beyond the age of compulsory high school attendance, for attainment of educational, professional or vocational objectives;


15. “To grant” includes awarding, selling, conferring, bestowing or giving;


16. “To offer” includes, in addition to its usual meanings, advertising, publicizing, soliciting or encouraging any person, directly or indirectly, in any form to perform the act described;


17. “To operate” an educational institution, or like term, means to establish, keep or maintain any facility or location in this state where, from or through which education is offered or given or educational credentials are offered or granted, and includes contracting with any person, group or entity to perform any such act; and


18. “Tuition guaranty fund” or “fund” means the tuition guaranty fund created by § 49-7-2018.