A teach-out or teachout is an arrangement by which an educational institution provides its current students with the opportunity to complete their course of study when the institution closes or stops accepting new students into the course.
One common teach-out arrangement is for an institution or program to stop accepting new entrants, but continue teaching existing students until they have completed their course of study. Another common arrangement is for an institution to have an agreement for another institution (the "teach-out institution") to allow all students of the closing institution to complete their program at the teach-out institution.
In the United States, all federally recognized
accreditors must require every
institution
An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...
they accredit to submit a teach-out plan. Each accreditor sets plan requirements independently, however, and there are no universal requirements. The
Higher Education Act of 1965
The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) () was legislation signed into Law of the United States, United States law on November 8, 1965, as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society domestic agenda. Johnson chose Texas State University (t ...
was amended to add the teach-out requirement in 1992.
In Australia, under the Higher Education Standards Framework 2015, the
Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) is Australia's independent national quality assurance and regulatory agency for higher education.
The agency's purpose is to protect student interests and the reputation of Australia' ...
(TEQSA) requires all providers of accredited courses to prepare a teachout plan.
Teachout arrangements must ensure that "all existing students can either complete the course of study, or transition to a mutually agreed course at no disadvantage".
Accreditation requirements must continue to be met until teachout is complete.
A provider may place a course in teachout mode, or TEQSA may do so on its own initiative.
A teach-out can also occur when a
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
in the educational realm puts on an event as part of an
industrial action
Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay and to increas ...
, where speakers deliver classroom-like content that purportedly replaces whatever regular classes might be missed due to the action. More generally, teach-outs can refer to any event that exists along the lines of, in the words of the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, "just-in-time global community learning events focusing on current issues, that enable a wide variety of people to join the ... campus community in exploring a timely topic."
Works cited
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Citations
External links
US Consumer Finance Protection Bureau page on teach-outs
Defunct educational institutions
Higher education accreditation
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