49-7-2003 - Part definitions.
49-7-2003. Part definitions.
As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) Agent means any person owning any interest in, employed by or representing for remuneration a postsecondary educational institution, who, by solicitation in any form, 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 the institution for any such purpose;
(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) Commission means the Tennessee higher education commission;
(5) 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;
(6) 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;
(7) Education, educational services or like term includes, but is not limited to, any class, course or program of training, instruction or study;
(8) 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;
(9) Entity includes, but is not limited to, any company, firm, society, association, partnership, corporation and trust;
(10) Non-degree-granting postsecondary educational institution includes all postsecondary educational institutions that do not meet the definition of a degree-granting postsecondary educational institution;
(11) 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;
(12) To grant includes awarding, selling, conferring, bestowing or giving;
(13) 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;
(14) 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
(15) Tuition guaranty fund or fund means the tuition guaranty fund created by § 49-7-2018.
[Acts 1961, ch. 112, § 3; 1965, ch. 350, § 3; 1967, ch. 355, § 35; 1968, ch. 624, § 2; 1974, ch. 781, § 3; 1983, ch. 398, §§ 1, 2; T.C.A., § 49-3903; Acts 1989, ch. 425, §§ 3, 6; 1998, ch. 695, §§ 1-4; 2006, ch. 766, §§ 1-3.]