The advisory committee advanced recommendations to increase formula weights for graduate nursing and allied health programs after a subgroup analysis of institutional costs.

Jenny Gomez Leon, lead for Charge 2a, told members that data collected from participating institutions (UT Health Houston, Texas Tech Health Science Center, UNT and UT Health San Antonio) used an aggregated comparison of undergraduate and graduate program costs. The subgroup derived a roughly 132% average cost differential for nursing graduate programs and recommended a graduate nursing weight of 1.508. For allied health graduate programs the group calculated a roughly 123% differential and recommended a graduate allied health weight of 1.233.

Melita Berger presented a finance tab that combined Charge 1 and Charge 2a scenarios and reported an estimated incremental statewide cost of about $49,700,000 if the proposed graduate weights were applied to all institutions with those programs. Gomez Leon noted two institutions had not returned data in time for this meeting but said early responders aligned with the proposed differentials; members agreed the aggregated approach was sufficient to move forward while the remaining institutions provide numbers.

A motion to accept the Charge 2a recommendations carried by voice vote. The committee asked staff to continue soliciting missing program data, to factor any late returns into the final draft report, and to circulate the draft ahead of the January meeting.