(a) The institution shall seek to build and expand partnership agreements in the same manner as authorized by Subchapter N, Chapter 51. With the approval of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the institution may enter into a partnership agreement with a private institution of higher education located in the same county as any campus of the institution, subject to the same provisions as provided by Subchapter N, Chapter 51, for a partnership agreement between an institution covered by that section and a public junior college.
(b) In developing programs and courses subject to a partnership agreement, the institution and any other party to an agreement shall take into account the need in the service region to recruit minority and lower-income students into degree-granting programs of institutions of higher education.

(c) A nonresident student who is simultaneously enrolled in the institution and another public institution of higher education under a program offered jointly by the two institutions under a partnership agreement and who pays the fees and charges required of Texas residents at one of the institutions as provided by § 54.213 because the student holds a competitive scholarship is entitled to pay the fees and charges required of Texas residents at each public institution of higher education in which the student is simultaneously enrolled under the program.
(d) The institution and other parties to a partnership agreement may contract with any person to provide shuttle bus service or other transportation service for or among the campuses of the institutions that are parties to the agreement and may charge and collect a fee from students registered in courses at the campuses of two or more of the institutions in the same semester or term in an amount determined by the institutions to pay for all or part of the costs of that service.