SECTION 1.  Chapter 73 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 21.  There is hereby established a program of articulation agreement among associate and baccalaureate degree nursing education programs.  Such formal articulation agreements shall mandate credit transfers between the commonwealth’s community colleges and the state colleges and university nursing programs.  Such agreements are meant to assist in the admission of graduates from approved associate degree programs into baccalaureate programs offered by such state institutions.  Articulation agreements shall be negotiated and developed through state wide collaboration among nurse educators, college admission administrators, the Board of Higher Education, the Boards of Nursing and other interested public sector leaders.  Such formal credit transfers shall be approved by the board of higher education and shall allow for the transfer of not less than 60 credit hours transfer and not more than 72 credit hours of which at least 42 credit hours shall be within nursing core courses.  Nursing programs subject to the approved mandated articulation agreements shall be prohibited from arbitrarily increasing overall total credit hours for program completion and shall not exceed standard 128 hours unless approved by the board of higher education.  Such articulation agreements shall be renewable to help ensure equivalency between community college and state/university courses.