TN eligibility for a college teacher role generally requires at least a bachelor's or licenciatura degree, though the specific institution or course may expect more. Confirm the actual degree held against both the TN standard and whatever the department requires for the assignment.
Separate the immigration standard from the institution's own bar
A department may want a graduate degree or research background for reasons unrelated to TN eligibility itself. Get both answers clearly: what TN requires at minimum, and what the hiring institution independently expects. Where the applicant's credential sits between the two, discuss whether that gap affects the offer itself before treating the TN filing as the open question.
Write both standards on one page: the credential the category requires, and the qualification the department applies to this particular course. Then mark which document proves each. The category rests generally on a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree, and the evidence of that is a transcript and the degree parchment rather than a teaching record.
Where the department wants a graduate degree the applicant does not hold, that is a hiring conversation and it should happen before preparation costs are incurred. A related failure is treating a professional licence in the subject as though it satisfied the academic requirement; the two answer different questions and neither substitutes for the other. Ask for both answers in writing.