University IT

Will the structure of the Academic Calendar in UR Student and the organization of periods within Academic Years (term-based, not calendar year based) create any potential impacts on reporting yearly newly admitted students by calendar year?

The data warehouse could be used to report a year following a Spring – Summer – Fall term structure or a Fall – Spring – Summer structure, which will not impede reporting based on calendar year.

How are courses that need to start and/or end outside of an academic period handled? For instance, is there an option for a course to run from the middle of December to the end of January in UR Student?

All courses must remain within the boundaries of an Academic Period within UR Student. They cannot start before the Standard Start Date nor can they end after the Standard End date. The typical start and end date for course sections within an academic period are the Actual Start and End Dates established for that period.

In order to fulfill this need, you can create two course sections, one within the Fall academic period for those course dates that occur during Fall, and then a second course section within the Spring academic period for those course dates that occur during the Spring term. The student can register for the course section based on the period in which they want to receive the credits and/or use financial aid to help pay for the course.

Does it matter which program of study has the primary designation within an academic record? Does it imply that this program is the ‘most important’?

The use of the term primary is not something that we can change, however we can communicate that this is just the ‘first’ program declared for a student, and it is only changed when the student alters his/her academic path.

Changing the program indicated as primary only impacts the designation at an academic level. Within UR Student, a student could request a change to switch their primary program of study designation if so desired.

Is there an Academic Standing Ruleset defined at the Graduate Level?

There is an Academic Standing ruleset being configured for the Graduate Academic Level at the UR level (shared across all schools) – the Academic Foundation deck has been updated to reflect this.

GPAs have not been configured for any graduate schools at go live due to current University policy and practice. It would be a university registrar discussion to add the GPA calculation to the system after the cutover.

Will “Program of Study Status” enable us to run reports on people who have not completed a program of study (withdrew voluntarily or involuntarily, PhD withdraws after Masters conferred, etc)?

Students in a combined program within a single academic record (e.g., a student who enters pursuing a PhD but leaves with a masters) – There will be an effective date for the discontinuation at a program of study level if a student drops one program within an academic record.

For a student who started as a PhD but leaves after the masters is awarded, the academic record would show a PhD program of study with an effective date at which that program was discontinued, along with a Masters program of study that is in complete status and that has a conferral date. View Programs of Study for Student will show the full history of a student’s programs of study within an Academic Record.

Student in a combined MD-PhD will have two separate academic records. If the student withdraws from the PhD portion, the program of study will have a withdrawal date in the PhD academic record and the academic record itself would be set to inactive on that same date

What is the definition of a coordinating academic unit?

The coordinating academic unit is used to control business process approvals such as an academic requirement override (the coordinating academic unit is where the approval goes).

What does Pending Completion status mean for a program of study?

A program of study is set to Pending Completion status during the completion process for a student for that program. This typically occurs when a student applies for graduation or completion, or it can be initiated by the school if no application is required.

The program of study stays in this status until the completion process is finished and the student’s program of study status is updated to Complete (graduated). There are additional Program Completion Statuses that help track the stage the student is in for each program of study (Applied for Completion, Approved for Completion, Evaluation Deferred, Denied, Program Completed).

The Pending Completion status is helpful in that it informs an administrator that the student is in the program evaluation/graduation evaluation process.

How would we handle an en passant degree (a masters awarded en route to a PhD)?

If the student was originally admitted into a PhD program, the academic record would have been created with the PhD program, and that program would serve as the primary program of study.

If it is determined to award the student an en passant Masters (or a certificate, etc), the Registrar would add the Master’s program of study to the student’s academic record as an additional program of study, and would complete that Master’s program of study to award that degree. The PhD program of study would remain active and the primary program of study until it also completed.

What would happen if a student originally applied for a PhD but received an en Passant Master’s and stopped at that point?

If the student was originally admitted into a PhD program, the academic record would have been created with the PhD program, and that program would serve as the primary program of study.

If it is determined to award the student an en passant Masters (or a certificate, etc), the Registrar would add the Master’s program of study to the student’s academic record as an additional program of study, and would complete that Master’s program of study to award that degree.

If the PhD program will no longer be completed, the student should be withdrawn from the PhD program of study. The View Programs of Study for Student page can see the history of the programs of study for a student, including the date on which a particular program was discontinued or withdrawn from.

Will the differences between Drop/Add Dates and Tuition Refund schedules for graduate vs undergraduates create any impacts on the common calendar shared across the academic levels at the school?

While academic date controls are typically defined at the calendar/academic period level, in situations where more granular definition is needed, they can also be defined at the course section level if needed.

A number of key policies are controlled by Academic Date Controls.

For a list of policies governed by Academic Date Controls, please contact the UR Student project team.

Regarding courses which are taken in blocks within the boundaries of a term, will non-standard academic periods be used to accommodate these blocks (i.e tuition refunds)?

Non-standard academic periods, while helpful, impose other complications on setup and tuition assessment.  They are typically used if the predominant number of courses require breakdown within the term.  Anything that can be done at the academic period level can also be accomplished at the course section level.  This might be a preferable option.