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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-10-31
Reference: Eligibility Rules for Academic Requirements

Reference: Eligibility Rules for Academic Requirements

Academic requirements enable you to track and verify the academic progress of students toward completing their educational objectives.
You define academic requirements based on what students can do instead of what they can't.
Example:
Instead of...
You define...
For an undergraduate degree plan with 40 courses, you can't take more than 8 pass/fail courses.
For an undergraduate degree plan with 40 courses, you must take 32 graded courses.
Academic requirement eligibility rules aren’t effective-dated. You can use any eligibility rule for any version of your academic requirements and academic requirement configurations if it’s configured for the academic unit and optionally for the academic level.
You can use eligibility rules for a number of different processes, and also use the same eligibility rule for different processes. Use meaningful names for your rules to help you identify their usage. See Reference: Academic Requirements Naming Conventions.

Eligibility Rule Types for Defining Academic Requirements

You can use these types of eligibility rules to create academic requirements:
Eligibility Rule Type
Description
Related Information
Accomplishment
Verifies completion of the required
Number of Accomplishments
of the specified
Accomplishment Type
.
Example: A student has completed 1 accomplishment of this type:
Thesis
.
The academic requirement satisfies upon selection of the
Completed
check box and task submission.
Activity
Verifies completion of activities such as internships, study abroad programs, or orientations.
Example: Student has completed 1 of the following activities:
Natural Sciences Internship
.
Workday considers all requirements for an activity as satisfied after an activity completes. An activity is complete if the End Date for the offering is in the past. Workday also displays a completed status on the student's registration record if the end date is the current date or in the past. For all activity offerings that end in the future, Workday marks the registration record status as
Registered
.
Upon completion of an activity, Workday no longer displays it on the
Current Classes
report of a student profile. If you have configured the activity as an academic requirement for an academic unit and academic level or program of study, it displays as
Complete
on the
Academic Progress Report
.
Combination
Verifies completion of all or any of a specified number of a combination of selected eligibility rules.
Specifies a combination of rules in the order you configure. Each rule in the combination has a selected:
  • Qualifier
    (and/or)
  • Selector
    (any/all)
  • Eligibility rule
    (the eligibility rule might be a combination rule itself with nested rules)
Example: All of these rules in a single rule:
  • Eligibility Rule 1: 12 Units of Language option courses
  • Eligibility Rule 2:ᅠCourse 2 of FRENCH 200 Level
  • Eligibility Rule 3: Course 2 of FRENCH 300 Level
  • Eligibility Rule 4: Course 2 of ITALIAN 200 Level
  • Eligibility Rule 5: Course 2 of SPANISH 200 Level
Competency - Learning Outcome
Verifies the achievement of any or all competencies and learning outcomes specified on a course.
Workday evaluates competencies and learning outcomes earned from in-progress and completed course registrations to satisfy academic requirements.
Example: Students who have achieved:
  • Any of these learning outcomes: Understanding of International Finance, Understanding of Business Finance.
  • All of these competencies or learning outcomes: Collaborating Across Boundaries, Communication, Understanding of International Finance.
Course Requirement
Verifies completion in all, any, or a minimum number of specified courses or smart lists. You can further specify a grade criteria for completed courses. Example: A student has completed the course Introduction to Literature with a grade greater than or equal to C (A through F Grading Scheme).
(Optional) In the
Limits
grid, you can select the same courses or smart lists you selected in
Rule Details
. You can then enter the maximum number of repeatable course registrations that can count toward satisfying the academic requirement.
Example: The student has completed all 4 of the specified courses. The student can only repeat 1 of the selected courses a maximum of 2 times.
Grade Requirement
Verifies achievement of grades and GPA, such as:
  • Academic period GPA.
  • Cumulative GPA with transfer credit.
  • Primary program of study GPA.
  • Grades in the academic period.
  • Grades with specified grade category types in the academic period.
  • Grade average across courses.
Example: Students who have:
  • A cumulative GPA of 2.5, including their transfer credit.
  • Earned 4 grades greater than C in the academic period.
  • A grade average greater than or equal to 2.00 across Lower Level Business courses.
Program of Study
Verifies that the student has an active record for specific:
  • Program areas.
  • Programs of study.
  • Program of study types.
Example:
  • Program of study types: Major, Minor, or Cluster.
  • Program areas: Humanities, Liberal Arts, or STEM.
Test Achievement
Verifies scores from tests or test sections. Example: ACT, SAT, or AP Exam.
Enables you to configure that a test result satisfies an academic requirement only if taken a specific number of days before the student's matriculation date (or the academic record start date) at an institution.
Example: Alma Mater University Undergraduate level requires an SAT test result with a Total score greater than or equal to 1200 taken within 365 days prior to the start of the student's record start date.
Unit Requirement
Verifies completion of units with multiple characteristics, such as:
  • In residence, for units or units earned from internal coursework, not transfer credit.
  • From specific courses or smart lists.
  • With a certain grade.
  • From among the most recently attempted, based on the course section start date.
Workday bases unit requirements on the course repeat policy of the institution.
When you select the
has completed
option from the
Qualifier
prompt, Workday determines student eligibility using units from course sections that students have completed and received units for.
You can include a grade modifier in the unit requirement.
Example: The student has completed 12 units in residence from Biology courses 300 - 499 with a grade greater than a D.
You can also limit the number of units from specific courses or sets of courses. When you configure a limit, you’re restricting the number of units that can be counted from a selected course or activity or smart list.
Example: For 120 overall units, a student can have only 10 units from General Education courses, 4 units from Music courses, and zero units from Physical Education. You can enter a value of 0, which means no courses from the list will be used.