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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-03-14
Create Student Cohorts

Create Student Cohorts

  • Set up student cohorts.
  • For criteria-based cohorts, create either:
    • Create Custom Reports with either
      Advanced
      ,
      Search
      , or
      Simple
       report types.
    • A saved search using the
      Find Academic Records
       report.
  • Security: These domains in the Academic Advising functional area:
    • Manage: Student Cohort
    • Manage: Student Cohorts in Collections
You can create:
  • Manual cohorts, whose members you add and update manually.
  • Criteria-based cohorts, whose members you can populate and update automatically.
  • Cohort collections based on cohort types. You can then assign roles to cohort collections to enable other administrators to create, maintain, and view the cohorts to which they have access.
Consider which kind of cohort you want to create. Once you create the cohort, you can't change which kind it is.
  1. Access either of these tasks:
    • Create Student Cohort
    Security:
    Manage: Student Cohort
     domain in the Academic Advising functional area.
    • Create Student Cohort for Collection
    Security:
    Manage: Student Cohorts in Collections
     domain in the Academic Advising functional area.
    If an administrator with a role on an academic unit also has a role on a collection, it doesn't matter which task they use. Administrators with roles on the cohort collections, but not on the academic unit can use
    Create Student Cohort for Collection
    .
  2. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Academic Unit
    You can create cohorts for academic units you have access to.
    Controls who can access the cohort.
    Academic Level
    Along with the
    Academic Unit
    , controls who can access the cohort.
    Cohort Type
    Displays the cohort types that you created for the institution on the
    Maintain Student Cohort Types
     task.
    The
    Collections
     field on the
    Create Student Cohort
     task populates if the cohort types are already part of a collection.
    Collection
    • On the
      Create Student Cohort
       task, the collections associated with the cohort type display automatically.
    • On the
      Create Student Cohort for Collection
       task, select a collection. You can select a collection to define which cohort type to assign to the collection.
    You can create a collection only if you have access to the
    Set Up: Student Cohort
     domain in the Academic Advising functional area.
    Evaluate Security by Cohort
    Select to restrict administrator access to only role assignees on the cohort.
    Example: You want to limit the visibility of a private cohort for tracking sensitive student populations to only their advisor.
    You can assign a role directly on a cohort. Role assignees on a student cohort collection can inherit access to a cohort within the collection.
    If left unselected, any role assignees on the same academic unit as the cohort that have cohort permissions can still access the cohort.
  3. For a manual cohort, click
    OK
    .
  4. To create a criteria-based cohort, select
    Criteria Based
    .
    Use a saved search or custom report to define the membership criteria.
  5. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Run As User
    By default, Workday displays the user creating the cohort.
    You can use the
    Edit Student Cohort Run As User
     task (secured to the Manage: Student Cohort Run as User domain) to change the default user. You can select to run as a worker or an integrated system user (ISU) in Workday. Example: Change the
    Run As User
     value when the default user leaves the institution.
    The worker or ISU account must have access to the data source of the selected custom report, if applicable.
    Update Membership Automatically
    Select whether or not to update the cohort automatically. Workday runs a nightly job to update the cohort automatically.
    You can use the
    Configure Student Cohort Update Job
     task (secured to the
    Manage: Configure Student Cohort Update Job
     domain) to stop the nightly automatic updates for performance reasons.
    Automatic Update Ending Academic Period
    Configure Workday to stop automatic updates at the end of an academic period.
Workday makes the cohorts and cohort collections available on the
Find Student Cohorts
 and
View Student Cohort Collection
 reports.
Workday updates access for cohort role assignees.
  • For users assigned to cohorts, the security permissions you grant to their roles apply only to the academic records currently in the cohort.
  • For users assigned to cohort collections, the security permissions you grant to their roles apply to all cohorts in that collection independent of the academic unit.
  • Assign roles to the cohorts and cohort collections that you create. Select
    Roles
    Assign Roles
     from the related actions menu of a student cohort or cohort collection.
  • To edit a cohort or collection, select
    Student Cohort
    Edit
     from the related actions menu of a student cohort or cohort collection.
  • Manage membership for student cohorts.
  • Set up a role-based security group to manage membership of cohort collections.