Setup Considerations: Financial Aid Rules for Programs of Study
You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of federal student aid (FSA) program policies for programs of study. It explains:
- Why to set them up.
- How they fit into the rest of Workday.
- Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
- Security requirements and business process configurations.
- Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.
What It Is
FSA program policies define financial aid rules for programs of study, such as:
- Title IV eligibility.
- The federal grants, loans, and Work-Study that you can award students.
- The types of terms that the program of study uses.
Business Benefits
FSA program policies give you the flexibility to support diverse financial aid rules for different programs of study. Programs of study and academic units can inherit policies from superior academic units, saving you the effort of defining a policy for each program of study. You can also override the inheritance for an academic unit or program of study, giving you a more granular level of control when needed.
Use Cases
You can configure different FSA program policies to support financial aid rules for each program of study. Examples:
- Programs in the College of Arts & Sciences are eligible for Title IV aid, but programs in the Agricultural Studies Department aren’t.
- Certain programs have Summer as the first academic period of the academic year, while others have it as the final period.
- Some programs support Borrower-Based Academic Year 1 (BBAY 1) terms, while others require Borrower-Based Academic Year 3 (BBAY 3) terms.
- Programs in the English Department have a different minimum course requirement for satisfactory academic progress (SAP) than programs in the Music Department.
Questions to Consider
Questions | Considerations |
|---|---|
What is the academic structure of my institution? | The hierarchy of the academic units in your academic structure drives the inheritance of policies. If any subordinate academic units or programs of study require a different policy, you must override the inheritance by creating a different policy for it. Each override adds complexity and introduces opportunities for inadvertently inheriting the wrong policy. |
Which programs of study are eligible for Title IV aid? | Title IV eligibility is a major variance between programs of study. Having many instances of eligible and ineligible academic units subordinate to each other increases the risk that a student ineligible for Title IV aid will receive it. Think carefully about the impacts of inheritance as you configure your policies. |
How do I want to calculate load statuses for students in multiple programs of study? | You can specify whether Workday should include all coursework that fulfills academic requirements, or just a subset, when calculating load statuses. Verify that you understand the different academic record scenarios that your institution supports and their impacts on load status calculations. |
Recommendations
- Consider policy inheritance when defining your academic structure to minimize the number of policies you must override.
- Evaluate your academic structure to determine the number of policies you require. At a minimum, most schools require separate policies for programs of study that:
- Are eligible for Title IV aid.
- Aren't eligible for Title IV aid.
- Calculate load statuses differently.
- Define the academic year differently.
- Define programs differently.
Workday recommends that you have a policy for all programs of study to help build your attendance plans better.
Requirements
Configure FSA program policies for all programs of study, including programs that don't support FSA. Workday uses the load status and academic period definitions specified in FSA program policies to report on financial aid.
Limitations
No impact.
Tenant Setup
No impact.
Security
Users with access to the
Set Up: Financial Aid Rule Sets and Policies
domain in the Financial Aid functional area can configure and maintain FSA program policies.Business Processes
No impact.
Reporting
You can use the
Academic Unit Policy Viewer
report to:
- View the effective dates of your FSA program policies for a specific academic unit or program of study.
- Drill into the details of an FSA program policy.
Integrations
No impact.
Connections and Touchpoints
FSA program policies interact with these other areas in Workday:
Features | Considerations |
|---|---|
Financial Aid Attendance Plans | Workday uses the Default Load Status (POS) Configuration on FSA program policies to calculate program of study (POS) load statuses on financial aid attendance plans.
Attendance plans have a significant role in calculating cost of attendance, packaging awards, and disbursing awards. They also support student charges and student payments. |
Award Packaging | Programs of study that are eligible for Title IV aid can award FSA. If you're awarding Pell Grants, FSA program policies specify the Pell formula and the academic year definition that Pell calculations use. |
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) | When evaluating SAP for a student, Workday uses the FSA program policy of their program of study to calculate pace and maximum timeframe. |
Financial Aid Reporting | FSA program policies provide the required program of study details when reporting to:
|
Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships across your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.