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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-12-12
Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress Policies

Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress Policies

Security:
Set Up: Satisfactory Academic Progress
 domain in the Financial Aid functional area.
You can create a policy that defines satisfactory academic progress (SAP) conditions and standards that students have to meet to receive financial aid. Students are subject to the SAP policy that you assign to their academic unit and level or their program of study.
When you create an SAP policy for an academic unit and level, the policy applies to:
  • All programs of study in the academic unit.
  • Programs offered by subordinate academic units.
When you evaluate SAP, Workday first takes into consideration:
  • All graded registrations with a status of
    Completed
     or
    Withdrawn
    .
  • Articulated registrations or transfer credits.
Workday then refers to your selections on the
Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy
 task to filter out graded registrations. Each configuration option on the task automatically omits all course registrations that previous options exclude.
Workday always excludes course registrations with these grading bases:
  • Audit from every SAP measure.
  • Pass/Fail from the GPA SAP measure.
  1. Access the
    Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy
     task.
  2. Select an academic unit and level or program of study.
  3. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Evaluation Frequency
    Select to evaluate SAP for students each:
    • Academic Period
      . Workday calculates SAP on an academic period basis by looking at registrations only in that period.
    • Financial Aid Award Year
      . Workday calculates SAP annually by taking into consideration the accumulation of registrations across all the award year periods up to the last award year period.
    Exclude Courses Not Satisfying Program Requirements
    Select the SAP measures to exclude the courses from SAP evaluation that don't satisfy academic requirements.
    Example: When you select GPA, Workday excludes courses from the GPA SAP measure for which a student doesn’t fulfill academic requirements when it performs SAP calculations.
    Exclude Articulated Registration
    Select the SAP measures to exclude transfer credits from during SAP evaluation.
    Workday only includes transfer credit in SAP evaluations when it meets the requirements of the financial aid period record after the credits transfer to your institution.
    When Workday excludes transfer credits from SAP evaluation, it doesn't include them in future evaluations, even when they meet requirements of future academic records.
    Example: A student has transfer credits for Fall 2021 but they don't meet the requirements for that period. Workday excludes the transfer credits from SAP evaluations. When a requirement changes for Spring 2022, Workday excludes the Fall 2021 transfer credits in Spring 2022 SAP evaluations even when they meet the new requirements.
    Exclude Smart List
    Select up to 2 smart lists to exclude from SAP evaluation and the SAP measures to exclude each list from.
    When you exclude 2 smart lists, ensure that they don't share any courses. Otherwise, Workday might exclude the shared courses from SAP standards in unexpected ways.
    Include All Graded Registration
    Select to display the
    Exclude Grade Category Type
     prompt.
    Whether or not you select the check box, Workday always:
    • Includes all graded course registrations except the ones that the previous options exclude.
    • Excludes course registrations that are associated with the Audit grading basis.
    Exclude Grade Category Type
    Displays when you select the
    Include All Graded Registration
     check box.
    Workday always excludes course registrations that are associated with the Audit grading basis.
    Qualitative GPA
    Create a calculation that returns the minimum cumulative GPA students need to meet to pass SAP.
    Quantitative Pace
    Enter the minimum pace for students to complete the program of study. You can specify up to 2 decimal places.
    Workday calculates pace for a student by dividing the total units completed by the total units attempted for all academic periods.
    When you evaluate SAP, Workday rounds to the second decimal place. Example: When you enter a quantitative pace of 67, students with a pace of 66.99% fail the standard.
    Maximum Timeframe
    Workday calculates the maximum timeframe by dividing the total units completed by the clock or credit units for the program of study as defined in its federal student aid program policy.
    When you evaluate SAP, Workday rounds to the second decimal place. Example: When you enter a maximum timeframe of 150, students with the maximum timeframe of 150.01% fail the standard.
    Do Not Place on Warning
    Select to bypass the
    Warning
     status when students fail to meet 1 or more SAP standards and send them straight to
    Failed
     status.
    Auto Failed if All F's
    Select to assign students a
    Failed
     SAP status when they fail all courses in the current or most recent period.
    Workday omits the courses that you exclude from SAP evaluation using the
    Exclude Smart List
     option.
    Grade elements on a grading scheme that you assign a grade category type of
    Administrative Failure
     or
    Failure
     are deemed failures for SAP.
This example illustrates how Workday uses your configurations on the
Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy
 task to filter out graded registrations.
The program of study Music Major contains these graded courses:
  • MUSC 101
  • MUSC 102
  • MUSC 111
  • MUSC 112
  • MUSC 115
The course MUSC 102 doesn't satisfy program requirements, MUSC 112 is a developmental course, and MUSC 102, MUSC 112, and MUSC 115 are articulated registrations.
On the
Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy
 task, you have configured your SAP policy to exclude:
  • Courses that don't satisfy program requirements.
  • Developmental courses.
  • Articulated registrations.
Therefore, when you evaluate SAP, Workday:
  1. Reviews all graded courses for Music Major program, and excludes MUSC 102 as it doesn't satisfy program requirements.
  2. Reviews all courses except MUSC 102, and excludes course 112 as it is a developmental course. It doesn't consider MUSC 102 as it was already excluded because it didn't satisfy program requirements.
  3. Reviews all courses except MUSC 102 and MUSC 112, and excludes course MUSC 115 as it is an articulated registration. It doesn't review MUSC 102 and MUSC 112, even though they are articulated registrations, as they were already excluded due to the previous configuration options.
  • Run the
    Academic Unit Policy Viewer
     report to review SAP policies for a specific academic unit and level or program of study.
  • To view the courses you exclude from SAP evaluation, select
    View Satisfactory Academic Progress History for Period
    View Details
     from the related actions menu of a financial aid period record on the student attendance plan.