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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-09-19
Concept: Registration Drops, Withdrawals and Swaps

Concept: Registration Drops, Withdrawals and Swaps

After students register for courses, you and students can modify those course registrations by dropping, withdrawing from, or swapping them.
Students can modify their course registrations using the
Actions
 column in the
My Enrolled Courses
 grid on the
Current Classes
 report in the Academics profile group of their student profile. They can also access the same report to view details about their modified registrations.
Students can't drop, withdraw from, or swap registrations that have unpublished pending grades. You can remove pending grades using the
Assign Student Grades
 task (secured to the
Student Grade Update Event
 business process).

Course Drops and Withdrawals

With Workday Student, students can easily manage their schedules by adding and dropping courses during their:
  • Enrollment window.
  • Registration appointment.
After those periods, students must withdraw from courses and receive a grade of
W
 instead.
You can enable students to drop and withdraw from courses independently when you configure these date controls on the
Maintain Academic Period Date Controls
 task (secured to the
Set Up: Academic Calendar Controls and Dates
 domain):
  • Drop Without Record End
     to define the last date to drop a course without a record. Workday displays the course as
    Unregistered
     on their academic record instead of a withdrawal.
  • Drop With W Grade End
     to define the last date to withdraw from a course with a
    Withdraw
     grade.
You can also configure:
  • Grades with a
    Withdraw
     grade category type on the
    Create Student Grading Scheme
     task (secured to the
    Set Up: Grading and GPA
     domain).
  • The
    Registration Withdraw Event
     business process. Workday saves the
    Withdraw
     grade on a student record when the business process completes.
You can modify course registrations for students when you:
Registration Action
Description
Drop courses.
Withdraw from courses.
From the related actions menu of a student's course registration, select
Student Course Registration
Withdraw
Withdraw Student Course Registration
.

Course Swaps

Swaps enable you and students to drop and add courses, course sections, and course section clusters concurrently. You can help students swap courses when you select
Actions
Swap
 from the
Current Classes
 report on the Academics profile group of a student.
When you swap instead of dropping and reregistering students for courses, you and students can:
  • Manage course registrations more efficiently.
  • Bypass enrollment unit limits that require students to drop a course before registering for another one.
  • Prevent students from losing their place in the course for which they're already registered. This protects students when they're unsuccessful in registering for a new course.
Example: Due to scheduling preferences, Aaron wants to make these changes to his course registrations:
Scenario
Description
Replace ENGL 103 with ENGL 105. However:
  • The enrollment unit limit policy at Alma Mater University enables students to register for up to 15 units per academic period. Since Aaron has already registered for all 15 units, he can't register for ENGL 105 without dropping ENGL 103 first.
  • ENGL 103 also now has a section status of
    Waitlist
    , meaning Aaron can't reregister for the course if he drops it.
Given those reasons, Aaron decides to swap the courses, since he won't lose his place in ENGL 103 if he's ineligible for ENGL 105.
Swap course sections in BIOL 101.
Currently, Aaron is registered for:
  • A course section cluster consisting of BIOL 101-1 (lecture) and BIOL 101-2 (lab).
  • BIOL 101-3 (optional tutorial).
He wants to replace the course section cluster with a different one that contains:
  • BIOL 101-4 (lecture)
  • BIOL 101-5 (lab)
To swap these course section clusters at once, Aaron:
  1. Selects
    New Section
    .
  2. Deselects
    BIOL 101-1
     and
    BIOL 101-2
    .
  3. Selects
    BIOL 101-4
     and
    BIOL 101-5
    .
  4. Deselects
    BIOL 101-3
     as well, after deciding he no longer needs it.
  5. Clicks
    OK
    .
Once the swap completes, he'll be registered for BIOL 101-4 and BIOL 101-5, and will no longer be registered for any tutorial course sections.