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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Students can't drop, withdraw from, or swap registrations that have unpublished pending grades.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 Drop and Withdrawals

With Workday Student, students can easily manage their schedule 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
Task
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 concurrently. When you swap instead of dropping and reregistering students for courses, you and students can:
  • 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: The enrollment unit limit policy at Alma Mater University enables students to register for up to 15 units per academic period. Aaron Day has already registered for all 15 units, which includes ENGL 103. Aaron now wants to complete ENGL 105 instead of ENGL 103, but the policy prevents him from registering for ENGL 105 without dropping ENGL 103 first. Additionally, ENGL 103 now has a section status of
Waitlist
, meaning Aaron can't reregister for ENGL 103 once he drops it. Aaron decides to swap the courses instead, since he won't lose his place in ENGL 103 if he's ineligible for ENGL 105.
You can help students swap courses using the
Swap Course Registrations for Student
task (secured to the
Manage: Registration Actions
domain).