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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Set Up Course Waitlist Policies

Set Up Course Waitlist Policies

To reduce administrative overhead, you can configure course section waitlists to either:
  • Automatically enroll students into a course when a seat becomes available.
  • Give students a set amount of time to decide what action they want to take when a seat opens up.
When configuring course waitlist policies for an academic unit, you can create a policy for each academic level that courses are offered in. Example: When students register for courses at Alma Mater University, different course waitlist policies will apply based on the academic level of the selected course offering:
Academic Level
Waitlist Promotion Method
Description
Undergraduate
Auto Promotion
Workday automatically adds waitlisted students to a course section when there's capacity, enabling you to manage a large undergraduate population more efficiently.
Graduate
Expiration
When there's capacity in a course section, waitlisted students have a certain amount of time to join the section, defer their decision, or exit the waitlist. This grants students more control over their course schedule, including when they:
  • Attend specialized programs of study.
  • Require course schedule changes before they can join the section.
You can also configure the policy to send waitlist promotion notifications to students with certain registration restrictions. This provides them with an opportunity to resolve those restrictions and register for the courses that they need.
  1. Access the
    Maintain Course Waitlist Policy
     task.
    Complete the task:
    Field
    Description
    Include Total
    (Optional) Select the
    Include Total
     check box to display the number of waitlisted students when students view the course section. This only displays when you select the
    Display Waitlist Position
     check box.
    Students with Registration Restrictions
    Select the restrictions that students can have to receive a waitlist promotion notification. Students won't be able to register for the course until they've resolved the selected registration restrictions.
    Student Waitlist Position
    Select the waitlist position that students should have after their waitlist promotion notifications expire. Example: Removed from the waitlist.
    Expiration Limit
    (Optional) Enter the number of times a student’s waitlist promotion notification can expire before Workday removes them from the waitlist.
    When you enter
    0
    , Workday won’t make changes to the student’s waitlist position. Examples: At Alma Mater University, you set an
    Expiration Limit
     of:
    • 1 for undergraduate accounting courses due to their high demand.
    • 3 for continuing education courses as those students tend to have full-time jobs and aren't consistently checking their notifications.
  2. Select
    Enable Waitlisting Into Open Course Sections
     to enable students to join waitlists for course sections with a status of
    Open
    .
    Example: Aaron Day plans to register for BIOL 101 in the upcoming semester. To complete BIOL 101, students must complete a Lecture component and a Laboratory component:
    Course Section
    Course Component
    Meeting Pattern
    Section Status
    BIOL 101-1
    Lecture
    Tuesday | 9:30 - 10:20AM
    Open
    BIOL 101-2
    Laboratory
    Monday/Wednesday | 9:30 AM - 11:20 AM
    Open
    BIOL 101-3
    Laboratory
    Tuesday/Thursday | 10:30 AM - 12:20 PM
    Waitlist
    However, Aaron can't register for BIOL 101 because BIOL 101-2 is the only available Laboratory component and the meeting pattern conflicts with his current course schedule. Since Alma Mater University enables students to waitlist into open course sections, Aaron can join the waitlists for both BIOL 101-1 and BIOL 101-3. Then, Aaron can enroll in BIOL 101 once there's available capacity for BIOL 101-3.
    Security:
    Set Up: Academic Records
     domain in the Student Records functional area.