Organizations and Academic Foundation
Overview
Organizations group resources, students, workers, and costs to support institutional functions. Workday supports several organization types, but the primary organizational type used in Workday Student is the academic unit. Academic units group and track nearly everything your institution administers: programs, academic appointments, academic levels, and all of the processes used in managing students and prospects.
In this chapter, you will focus on building the academic structure of your institution. You will configure academic units, define academic levels and time periods, create programs of study, and configure educational credentials. Along the way, you will reference other organization types, such as supervisory organization, company, and cost center.
Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Identify the organization types used in Workday Student.
- Define academic units.
- Define and configure academic levels.
- Define academic time periods.
- Identify the details of the academic unit policy framework.
- Define programs of study and program of study types.
- Define educational credentials.
Academic Foundation
Academic structures are built from several components. As you build each piece, you combine them into a hierarchical structure that represents your institution. To define your academic foundation, configure the following:
- Academic Units
- Academic Unit Subtypes
- Academic Levels
- Academic Calendars
- Academic Periods
- Academic Years
- Program of Study Types
- Programs of Study
- Educational Credentials
The following image outlines the components that make up an academic structure.
Academic Units
Academic units are the foundation of Workday Student. They represent the colleges, schools, departments, and other units of your institution, such as School of Medicine or English department. Academic units drive ownership and access to data within your institution. Use academic units to:
- Assign appointments.
- Facilitate business process configuration and role assignments.
Specify which units can:
- Admit students
- Offer courses
- Offer programs of study
- Recruit students
Academic Units Institutional Designation
You can also designate an academic unit as an institution independently from creating an academic unit, streamlining how you create institutions. This feature also supports maintaining multiple institutions in a single Workday tenant.
Use the separately secured
Edit Institution Designation
task to designate an academic unit as an institution as well as remove the institution designation. You can access this task only from the Edit Institution Designation Related Actions menu of:- An academic unit designated as an institution.
- Academic units that do not have a superior or subordinate academic unit designated as institution.
Note
: You cannot remove the institutional designation of academic units if you have already configured objects that are associated with the institution.Academic Unit Configuration Options
The following are brief descriptions of each of these configuration options.
Configuration Option | Description |
|---|---|
Admit Students | Used to create applicants and define admissions eligibility, requirements, assessments, and cohorts for a given academic level. |
Offer Courses | Used to offer courses for a given academic level. |
Offer Programs of Study | Used to create and offer programs of study for a given academic level. |
Recruit Students | Used to create student recruiting cycles, campaigns, events, and prospects for a given academic level. |
Academic Unit Subtypes
Use academic unit subtypes to classify your academic units. Examples include school, department, institute, center, or college. Define these subtypes to reflect the different organizations at your institution. You can then create academic units appropriate for your institution's academic unit structure.
Use the
Maintain Academic Unit Subtypes
task to edit or add academic subtypes. Access the View Academic Unit Subtypes
report to view a full list and the details of academic unit subtypes.Academic Unit Structure
After defining the academic unit subtypes your institution uses, you can build your institutional academic structure. When building the academic structure, start by creating the different academic units to represent each organization at your institution. After you create the academic units, you can connect each academic unit to a superior academic unit. These connections result in a single hierarchical structure that reflects your organization's actual academic structure.
Each academic unit can contain one or more academic levels. Each of those levels can admit students, offer courses, offer programs of study, and recruit prospects. An academic unit inherits role assignments and business process definitions from its superior academic unit, if there is one. Additionally, depending on the setup, subordinate academic units can inherit level configurations from a superior academic unit.
If you wish to recruit students, admit students, and offer programs of study and courses, at a minimum, you must configure the highest academic unit.
You can assign workers to a specific role on an academic unit, such as a Student Recruiter or Student Admissions Reviewer. This role applies to that academic unit and any subordinate academic units.
Note
: For Workday Student, Workday recommends that you assign roles and configure business processes for the top-most superior academic unit. You can then modify business processes and directly assign roles for subordinate units where necessary.Touchpoint
: Workday also uses academic units for academic appointments in Workday Human Capital Management (Workday HCM) to track a person's academic career with your institution. Appointments could be for active, terminated, emeritus faculty, clinical faculty, contingent workers, or visiting academics. A faculty member may have more than one concurrent academic appointment. For example, a faculty member may have an appointment as a Professor in the Chemistry department and an appointment as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.Academic Unit Hierarchies
Academic Unit Hierarchies support rollup reporting. They also facilitate academic appointment business process configuration and role inheritance. Each Academic Unit Hierarchy can be a single node that is part of a larger hierarchy or tree. Once you design and build the tree, you can include individual academic units in the appropriate Academic Unit Hierarchy node.
You can include the same academic unit in more than one Academic Unit Hierarchy on different trees. However, if you use hierarchies for appointment-related business processes, you should create one main Academic Unit Hierarchy to manage these business process configurations. After establishing this main Academic Unit Hierarchy, assign roles to the hierarchy to route business process actions.
You can create additional Academic Unit Hierarchies by school or discipline for reporting purposes only. A multiple-hierarchy structure provides flexibility for rollup reporting. Ensure you assign only reporting roles to the additional hierarchies rather than roles that participate in business processes.
Academic Unit Hierarchies do not have directly assigned academic appointments. Instead, the system assigns appointments to the academic units within the hierarchies. You can use hierarchies to report on the academic appointments assigned to the units within the hierarchy structure.
Academic Unit Reorganization
If you need to reorganize your academic structure, Workday provides a framework for you to identify the objects preventing you from assigning a new superior academic unit and lists the conflicts in a report. The report listing the conflicts preventing reorganization helps in preventing organizational setup errors downstream.
Use the View Reorganization Conflicts button on the
Assign Superior Academic Unit
task that displays the new View Reorganization Conflicts for Academic Units
report.From the academic unit, you can access this task as a Related Action by selecting
Academic Unit > Assign Superior
. After you select a new superior academic unit, select the View Reorganization Conflicts button to view any conflicts that prevent you from assigning the new superior academic unit.Academic Levels
Academic levels are the level of an educational objective that a student can achieve at your institution. Examples include undergraduate, graduate, professional, or associate. Use the
Maintain Academic Levels
task to define the academic levels that your institution uses.Levels in Academic Structure
Each academic unit can have one or more academic levels associated with it. You can configure each level to:
- Admit students: Create applicants and define admissions eligibility, requirements, assessments, and groupings for the academic unit and level.
- Offer courses: Offer courses for that academic unit and level.
- Offer programs of study: Create programs of study for the academic unit and level.
- Recruit students: Create student recruiting cycles, campaigns, events, and prospects for the academic unit and level.
If you do not configure an academic unit for a level, the next superior academic unit with that configuration performs those functions. For example, in the following graphic, Alma Mater University did not configure the College of Arts and Sciences to admit undergraduate students. Therefore, the system assigns an undergraduate application to a department other than music to Alma Mater University as the next highest academic unit configured to admit undergraduates.
Academic Unit Policies
It is important to understand how academic policies inherit through an academic structure. Academic policies provide a flexible framework to streamline many student and financial aid-related processes your institution uses. Common academic unit policies include:
- Calendar Policy
- Class Standing Policy
- Load Status Policy
- Enrollment Access and Grading Policy
- Academic Standing Policy
- Course Unit Type Policy
- Course Repeat Policy
- Federal Student Aid Program Policy
- Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy
- Cost of Attendance Reaction Policy
You will learn about the details of some of these policies later in this course. Academic units hold policy configurations for students at certain academic levels. It is common for a university to set policies on a more top-level academic unit or level combination and inherit the policies down through the academic unit hierarchy. As you plan your academic structure, consider how you will configure student and financial aid policies for each academic unit and academic level combination.
Policy Configurations for Programs of Study
Policies are also configurable for individual programs of study. However, these manual configurations can be very time consuming as you add or change programs at your institution. A typical problem is configuring financial aid policies for many programs of study. One remedy for this situation is to build out your academic unit and level combinations to a more granular level. For example, some schools configure academic levels as granular as the degrees offered, maintaining a different level for Associate, Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate, and so on.
Example Academic Structures
The following graphics show example academic structures. View these graphics to understand the relationship between academic units, academic levels, and academic unit configurations.
Four Year University Sample Structure
Community College Sample Structure
Research University Sample Structure
Liberal Arts College Sample Structure
Academic Structure Configuration Considerations
When planning the academic structure in your tenant, it is important to consider a few factors that affect how your structure operates. The following list of considerations provides a starting point for you to think about how your academic unit structures interact with each other. Explore these considerations and make these decisions part of the planning process so your academic structure works as efficiently as possible.
Who Does the Work?
Ask yourself this question as you plan your structure. Make your configurations as specific as possible, avoiding overlapping responsibilities of academic units. Only configure academic units for the work that workers perform in that unit. If a particular academic unit will not be recruiting students, offering courses, or otherwise "doing the work," consider which academic unit above or below it will.
Where in Your Institution Are Classes Offered?
Consider what level of the academic unit hierarchy will offer actual courses. Do schools offer courses? Or do the schools house the departments that offer courses? Make these formative decisions early in the planning process to avoid confusion and reconfiguration during your academic structure build.
Where Should the Programs of Study Be Configured?
Think about which academic unit will be responsible for offering a particular program of study. Will the Mathematics department house every math-related program? Or does Physics need its own separate department with a more specific set of requirements for program completion?
Which Academic Units Will Recruit and/or Admit Students?
Consider the recruitment or application requirements for prospective students. A higher-level academic unit, like a school or college, might have more overarching or generally applicable requirements. A lower-level academic unit, like a department, may have more specific and rigorous requirements in addition to the ones defined at the school or college above it.
Academic Calendars, Periods, and Years
Academic periods are the fixed date ranges defined by your institution. These periods make up an academic year and typically consist of semesters or quarters. You can define these fixed periods down to a specific date. You can then associate these academic periods with an academic year. An academic calendar serves as a template that defines the standard format for an academic year, e.g., a semester containing a fall, spring, and summer period. The table below provides examples of how you can configure a semester or quarter academic calendar for an academic year.
Academic Calendar | Academic Year | Academic Periods |
|---|---|---|
Semester Academic Calendar | 2026 - 2027 Academic Year | 2026 Fall Semester 2027 Spring Semester 2027 Summer Session |
Quarter Academic Calendar | 2026 - 2027 Quarter Academic Year | 2026 Fall Quarter 2027 Winter Quarter 2027 Spring Quarter 2027 Summer Quarter |
Note
: You must assign a calendar to the program of study, academic unit, or a superior academic unit to be available for selection.To define your institution's date ranges, define, in order:
- Academic Period Types
- Academic Calendars
- Academic Years
- Academic Periods
Academic Period Types
To define your institution's calendars, years, and periods, first define the academic period types that your system will use. Period types are typically a seasonal date range associated with a specific period in your academic year. These standard periods serve as the reporting window or windows for your academic calendar. They are usually the main periods, such as Fall, Spring, and Summer. Each calendar must have at least one standard period. If your calendar has multiple standard periods, they should be contiguous with no overlap.
Before you can create an academic calendar structure containing these periods, you must define these individual period types in your system. You can use the
Maintain Academic Period Types
task to configure these period types in your system before you create your calendar structures.Academic Calendars
After you configure academic period types, you can create an academic calendar structure. Use this calendar structure to create your institution's academic years. When creating an academic calendar, identify each of the period types you will use in an academic year. You can reuse this structure to create multiple academic years.
With an academic calendar structure in place, you can create an academic year that defines the specific dates for the academic periods within that year. The institution will continue to use this calendar structure for subsequent years.
Holiday Calendars
In addition to the period types you include on an academic calendar, you can also add a set of noninstructional days to an academic calendar. This allows you to identify national holidays, winter break, spring break, and other noninstructional days on an academic calendar. The system automatically adds these days to any academic years that use this calendar.
To configure these noninstructional days, use the
Create Holiday Calendar
task to create a list of planned academic holidays. Afterwards, you can identify this list in the Non-Instructional Days field on the Create Academic Calendar
task.Academic Years
When establishing the academic years for your institution, start by creating an initial academic year. Here, identify the academic calendar structure previously configured to contain all of the necessary academic period types. This allows you to define the specific dates for the academic year. When creating an academic year, define the start, end, and standard end dates for each period defined in the academic calendar.
The Start and End dates mark the date range for academic instruction during an academic period. The Standard End Date field represents the end of the reporting window for an academic period.
Note
: By default, Workday automatically sets the standard start date as the day after the previous standard end date.After configuring the initial academic year, subsequent academic years inherit the date parameters from the initial year. You can edit the dates as necessary when creating new academic years.
Academic Periods
In Workday Student you can create fixed academic periods or dynamic academic periods. Now, explore each of these period types in more detail.
Fixed Academic Periods
Most often, you will create fixed academic periods. Fixed academic periods have a defined start and end date. Workday Student has many tasks and processes that prompt you to select an academic period. When you select a fixed period, the system uses the defined start and end dates for that period. For example, if you create a student prospect for the Fall 2026 academic period, Workday automatically populates the anticipated start date as the defined Start Date of the Fall 2026 academic period.
Dynamic Academic Periods
In addition to selecting fixed periods, users can select dynamic period entry dates. Dynamic period entry dates let you select a specific date instead of an academic period.
For example, you can configure an academic unit to recruit and admit students using both fixed and dynamic periods. If a student prospect applies to an academic unit you configured for fixed periods only, they must select an academic period (e.g., Fall 2026). If a student prospect applies to an academic unit configured for dynamic periods, they can instead enter a date that they anticipate starting.
Dynamic period entry allows you to create a student prospect or application without tying them to an academic period. The system uses the anticipated start date to sort students into application groupings and pools based on whatever academic period includes the anticipated start date. Additionally, you can create dynamic course registration dates for any courses that you did not specifically tie to a fixed academic period in your system.
Nonstandard Academic Periods
Nonstandard periods are fixed periods that do not represent the main periods of the year. Nonstandard periods may overlap other fixed periods (e.g., intercessions or express periods). Workday defines these nonstandard academic period types in the same way as standard periods. However, you will not select the Standard checkbox when adding nonstandard periods to an academic calendar.
Defining Nonstandard Academic Period Dates
When you create an initial academic year using a calendar with identified nonstandard periods, you can also identify the date ranges for these periods. Note that you can add nonstandard periods to an academic calendar structure at any time, even if there are already academic years using that calendar.
For example, you can use the
Add Nonstandard Periods to Academic Calendar
task to add a new nonstandard period to the Semester Academic Calendar at AMU. Doing so adds the new nonstandard period to all academic years using that calendar structure. This functionality provides tremendous flexibility for your institution. You can create nonstandard periods to represent any period of time in an academic year to suit your institution's needs.Nonstandard Academic Period Records
You can configure distinct academic period records for your nonstandard academic period types. This enables you to process coursework and student statistics based on nonstandard academic periods. It also allows you to display them separately on students' academic history and transcripts, giving you more flexibility to meet your unique institutional needs.
Additional Training
: For more information on Nonstandard Academic Period Records, go to Workday Community.Editing Start and End Dates
Workday enables you to change start and end dates in a single location and with fewer restrictions. When you adjust dates for calendars and periods that already contain transactions, Workday provides additional guidance for updating downstream data. This gives you more flexibility to make changes to meet the needs of your institution while maintaining data integrity.
Access the
Edit Academic Period Dates
task to change the weeks of instruction or the standard start, start, end, or standard end dates for existing academic periods. When you change dates using this task, Workday automatically updates these items for the impacted academic periods, academic years, and calendar policies:- Athletic team assignments and student residency data in the Student Core product area.
- Student applications, student application evaluation information, and student recruitment in the Prospective Student product area.
- The values for date controls calculated from your date control rules for only dates that remain in the future.
Academic Calendar Configuration Considerations
When creating the academic calendars for your institution, here are a couple considerations to keep in mind.
Academic Calendar Policy Considerations
Academic calendar policies define:
- The academic calendar
- Typical attendance patterns
- Student unit type for an academic unit and level or program of study.
Subordinate academic units then inherit these configurations. Workday effective-dates these policies, enabling you to change the calendar over time without impacting earlier academic years. For example, your institution can move from a quarter calendar to a semester calendar as of a given effective date.
Also consider the typical attendance pattern and student unit type policy defined on a calendar policy. The typical attendance pattern policy defines the periods a student usually attends in the standard periods of an academic year (e.g., fall and spring). The student unit type policy defines the type of course units the students within this academic unit earn by default (e.g., units, clock hours). If students take courses with a different unit type, those courses convert to the unit type defined in this policy.
Programs of Study Considerations
Make sure you have enough academic calendars and academic years to accommodate the longest program of study that your institution offers. For example, if your institution offers four-year programs, you must have at least four years' worth of academic calendars and years configured. This aspect of the configuration is especially important when building an initial deployment of Workday Student. Having enough calendars and years configured is crucial for curriculum management, attendance plans, student financials, and financial aid.
Multiple Calendar Configuration Considerations
At times, your institution may need to define additional calendar structures that differ from the set of standard periods you set for an academic year. This often occurs when specific programs of study in your institution operate on a different timeline than the standard set of academic periods. For example, your institution may have medical school, law school, or international programs that require students to perform coursework during date ranges that differ from the standard dates used by other programs.
You can create additional academic calendars for these types of programs and configure them using academic calendar policies. Remember that doing so may create issues later when managing student financials. Be sure to consider aspects like tuition due dates, rolling due dates, or charge dates when planning the academic calendars for your institution.
Academic Period Configuration Considerations
There are additional aspects of academic periods that are important to consider when configuring your institution's academic calendars. Remember, academic periods drive many of the key processes that your institution runs on.
Workday Student Area | Academic Period Impact |
|---|---|
Student Recruiting | Anticipated Start : A prospect's anticipated start period can affect campus engagement plans and eligibility rules used in recruiting events. |
Admissions | Application Grouping : Workday sorts a student prospect into application groupings based on their Anticipated Start academic period or date. When you publish admissions decisions for that grouping, make sure the system correctly included the student. |
Academic Advising | Use academic periods to create attendance patterns to indicate if students at your institution typically attend the fall and spring semesters, for example. Use typical attendance patterns to create academic plans for students, which recommend what courses to take or academic requirements to satisfy for each academic period. |
Student Records | Curriculum management ties directly to academic periods; your institution needs to offer a certain number of sections per year to ensure student success. It is important to keep in mind how many academic periods are available to allow students to successfully complete a program of study within an allotted time. |
Student Financials | Creating multiple academic calendars with a variety of academic period types can create serious issues with your institution's financial management. The standard academic periods you define in your academic year determines all the tuition charge dates, due dates, and rolling due dates. |
Financial Aid | The dates defined in standard academic periods determine financial aid. Create and configure any non-standard periods with this fact in mind. Ensure students will be able to receive financial aid in a timely matter so that they will not become ineligible for course sections they need. Additionally, the system calculates financial aid awards based on weeks of instruction and cost of attendance. The academic periods configured within an academic year determine these aspects. Configure the periods to ensure that students receive the full financial aid package they require. |
Academic Policies
In Workday Student, there are several key academic policies that you can configure for your individual academic units. These policies provide a flexible way to streamline processes for your institution. By setting up academic policies, you reduce manual effort and ensure consistency in student processes. The following are the common academic unit policies and their descriptions:
Academic Policy | Description |
|---|---|
Academic Standing Policy | Defines the rules to evaluate the academic standing of a student for an academic period. For example, define the grade requirements to identify students who meet minimum honors grade requirements. |
Calendar Policy | Defines the calendar, typical attendance pattern, and student unit type for an academic unit and level, or specific program of study, for a period of time. |
Class Standing Policy | Defines rules for Workday-delivered class standings, such as Freshman, Second Year, or 3L. Classifies students so that Workday can correctly process registration and financial aid. |
Course Attempt Limit Policy | Defines the number of times a student may attempt a course for credit. |
Course Repeat Policy | Determines if the last attempt or best attempt is used in course repeat processing. |
Course Unit Type Policy | Defines the default and allowed unit types for courses by academic unit and level. Workday uses this information in unit conversion. When the course unit type is different from the unit type of the program of study, Workday converts the units based on rules you set up. Workday provides support for course unit type policies across multiple academic units and institutions, by enabling you to specify the allowed and default unit types for an individual policy. |
Enrollment Access and Grading Policy | Defines which students can enroll in which courses, as well as the grading scheme used for the courses. |
Load Status Policy | Defines minimum units of credit or clock hours that constitute the Workday-delivered load status values, like part-time, or full-time. Used for institutional purposes, such as tuition calculation and enrollment verification, and also factors into financial aid eligibility. |
Payment Plan Policy | Enables students to pay for their tuition and other charges in installments over time, instead of upfront. These payment plans can be specific to an academic unit and level or program of study. |
Transfer Grade Mapping Policy | Determines how grades from external institutions map to the grades at your institution. Students are subject to the grade-mapping rules you assign to their academic unit and level or their program of study. |
Viewing Academic Unit Policies
You can view the policies assigned to an academic unit from the academic unit profile. You can also use the
View Academic Unit
report or the View Academic Unit Policies as of Date
report to view the academic policies for your academic units. These reports shows which policies you specifically configure for an academic unit and which inherit from a superior academic unit.Additionally, you can view all policies for institutions, academic units and levels, and program of studies on the Academic Unit Policy Viewer. On the Academic Unit Policy Viewer, you can select more than one policy in the Academic Policy prompt when you select Institution. Institutional policies are policies that you can configure only at the institution level. These policies apply to all academic units and programs of study within the institution. You can only view policies for the institutions and academic units to which you have access.
On the Academic Unit Policy Viewer, you can select more than one policy in the Academic Policy prompt when you select either:
For Academic Unit/Academic Level, you can select:
- Academic Unit/Academic Level
- Program of Study
For Program of Study, you can also select one or more programs of study.
- One or more academic units.
- One or more optional academic levels for the selected academic units.
If you leave the Academic Policy prompt blank, Workday returns all policies except institutional policies.
Creating Academic Policies
Create academic policies by defining the policy and then assigning that policy to an academic unit and level or program of study. Subordinate academic units and levels or programs of study inherit policies unless you override them. Students are then subject to the policies on their program of study or academic unit and level.
Calendar Policy Configurations
The calendar policy is a unique policy configuration in your tenant, as it contains two additional policies within its configuration. When defining a calendar policy, you also:
- Define a typical attendance policy.
- Identify the student unit type to use with the identified calendar structure.
Typical Attendance Pattern
Workday automatically creates the Student Financials Period Record (SFPR) when a student matriculates. The SFPR builds based on the primary program of study of the student's reporting record. It uses the primary program of study's anticipated start date and ends with the expected completion date.
Note
: SFPRs are not created for applicants.Programs of Study
Programs of study (POS) represent the educational objectives offered by your institution. For example, a POS could be a Biology major through which a student can achieve a Bachelor of Science degree or a Culinary Arts program that results in a certificate. Programs of study have wide-ranging implications across all of Workday Student. The programs your institution offers drive a student's academic experience and hopefully, results in a degree or credential.
Note
: When creating a Program of Study, you will need to identify the owning academic unit and the owning academic level. You can update the owning academic unit as long as the new academic unit has its own calendar policy. Access the Program of Study's Related Actions to edit.Program of Study Types
Program of study types classify the programs of study offered by your institution. They also control the configuration options available to programs of that type. You can configure a program of study type to standalone, grant credentials, and have concentrations, e.g., Certificate, Major, Non-Credit, or Program (often used at the graduate or professional level).
Use the
Maintain Program of Study Types
task to configure your programs of study types.Program of Study Type Categories
You can assign program of study types to one of the following Workday-provided categories:
Category | Available for Admission? | Program of Study Type Examples |
|---|---|---|
Advisory Program | No | Pre-Professional, Transfer |
Auxiliary Program | No | Minor, Cluster |
Formalized Joint Program | Yes | Dual Program, Joint Programs, Dual Degree |
Non-Degree Program | Yes | Non-Degree, Visiting Students |
Official Programs | Yes | Program, Major |
Program Focus | No | Concentrations, Specializations |
Undeclared Program | Yes | Undecided, Exploratory |
Program Focus
You can indicate if a program of study has a concentration or focus by selecting the Concentration Possible checkbox for a specific program of study type. When you create a new program of that type, indicate whether the specific program requires a program focus.
For example, if the Music Performance major has a Bass concentration, make sure the following configurations are in place:
- The Major program of study type must have the Concentration Possible checkbox selected.
- The Music Performance Major program of study definition must have the Program Focus Required checkbox selected.
You can create a new program of study for Bass, with a type of Program Concentration, and associate it with the Music Performance major.
Program of Study Codes
Creating a program of study requires identifying a program of study code. The code you select must be unique within your tenant. These user-defined codes can be numeric, alphabetic, or alphanumeric.
Educational Credentials
Educational credentials are the credentials a student at your institution receives upon completing a program of study, such as a Master of Arts or a Health Care certificate. Workday supports the following credential types:
- Award
- Badge
- Certificate
- Certification
- Degree
- Diploma
- License
- Licentiate
When creating a program of study, you can specify which educational credential or credentials, if any, the program confers upon completion. For example, a student with a Biology major may choose to pursue a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree.
You can configure the educational credentials used for entering external transcripts, student applications, and transcript eligibility rules. This enables you to print commencement bulletins, evaluate requirements, and generate reports with greater accuracy. You can also define the educational credential usage as internal or external, making it easier to maintain the educational credentials used by your institution.
Flexible Credentials
Workday enables you to configure whether programs of study can grant only a single credential. You can also specify the default and additional credentials available to confer on students when they complete their programs of study. You can configure policies that determine whether to confer credentials from a student's primary or stackable program or from all programs, including multiple credentials of the same type. This gives you more flexibility to meet your institutional policies around credentials, such as double majors with a single conferred credential or joint programs with multiple conferred credentials of the same type.
Program Areas
Program areas allow you to group programs of study that may belong to different academic units. For example, your institution may wish to group all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs together. These programs may include programs in the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences.
First and Last Entry Dates
A program of study's first entry date is the earliest date that students can matriculate into the program. Define this date when creating a new program, as it can affect your student recruiting, admissions, and records processes.
You can also optionally select a last entry date for a program of study. The last entry date indicates the last date that students can matriculate into the program. Selecting a last entry date is a common configuration for discontinued programs. This end date does not affect students currently enrolled in the program.
Program of Study Declarations
Workday provides a way to handle admissions of your continuing students into highly competitive programs of study by enabling you to configure a declaration requirement on them. Workday provides date controls to determine when student can declare their program of study. Students can declare multiple programs simultaneously, complete questionnaires and submit documents, and choose from multiple acceptances.You can review and take mass actions on program declarations. By providing a separate program declaration process, Workday enables you to keep students' current program of study records open for ongoing transactions.
Program Minimum Coursework
You can configure Program Minimum Coursework on the Program of Study directly on the definition using the
Create Program of Study
task. The Program Minimum Coursework field displays the default value inherited from the federal student aid program policy, if any. You can override the default value for a standalone program of study.You define this field so that a Financial Aid administrator knows the defined program length. Use this field to evaluate if a student is making satisfactory academic progress, so they can continue to get awards properly, within the right allowances, boundaries, and rules.
Program of Study Transactions
Workday enables you to review business processes related to program-of-study transactions. You can configure the
Review Add Program of Study Record
task as a step on the Add Program of Study Event business process. This configuration enables you to view, edit, or deny students' add program of study transactions.You can also bundle non-stand-alone programs with any standalone program on the student's academic record, instead of only the primary program, ensuring more consistency in processing according to configuration. Use these tasks to bundle the programs:
- Add Program of Study for Student
- Change Program of Study Record
You can also add any standalone program of study to a student's academic record, including advisory programs, even if they are not addable to the primary program.
These features provide more accuracy in program of study data, more administrative control, and better usability.
Routing Programs of Study by Coordinating Academic Unit
You can route business processes related to student program of study transactions using the owning academic unit, the coordinating academic unit, or both. Routing business processes in this way helps ensure more granular and flexible routing of student program of study transactions and better compliance with your institutional policies.
When a student adds a program, changes their program, or removes their program of study, Workday routes according to the rules defined for their specific program instead of by the academic unit.
You can assign roles directly on a program of study. To do so, you must enable roles for the program of study via the
Maintain Assignable Roles
task. You can then assign roles on programs of study by selecting Roles > Assign Roles from the Related Actions menu of a program of study. You can also access these reports by selecting Roles from the Related Actions menu of a program of study.You can configure business processes on programs of study by selecting Business Process > Create, Copy, or Link Definition from the Related Actions menu of a program of study. This enables you to route these student transactions to the most appropriate approvers for a program of study. When you configure a business process on a program of study and its academic unit, Workday uses the business process definition on the academic unit as the default. To assign a higher priority to the business process definition on the program of study, set up the order of precedence on the
Maintain Precedence for Business Process Definition Selection
task.Workday delivers a Program of Study: Roles domain that you can use to secure access to viewing and assigning roles for programs of study. Workday also delivers a Roles - Program of Study allowed security group type that you can configure on these business processes:
- Add Program of Study Event
- Change Program of Study Event
- Remove Program of Study Event
When you or your students add, change, or remove programs, Workday creates separate events for each program along with its bundled programs. This ensures that the correct approvers or departments for a program receive the event. When an approver denies a change of the primary program, Workday denies all program changes grouped under this overall event.
Workday delivers the
Configure BP Policy for Program of Study Changes
task (secured to the Manage: Academic Records domain), enabling you to configure the usage of a Review Change Programs Task Wizard step on the Change Program of Study Event. You can configure this policy for an academic unit and level or a program of study.You can select these tasks and reports for the Review Change Programs Task Wizard step, enabling you to notify approvers of student program of study changes:
- Academic Progress
- Review Change Program of Study
- View Current Classes
- View Program Overview
- View Proposed Program of Study
- View Proposed Programs of Study
Addable and Stackable Programs
Many students pursue multiple programs of study during their academic careers. Students complete these programs either concurrently or in sequence. Common examples include:
- A student completing a Psychology major and a Literature minor at the same time.
- A student signing up for both Nursing and Pre-Medicine programs, completed one after another.
- A student double majoring in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.
To account for these circumstances, you can indicate if programs are addable or stackable for another program.
Addable Programs
Addable programs are programs completed in the same time frame. By default, all new programs of study are addable to any other program of study in your system. This means that students can sign up for multiple programs of study and complete them within the same time frame. For example, this configuration makes it simple for students to sign up for a major and a minor program of study, which would both have the same expected program completion date.
Stackable Programs
Some addable programs are also stackable, meaning that a student can complete them independently of any other program. Students can complete stackable programs before or after completing their primary program of study. For example, a student can begin coursework for a graduate-level Pre-Medicine degree while completing their undergraduate Nursing degree. You need to define a program of study as being stackable with another program. By default, the system does not automatically consider any programs stackable.
Allowed Applicant Types
You can limit the programs of study that applicants can apply to, such as programs of study that are compatible with visa types for international students. Limiting the programs of study makes it easier for applicants to identify the programs of study they are eligible for. It also streamlines application processing by reducing applications from ineligible applicants.
To define which applicant types are valid for a program of study, use the Allowed Applicant Types field on the
Create Program of Study
task as shown in the following image.
The Program of Study Type must be a standalone program, any program that Workday can admit the applicant to on its own. This includes Program of Study Types mapped to the following Categories: Official Programs, Formalized Joint Programs, Undeclared Program, or Non-Degree Program.
Use the
View Program of Study
report to view the defined applicant types by Program of Study where applicable.Date Controls
Date controls indicate when certain milestones, events, or deadlines happen during an academic period, such as enrollment windows, last dates to drop with a W grade, and grade assignment. Date controls follow both inheritance and the academic unit, academic level, and program of study configuration sets.
Set up date controls with the
Maintain Academic Period Date Controls
task. This requires an academic unit and level or program of study.Date Control Rules
You can create date control rules on academic period types and define individual date controls for an academic unit level configuration or program of study. Additionally, you can apply date rules to your date controls for academic period types on a calendar. This means you can set up generic rules that calculate actual dates and times for your date controls on all periods of that period type throughout that academic calendar. Date control rules are an optional configuration that helps you save significant setup time and enables you to configure multiple sets of date controls under the same academic calendar.
Date control rules may reference the academic period start/end or the academic period standard start/end for a given academic calendar. All academic period type date control rules follow inheritance. Create date control rules using the
Maintain Academic Period Type Date Control Rules
task.For example, Alma Mater University has a policy that final grading ends 5 days after the end of the academic period. Create a rule set to begin 5 days after the academic period end date for the final grade ending date. For the academic period specified and all subsequent academic periods, the date control rule applies.
Locations
Locations are used in both Workday Human Capital Management and Student. In Workday Student, locations indicate where a worker is located, such as the Main campus, or a specific building but can also identify locations for such things a course section location, or a recruiting event location.
Multiple Institutions
Workday offers multiple institution (MI) enhancements in the tenant. MIs are distinct colleges, universities, or other higher education entities that are set up within a single Workday tenant. Each institution operates fully independent from other institutions within the same tenant.
MI tenant prompts will display multiple institutions in the Institution and Owning Academic Unit fields in tasks and reports. Make sure to select the institution you want to configure.
Programs of Study and Multiple Institutions
To support maintaining multiple institutions in a single Workday tenant, Workday also provides an institutional context to programs of study. This enables you to maintain distinct programs of study definitions and program of study types for each institution in the same Workday tenant. You can maintain and report on programs of study and programs of study types by institution, academic unit, and academic level.
Chapter 2 Tasks and Reports
Below are the commonly used tasks and reports for the topics covered in this chapter.
Tasks:
- Add Nonstandard Academic Periods to Calendar
- Configure Academic Unit for Level
- Configure Calendar Policy
- Create Academic Calendar
- Create Academic Unit
- Create Holiday Calendar
- Create Initial Academic Year
- Create Next Academic Year
- Create Previous Academic Year
- Create Program of Study
- Create Typical Attendance Pattern
- Edit Academic Calendar
- Maintain Academic Levels
- Maintain Academic Period Date Controls
- Maintain Academic Period Type Date Control Rules
- Maintain Academic Period Types
- Maintain Academic Unit Subtypes
- Maintain Assignable Roles
- Maintain Educational Credentials
- Maintain Precedence for Business Process Definition Selection
- Maintain Program Areas
- Maintain Program of Study Types
Reports:
- Find Academic Calendars
- Find Academic Levels
- Find Academic Periods
- Find Academic Unit Level Configuration
- Find Academic Years
- Find Programs of Study
- Find Typical Attendance Pattern
- View Academic Calendar
- View Academic Levels
- View Academic Period Types
- View Academic Unit
- View Academic Unit Policies as of Date
- View Academic Unit Subtypes