Degree Audit – Graduation Plan Navigating This Tool for Your Students

WHAT IS IT? Degree audit – graduation plan is a tool to help the student, advisor, and registrar know where the student stands in completing his/her degree Originally designed only for registrars to audit students for graduation Has evolved to assist others with monitoring student progress Based on degree requirements established for a particular catalog year

WHAT IT IS NOT MAGIC Why? Over 6,700 Post-Secondary Institutions of Higher Education in the U.S. with no universal course numbering system. Potentially 10,720,000 courses in transfer if have similar number of courses as we have in our undergraduate and graduate catalogs.

Key Components for an Audit The audit is set up with the degree requirements for a particular program. This may be university-wide or may be specific to a subprogram (site). It requires the catalog year under which the student entered to be recorded in the student’s program enrollment record. This specifies which requirements a student is expected to complete. This is particularly important when curriculum and requirements change. Students may opt for a future catalog year than the one they entered under but cannot request one prior.

Key Components for an Audit Entry of equivalencies/substitutions when entering transfer work Sometimes requires the creation of “dummy courses” in order for audits to complete Is not an exact science in establishing required hours due to transfer credit possibilities Usually is built using multiple components – i.e., major courses, breadth and liberal arts, overall, upper division, special requirements, etc.

Screen Sharing General overview how an audit is built and what factors come into play Troubleshooting audits - Some “before” and “after” audits

Troubleshooting Tips No audit displays for my student: Check for catalog in program enrollment record, no audit is built, audit is coded to incorrect group of recipients. There are currently over 1,200 audits built into our database dating back to 2006. Student has completed requirements but they are still showing as being needed: Check equivalencies or substitutions have been made in transfer credit. Requirement shows incomplete but student is in final course: Requirements don’t complete with grades that are in progress (IP). Student has completed the course but it’s not being used in the audit: Does the course meet the minimum grade requirement?

Troubleshooting Tips Student is getting multiple audits for the same major: Audit is not specifying correct group of recipients. My student is doing a double major/minor/concentration and it is not appearing on the audit: The second major/minor/concentration are not coded in the program enrollment record. Difference between an equivalency and a substitution: An equivalent course is equivalent in content and level. A substitution is similar in content but not the same level. Substitutions may also be courses that aren’t similar in content but need approval by site DOI’s in consultation with the University Registrar. A substitution is getting counted in upper division but shouldn’t: A special code has to be applied to the substitution to make it not count as upper division.

Troubleshooting Tips Student’s transfer work is not counting in upper division: Needs assignment of “dummy” equivalency to move it to that area. There are many blanks on my audit and I thought the student was closer to being done: Always check “Other Courses Taken” section for equivalencies/substitutions that may not have been made during transfer entry. There are times when the audit will never complete because of our exceptions that we make. Direct your students to pull up the Current Degree Audit PDF on the portal

Q and A - Discussion

Hairy Eyeball Don’t tell me it doesn’t work – you will get this look:

Happy Campers Work with your registrar on corrections. “Happy Registrar – You will go far!”

Attention CAPS! Use the transcript to make graduation plan Work with registrar to make adjustments No green check until the course is completed Wait for final audit – “It appears that requirements have been met.”