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Understanding Graduation

In this section:

• Key Terms
• An Introduction to Graduation
• Forms
• Ceremony Rounds and Dates
  • An Example
• Ceremony Round Structures
• Controlling Progress Through the Graduation Cycle:
• Records
• Statuses
• The General Sequence of a Graduation Cycle
• Identifying Possible Graduands
• Evaluating Course Completion
• Allocating Graduands to Ceremonies
• Corresponding with Graduands
• Approval to Graduate
  • Dependent on Approval
• Managing Graduands
• Recording Responses
• Alternative Exits
• Articulating an Award
• Changing/Adding Ceremonies
• Deferring Graduation
• Surrendering an Award
• Ceremony Arrangements
  • Explanation of Ordering
  • Reports
• Final Tasks in the Cycle

Users should:

• Be conversant with general Callista practices given in the System Overview
• Have an understanding of Calendar concepts and Terminology (see Understanding Calendar)

Reference data and setup information is described in detail in the Specialist Functions section. The section Special Topics deals with some aspects of the Subsystem in greater depth. Individual documentation for all forms, reports and processes can be accessed from the Subsystem's Table of Contents. Links to all these references are given as appropriate throughout the documentation.

Key Terms

To understand the Graduation Subsystem it is necessary to understand what is meant in Callista by a 'Ceremony Round'. Other Graduation terms are explained in the Subsystem Glossary.

An Introduction to Graduation

Callista's Graduation Subsystem handles all records and processes required to identify and administer students expected to Graduate during particular Ceremony Rounds, including conferral of their Awards and their Attendance at Graduation Ceremonies.

This section of the documentation is intended primarily for people involved with Graduation procedures on a day-to-day basis. It does not go into detail about setting up the Subsystem (this is done in the Specialist Functions section). Rather, it describes the database context for handling Graduation in Callista, and outlines the operations and processes used to administer Graduands in a single Ceremony Round cycle.

Forms

Forms in the Subsystem fall into two main areas: those that create a structure for the Ceremonies to be held in a round; and those used to manage Graduands. The diagram below illustrates the central forms and the manner in which they are interlinked and accessed.

grd01

In addition, forms associated with other Subsystems supply information used in the Graduation Subsystem. Award information is maintained in the Course Structure and Planning Subsystem, Government Honours Levels in the Statistics Subsystem. Forms in Organisational Structure and in Assessments Subsystems are used to record Ceremony Venues and maintain the links (via 'Graduation Locations') between these venues and the campuses at which Graduands have been studying. Decisions about which students are due to Graduate will be informed by Progression processing.

Ceremony Rounds and Dates

The Subsystem supports a typical Graduation Cycle. The Ceremonies themselves generally take place towards the end of the cycle. But preparation leading to the Graduation of students and presentation of Awards might begin six months or so before Awards are conferred or Ceremonies held. There will frequently also be some follow up activity within the System after the Ceremonies have been held and/or Awards conferred.

This timeframe is represented in Callista by setting up each Ceremony Round as a Calendar Instance, together with a set of associated dates that mark events and control processing for the round. The Start and End Dates of the Calendar normally indicate the period during which the actual Ceremonies occur, but this is not essential.

A second set of Start and End Dates limits the time when the process to identify Graduands can be run. These Dates are recorded as Date Alias Instances. Other Date Alias Instances mark the Dates of the Ceremonies and the cutoff point for automatic allocation of Graduands to Ceremonies.

Each Ceremony Round is linked to one or more completion year/period combinations. The students identified as having completed, or expecting to complete, Course Attempts in one of these Completion Periods have Graduand Records created for the round. Students nominate their expected completion year/period, usually when enrolling or re-enrolling. The System will also be capable of deriving an expected completion time.

An Example

This diagram depicts a typical Graduation Calendar setup.

grd02 

• The Ceremony Round Calendar has a Start Date of 1^st May 2004 and an End Date of 31^st May 2004
• Two Completion Periods (End of 2003, and Summer 2003/04) are linked to this Ceremony Round Calendar. The students completing during these periods will normally Graduate at one of the May Ceremonies
• Ceremonies for this round are to be held on four days – 3^rd, 7^th, 24^th and 28^th of May – and are set up as Instances of the Ceremony Date Alias
• A Start Date Alias Instance of 7^th November 2003 and an End Date Alias Instance of 15^th March 2004 limit the period when students can be automatically identified as possible Graduands and have Graduand Records created (these dates do not limit manual creation of records)
• A closing Date Alias Instance of 16^th April 2004 marks the last day on which students can be automatically allocated to a Ceremony (manual allocation is still possible after this date)

To learn more about how Calendars are used in Callista, refer to the Calendar Subsystem. For information on setting up Graduation Calendars and Date Aliases, see Calendars and Date Aliases in Specialist Functions.

Ceremony Round Structures

In addition to the Calendar structures, specialist staff need to establish the following data before Graduation processing can begin:

• Reference data including Award and Honours Level information
• Each Ceremony to be held in a Ceremony Round, together with Venue, Date, Time, and other relevant details. Ceremonies are identified by number
• For each Ceremony, a list of the Awards which are to be presented at the Ceremony. Optionally, Unit Sets (for example, Majors) within Awards can be specified. Honorary Awards must also be listed for Ceremonies
• All venues at which Ceremonies are to be held. Venues are grouped under nominal Graduation locations, which in turn link to the campuses at which students are studying. This caters for institutions with campuses in different Suburbs, Cities, Regions or Countries. For example, campuses A, B and C of an institution might link to a city Graduation location, campuses D and E to a regional Graduation location. One or more Ceremony venues are associated with each Graduation location, although each location typically has a single venue

For detailed setup information, see the Specialist Functions section. Example scenarios are given in Special Topics.

Another option may be to use Maintain Graduation Ceremony (GRDF2100) to establish an Award Ceremony composition for the current Ceremony Round, based on a Ceremony composition from a previous round.

Controlling Progress Through the Graduation Cycle

Two main mechanisms control the progress of students from first identification as prospective Graduands to the point at which they receive their Awards, attend Ceremonies and are recorded on the System as Graduates.

Records

The first mechanism is the presence or absence of certain records. Once identified as a possible Graduand, a Graduand Record is created for each Ceremony Round for which the student is potentially eligible. This record is the basis for any subsequent processing within the round. A second record, the Graduand Award Ceremony Record, is created when a Graduand is assigned to a Ceremony. The existence of this record is a precondition for allocating an order-in-presentation number to a Graduand wishing to attend a Ceremony. Both records are generally created for groups of students by running jobs, but can be created through a form for individual students/Graduands. For Honorary Awards, Graduand Records must always be created manually through a form.

Statuses

The second mechanism is the use of three key data items, the Graduand Status, Approval Status and Graduand Type. Taken in combination, these determine how far a Graduand can progress through the cycle. For example, a Graduand cannot be recorded as having Graduated unless they have a System Graduand Status of ELIGIBLE, an Approval Status of APPROVED and a Graduand Type of ATTENDING or INABSENTIA.

The status/type combinations required at each stage of the cycle are described in the documentation for individual forms and jobs. The most important combinations are also noted in the outline of the Graduation cycle given below.

The General Sequence of a Graduation Cycle

Once a Ceremony Round or Rounds are established, daily work in the Subsystem is mainly concerned with the management of jobs. The only large scale data entry task is to record student responses when invited to apply for Graduation or provide Graduation details for a particular Ceremony Round. Additionally, in a few instances records for individual students will need to be created and details amended through forms.

The outline below describes the general sequence of work during a single Graduation cycle. The order may vary slightly depending on the practices of individual institutions. The section covers Identifying Possible Graduands, Evaluating Course Completion, Allocating Graduands to Ceremonies, Corresponding with Graduands, Approval to Graduate, Managing Graduands, Ceremony Arrangements and Final Tasks.

Identifying Possible Graduands

All processing and data entry for a Ceremony Round depends on Graduand Records existing for students potentially able to Graduate in the round. A student is identified as a Graduand if the completion year and period recorded against their Course Attempt matches one of the Completion Periods associated with the relevant round.

The first job to run in any round is therefore GRDJ3100, which performs Completion Period matching and creates Graduand Records. The job can be run subsequently to include as Graduands any students whose Completion Period details have been updated since the first run.

It is possible to have concurrent Graduation rounds drawing different sets of students from the same or similar Completion Periods. This might be so if the Organisation of Graduation is decentralised, or if overseas and local campuses are graduating students in the same period. This has implications for setting parameters for GRDJ3100 which are discussed in the documentation for that job, and also in Different Scenarios in Special Topics.

It is also possible to update an existing derived completion period value or insertion of a value if none previuosly existed using Update Derived SCA Completion Period (GRDJ3000). There are options to run this function in either Standard or Predictive Mode. When run in the Standard Mode, the function will only consider granted Advanced Standing and Units passed. When run in the Predictive Mode, currently enrolled Units will also be considered, with the assumption that they will be passed. Another function is to run in the Update or Test Mode. When run in the Test Mode, a report of potential changes will be produced, but the derived Completion Period values will not be inserted or updated. When run in the Update Mode, the Student Course Attempt records derived Completion Period is updated. The user can select whether or not to update previously created derived Completion Periods

For students studying a combined course leading to two Awards (for example, BCom/BSc), two Graduand Records are created. For people receiving Honorary Awards, Graduand Records must be created individually in form GRDF4200.

Evaluating Course Completion

Graduands are considered academically eligible to Graduate in a course if the Course Requirements Complete check box in PRGF4170 is set to 'Y'. Within the Graduation cycle, a job can be run regularly - probably nightly over the relevant period - to update the value of the Graduand Status of Graduands to reflect changes to this check box. In most cases this job, GRDJ3140, will set the status from POTENTIAL to ELIGIBLE, though the reverse is also possible to correct errors in setting the check box.

The report to support this operation details Graduands' Academic Records.

Allocating Graduands to Ceremonies

Institutions may wish to start allocating some Graduands to Ceremonies before Graduand identification/creation is complete. The job GRDJ5100, Manage Allocation of Graduands to Ceremonies, makes an allocation of Graduands to the appropriate Ceremony for their Course Award (or in some cases according to Unit Sets studied) depending on the location of their Student Course Attempt. This allocation results in the creation of Graduand Award Ceremony Records.

For allocation to be made, Graduands must have a Graduand Status with a System Value of ELIGIBLE or POTENTIAL, an Approval Status equivalent to APPROVED or WAITING, and a Graduand Type of ATTENDING, INABSENTIA, DEFERRED or UNKNOWN.

GRDJ5100 can be run as many times as necessary to accommodate either the creation of new Graduands or any adjustment to the list of Awards for presentation at a particular Ceremonies. It is likely that this processing will run in parallel with evaluating course completion.

Corresponding with Graduands

Graduands will normally be advised at this stage:

• Either that they are able to Graduate, or that they will be able to Graduate if course requirements are met as expected
• About the Ceremony to which they have been allocated, and
• If appropriate, that this is subject to approval to Graduate being granted

This correspondence is generally an invitation to apply for Graduation and/or provide Graduation details, with a response requested from the Graduand. Exactly when this correspondence is sent, and its wording, will of course depend on the policy and practices of an institution, particularly with regard to granting approval to Graduate.

Approval to Graduate

Procedures and timing for the granting of formal approval to Graduate will vary between institutions. Approval may be given by the appropriate Administrative Organisational Unit (AOU), or by Council. When granted by the AOU, this may be early in the cycle as a part of confirmation of eligibility to Graduate. Approval may be given subject to course requirements being met within the necessary timeframe.

This approval can be recorded for individual students in form GRDF4200, but will more commonly be recorded for selected groups of students by a process accessed through form GRDF3200. The range of Graduands selected depends on the context in which the form was entered (see the diagram of forms and access paths).

The report GRDR4100, Obtain Council Approval, provides a list to be used in the approval process, showing Graduands who are eligible to Graduate.

For honours students, the level of their Award can be recorded using either form GRDF4200 or GRDF4210.

Dependent on Approval

Recording of a conferral date and setting of Graduand status to a system value of GRADUATED are dependent on Graduands being verified as academically eligible to Graduate and approval procedures being completed. For many institutions, recording these details will follow conferral of Awards at Ceremonies. But for some, formal approval constitutes conferral of an Award, prior to or in the absence of a Ceremony. Note however that current Graduand Types, used to indicate Graduands' intentions, cannot be changed once a GRADUATED Graduand Status has been set.

Managing Graduands

• Recording Responses
• Alternative Exits
• Articulating an Award
• Changing/Adding Ceremonies
• Deferring Graduation
• Surrendering an Award

Recording Responses

As Graduands respond to the correspondence about Graduation, Graduand and Graduand Award Ceremony records are updated with the details they supply. First amongst these is whether and how they intend to Graduate in the current round, with a corresponding update of Graduand Type.

For the majority of Graduands, either attendance at a Ceremony or receipt of an Award in absentia will be recorded. Graduands receiving more than one Award (for instance, those who have studied a combined course) will have more than one Graduand Record and can potentially have been allocated to two different Ceremonies.

Setting Graduand Type, and recording details required for producing lists and Testamurs and catering for Graduands who are attending Ceremonies are all recorded in GRDF4210, Maintain Graduand Ceremony Details. Some, but not all, of these details may alternatively be recorded in GRDF4200.

For some Graduands, different circumstances apply. These are described below.

Alternative Exits

An alternative exit typically denotes the situation where a student takes out a lower level of qualification than the one they originally enrolled in. For example, a student enrolled in a 'combined' BCom/BSc course leading to two Awards may have the option to discontinue their course and take out either a BCom or a BSc Award. To achieve this in Callista, record a Student Course Attempt as an alternative exit through PRGF4170, and enter the code of the alternative exit course in the Graduand's Award Course Code record in GRDF4200.

If the alternative exit Course Award has been subdivided into Unit Set Groups, the decision about the Graduand's order in the Ceremony will be based on the Unit Set/s studied as part of their original course (ordering is outlined in Ceremony arrangements).

Articulating an Award

Before Graduation, students can indicate their intention not to take out an Award, in favour of taking out a different (usually higher level) Course Award at a later date. The facility to do this in Callista is normally used for 'articulated' courses where students are not permitted to take out an Award if electing to proceed to the next level course. Forms GRDF4200 and GRDF4210 can both handle this procedure.

Special Awards

Prizes and medals recorded in Special Awards (GRDF3600) are awarded to students in the context of a particular course being studied. An option is available so that Special Awards can be announced at a Cermony. However, only recipients who are also Graduands will be allocated a place at the Cermony.To be recorded for a student, each prize or medal must already have been allocated an Award Code in Maintain Awards (CRSF1190).

Changing/Adding Ceremonies

Graduands wishing to change to a different Ceremony in the same or a different round need only have Ceremony details amended in GRDF4210.

For those Graduands permitted to attend or be announced at more than one Ceremony for the same Award, an additional Graduand Ceremony Award record must be created in GRDF4210. This may be in the same or a different round. The most likely circumstance is where international students attend or are announced at Ceremonies held at both local and overseas venues.

A fuller description of handling changes for different scenarios is given in Special Topics.

Deferring Graduation

In Callista, the term Deferment only applies when a Graduand wishes to postpone Graduation, but cannot be placed in a Ceremony for a future round. This may be because future Ceremony details for the round have not yet been recorded on the database or because the student is not in a position to decide about attendance at a future Ceremony.

Either form GRDF4200 or GRDF4210 can be used to record Deferment.

Surrendering an Award

Before taking out an Award in the current round, a student may be obliged to surrender a related previously Conferred Award. This is handled in GRDF4200.

Ceremony Arrangements

At a suitable point before the actual Ceremony Period, but normally as late as possible in the cycle, a job must be run to allot a number within a Ceremony to each Graduand attending. These numbers determine the order in which the Graduands will be presented to receive their Awards. The job is GRDJ5200 (Set Graduand Order in Presentation). It can be run as many times as required, with Graduands being renumbered as necessary to reflect amendments to Graduand or Ceremony records between runs. After running, a Graduand's order in the presentation sequence can be seen in forms GRDF4210 and GRDF3200. The basis for ordering is explained below.

Note that Seat Numbers for Graduands and guests must currently be recorded manually in form GRDF4210.

The Graduation Ceremony List may need to be modified or manipulated in some way. Maintain Graduation Ceremony List (GRDF1520) allows this to happen. The form can produce three generic list types. They are:

• Official Graduation Program list (Program List)
• Master List
• Ceremony script list

Explanation of Ordering

Structures set up in forms GRDF2110 (Maintain Award Ceremony) and GRDF2120 (Maintain Unit Set Ceremony) provide the basis for assigning Graduands their position in a Ceremony. This initial ordering is at Award level and (optionally) at Unit Set Group level.

For each Ceremony in the round, these ordering structures enable:

• All Graduands receiving the same Honorary Award (for example, all Honorary Doctorates) to be presented together
• For Course Awards, the grouping of Graduands as follows:
• All Graduands receiving the same Award when studied under the same Course Code and Version, or
• All Graduands receiving the same Award although having studied under different Course Versions (the Course Versions must have the same order number for these Graduands to be grouped together), or
• All Graduands receiving the same Award although having studied under different Course Codes (the courses must have the same Order Number for these Graduands to be grouped together)

For any of the above Course Award Groupings, an option is to further subdivide Graduands by Unit Set group. For example, Graduands receiving the same Award (whether studied under the same Course Code/Course Version or not) could be split into groups for presentation according to their majors.

Once these Award and Unit Set Groupings are established for a Ceremony, further parameters in GRDJ5200 allow for 'fine tuning'. Most particularly, Honours students can be sorted for presentation either before or after other Graduands in the same grouping. Within the final groupings established by a combination of the ordering structures and the parameters selected when running GRDJ5200, Graduands are sorted into alphabetical order and assigned a unique number.

Reports

The Create Testamur Extract job (GRDJ6000) produces an extensive extract of data which can be used to print Testamurs and Testamur Labels. The extract data supplied is envisaged as sufficiently comprehensive to meet the varied needs of different institutions. Licensees will be responsible for the programming tasks involved in extracting data and producing Testamurs from the records stored in the extract table. Testamurs can thus be tailored to an individual institution's formatting and content requirements.

The Seating and Order of Presentation List report (GRDR7600) produces listings of the order of presentation of Graduands in Ceremonies, and seat allocations where recorded.

Another report may be a list of Graduands based on a user-specified Graduand Type parameter. Graduand Type Listings (GRDJ1100) produces a comma delimited (CSV) file which can be uploaded for post processing.

Final Tasks in the Cycle

The job GRDJ3300, Clean Up Graduand Records, removes the records of those Graduands ineligible to Graduate. It is recommended that this job is run after Ceremonies are held, as one of the last tasks in the cycle. Note that the job will delete all Graduand Records and Graduand Award Ceremony records from the database if the Graduand still has a Graduand Status equivalent to POTENTIAL.

The same students will be picked up again in a future round as long as their expected Completion Period details have been updated.

A Graduate register is produced by running GRDR6100. 

Last Modified on 15 March, 2006