Understanding Academic Requirement Groups
Academic requirement groups are the highest-level parent record. They consist of detail lines pointing to conditions, courses, and requirements, as well as parameters that include unit and course requirements. Requirement groups identify the student population to be evaluated in the audit or advisement process. For example, requirement groups can target all undergraduate students, or only undergraduate students in the math plan, or only undergraduate students who belong to a specific student group. The advisement engine evaluates each student's career, program, and plan as well as other pertinent academic data (such as catalog year, also known as requirement term) to determine which requirement groups it should apply to the student.
The academic advisement engine compares a student's career, program, plan, subplan, and precondition with the academic structure established for a requirement group. When the requirement group academic structure matches the student's academic structure, the requirement group is applied to that student.
The academic structure (as reflected by the academic career, academic program, academic plan, and academic subplan), the reporting sequence, and the requirement group number define the processing order of every requirement group. When the reporting sequence number is 1 for all groups, the audit processes career-level requirement groups, then program requirement groups, then plan requirement groups, and then subplan requirement groups. For requirement groups that are set up at the same academic structure level and with the same reporting sequence number, the system evaluates them in requirement group number order.
In the scenario just described, the requirement groups are processed in this order:
Career Level
Requirement Group #1000, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #1100, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #1111, Reporting Sequence #1
Program Level
Requirement Group #2001, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #2010, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #2050, Reporting Sequence #1
Plan Level
Requirement Group #1200, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #2005, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #3000, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #4700, Reporting Sequence #1
Subplan Level
Requirement Group #700, Reporting Sequence #1
If you have not specified that you want to evaluate subplans before plans or plans before programs, and the reporting sequence number is greater than 1, then the reporting sequence number applies across career-level and program-level requirement groups. For example, a career-level requirement group with a reporting sequence number of 3 is processed and reported after a program-level requirement group with a reporting sequence number of 2. This interaction of sequence numbers affects only career-level and program-level requirement groups. Program-level requirement groups do not interact with plan-level requirement groups, and plan-level requirement groups do not interact with subplan-level requirement groups. If the requirement groups previously listed all had different reporting sequence numbers, then the groups would be processed and reported in this order:
Career Level, Requirement Group #1111, Reporting Sequence #1
Program Level, Requirement Group #2001, Reporting Sequence #1
Career Level, Requirement Group #1100, Reporting Sequence #2
Program Level, Requirement Group #2010, Reporting Sequence #5
Program Level, Requirement Group #2050, Reporting Sequence #5
Career Level, Requirement Group #1000, Reporting Sequence #900
Plan Level
Requirement Group #4700, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #3000, Reporting Sequence #900
Requirement Group #2005, Reporting Sequence #901
Requirement Group #1200, Reporting Sequence #999
Subplan Level
Requirement Group #700, Reporting Sequence #1
A reporting sequence number of 900 or higher affects the processing order of a requirement group that points to a requirement whose requirement line has a credit include mode of Verify. This special sequence number prevents that particular requirement group from being processed until the end of the audit. For example, you can establish a career requirement that verifies all courses that are used throughout the audit.
For a requirement group with a reporting sequence number of 900 or higher that points to a requirement whose requirement line has a credit include mode of All Stats, the requirement group is processed in the order defined by its reporting sequence. It does not necessarily process last in the audit. The audit sorts courses by academic structure then reporting sequence, then requirement group number.
In another example, there are two requirement groups. Requirement group 10, whose reporting sequence is 900, is set up at the career level and points to a requirement whose requirement line is set to Verify. Requirement group 2, whose reporting sequence is 901, is set up at the career level and points to a requirement line set to All Stats. Requirement group 2 will process before requirement group 10.
Regardless of whether the requirement points to a line whose credit include mode is All Stats or Verify, the requirement group whose reporting sequence is 900 or higher displays last within its academic structure level. The print order follows the reporting sequence, regardless of the order in which the requirement group is processed.
Advisement audits are generated by career. The career requirement groups as well as the primary academic program (the program with the lowest career sequence number) are evaluated first. Then the primary plan (the plan with the lowest plan sequence number) that is associated with this program is evaluated, and then all the subplans that are associated with this plan are evaluated in alphabetical order. If a student has a secondary program, it is then evaluated, followed by attached plans and subplans. When multiple programs exist, they are evaluated in alphabetical order after the primary program is processed.
For example:
Career
Primary program (career sequence number 0)
Primary plan (plan sequence number 10)
Subplan attached to plan 10
Secondary plan (plan sequence number 20)
Subplan attached to plan 20
Secondary program (career sequence number 1)
Plan attached to secondary program
You can change academic structure processing by selecting the Evaluate Plan Before Program check box on the Academic Plan Table page and the Evaluate SubPlan Before Plan check box on the Academic Sub-Plan Table page.
Important! If the audit encounters a plan that is attached to the student's primary academic program and you selected the Evaluate Plan Before Program check box, then the academic structure is not altered by reporting sequence between the career and program. All career requirements are processed first, then plan requirements are processed, and then program requirements are processed.
For example, if the plan in the previous example were selected to be evaluated before the program, then the reporting order would remain the same as before, and this would be the processing order:
Career Level
Requirement Group #1111, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #1100, Reporting Sequence #2
Requirement Group #1000, Reporting Sequence #900
Plan Level
Requirement Group #4700, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #3000, Reporting Sequence #900
Requirement Group #2005, Reporting Sequence #901
Requirement Group #1200, Reporting Sequence #999
Program Level
Requirement Group #2001, Reporting Sequence #1
Requirement Group #2010, Reporting Sequence #5
Requirement Group #2050, Reporting Sequence #5
Sub-plan Level
Requirement Group #700, Reporting Sequence #1
Note: This new processing order affects only plans and subplans that are designated on the first page (Requirement Groups) of the Academic Requirement Groups component. If you append a plan to another plan on the Plans Appended page, then the requirement uses the characteristics of the first plan, not the appended plan. For example, suppose that you set up requirement group 200 as PSUNV/UGRD/FAU/MUSIC (PeopleSoft University/Undergraduate/Fine Arts Undergraduate/Music) and append a plan of PSUNV/UGRD/LAU/PSYCH (PeopleSoft University/Undergraduate/Liberal Arts Undergraduate/Psychology). On the Academic Plan Table page for the music plan, you did not select theEvaluate Plan Before Program check box. On the Academic Plan table for the psychology plan, you did select the Evaluate Plan Before Program check box. After evaluating the program level requirement groups, the audit engine evaluates the psychology plan requirement groups that are appended to the music plan requirement groups.