Degree Audit Update
Requirements for the general education program and general university
requirements such as a minimum 2.0 gpa and 120 credits were built and tested
last Spring and have been used by students and advisors to monitor progress towards
degree completion. Last Fall, we began adding majors to the degree audit. This
process is on-going, and we hope to complete all majors within a few months.
Most recently, we’ve added Computer Engineering, Computer Science and Mechanical
Engineering to the degree audit.
In accordance with the university’s graduation review procedure and protocol
for the bachelors’ degree, university and general requirements are reviewed by
the Registrar’s Office and major, minor and certificate requirements are reviewed
by the respective academic departments. To facilitate its portion of the review,
the Registrar’s Office is utilizing the degree audit to determine whether a candidate
for May 2010 graduation has completed the university and general requirements.
While academic departments are encouraged to begin making use of the degree audit
as well in the major review, please be assured that the degree audit will not
be used by the Registrar’s Office to conduct preliminary or final clearance of
a student for completion of their major, minor and/or certificate. This review
and determination, as has been the case in the past, will remain the sole prerogative
and responsibility of each academic department and will be communicated by the
academic department to the Registrar’s Office via the customary graduation verification
form.
Again, it is our hope that those departments whose majors have been released
within the SA degree audit will use this tool when clearing students thus ensuring
that the degree audit will become as error-free as possible. If an advisor detects
a discrepancy between a student’s degree audit and the degree requirements it
may be that either the degree audit rules need to be adjusted for all students,
or the department wishes to make an exception for a particular student. In either
case, the degree audit team should be notified at degreeaudit@umbc.edu, and the
team will either enter an exception for the student or adjust the underlying
rule which means that the new rule will apply to all students in the major.
Additionally, we will add clarifying language to the "Degree Audit Information"
section at the beginning of the degree audit.
Finally, we would like you to know that we will add a ‘what-if’ feature to the
degree audit in the Fall which will allow students to run degree audits for other
majors that they may be interested in, or determine how classes that they intend
to take in an upcoming semester will affect their degree progress.
We hope that advisors and students will continue to utilize degree audit and
that we will collectively continue to work on improving and enhancing this important
tool.