Degree Audit requires understanding both catalog credential requirements and student profiles. 

Catalogs:

Catalogs are the source for the Interactive Degree Audit system(IDA). CSUs partner with the Office of the Registrar’s Degree Audit team to code credentials for the upcoming (new) catalog. Prior to implementing a catalog in the Interactive Degree Audit system(IDA), CSUs will work with Official Publications. 

Undergraduate catalogs are created every two years with the possibility of an addendum on odd years, while on the graduate side there is a new catalog every year. For example, the 2016-18 catalog was available for students in IDA by the start of Fall 2016. It was expired shortly after the summer of 2024. *The catalog lasts one year longer for the School of Architecture than other undergraduate CSUs. 

With new catalogs being available for students in the Fall of the first year of said catalog, coding for that catalog begins in January of the same year (previous Spring). The Degree Audit team offers a weekly coding lab to encourage drop in advising. The team is also available to schedule individual training or advice sessions to help CSUs implement their new coding. 

As part of the new catalog process, the Degree Audit team will rollover all the credentials and coding from the previous catalog. For example, the information in the 2018-20 catalog was used to create the 2020-22 catalog. The team sends out a DPI report to each CSU. The CSU will need to update the DPI spreadsheet to notify the DA team what credentials should be deleted, updated, or added. In this context, the updates are for the DPI. Every credential in the DPI has associated codes and information that needs to be accurate. For example, credentials in a new catalog should have a CIP code and that CIP code should be active.

DPI and Associated Codes

Majors are represented by a 7 to 11 character code knows as a degree plan code or degree plan interface(DPI) code. Whenever a degree plan code is applied to a student, it is referred to as a profile. For example, the history major is listed in the DPI as LAHISBA. In the context of the DPI, you may refer to LAHISBA as a degree plan code, but most commonly you will think of it as a profile as you evaluate students with said profile. 

The degree plan code has several uses. The first is that it represents an entry in the DPI where we store many important pieces of information about the degree. The second is that it is used for IDA for coding. Coding referring the process of creating or maintaining requirements for a credential. Using Liberal Arts as an example, IDA coding can be done at the L level, the LA level, and the LAHISBA level. In addition, COLA could decide to take advantage of all 11 characters and have coding done at the LAHISBAXX and LAHISBAXXYY levels. IDA coding starts at the most universal and goes down to more and more specific groups of students. For example, coding done at the L level would apply to all Liberal Arts students, while coding done at the LAHISBAXXYY would only apply to history majors in that specific track or specialization. 

In each DPI entry, the following fields are available. 

Glossary: DPI fields

• Title (Long): Legislatively approved and published program title. For example, a “Bachelor of Arts with a major in History”.
• Title (Short): Short version of title, consistent with approved program name. For example: “History (BA)” or “BA - History”. Visible to students. Please be consistent to prevent student confusion.
• Degree Code: Degree credential conferred to students. See list in *ADCODE, Degrees.
• Degree Description: Automatically populated based on code. Cannot be changed.
• CB Major Code: CIP code (Classification of Instructional Programs) digits 1-6 are federal (Financial Aid), digits 7-10 are state (7-8 are sub-area, 9-10 are funding), and digits11-13 are UT Austin-specific.
  • Assigned and maintained by IRRIS, change over time, and are holistically reviewed every 10 years.
  • Exist in three states: active, phase out, and expired. Active catalogs should only use active or phase out CIPs; a new catalog should only use active CIPS. See list in *ADCODE, Degree Majors.
• Major Description: Automatically populated based on CB major code. Cannot be changed.
• Number of Minors Required: Typically, one or zero, as designated by CSU catalog policy and requirements.
• Valid Degree: Flag a degree as either valid, invalid, or invalid but audits can still be run.
• Profile Default Plan: Flag a degree plan code to be automatically applied to students who have the associated school major advising code. The default profile job runs weekly yet does not apply a default profile to a student who already has a degree that shares the same field of study as the profile default plan.
• Prod Ready (Setup): Set to “Yes” to enable IDA coding for a credential.
• Prod Ready (Live): Set to “Yes” to make the credential available for students in IDA.
• Advising Code: Administrative school major advising code(s) to admit, categorize, and sort students. Adding advising code to the DPI enables systems to match a student with their related degree audit profile.
  • Note: The first character (CSU) of the DPI code and advising code must match.
• Hours for Degree: Minimum number of total hours to satisfy credential requirements. Baccalaureate degrees require a minimum of 120 hours per accreditation standards.
• Years for Degree (Primary): Number of academic years it takes to complete the credential based on continuous full-time enrollment.
• Contact Pointer ID and Years for Degree (Secondary): Ignore.
• Notes: Office of the Registrar use only.

Going Live with IDA Catalog Coding

Once the DPI is updated and credentials are coded and tested in IDA, the CSU is ready to go live. We recommend reviewing the "Go Live Checklist." To go live, the CSU's academic dean or equivalent sends an email to degreeaudit@austin.utexas.edu to confirm that the CSU is ready and approved to go live. 

Undergraduate College must first go live with Core Curriculum requirements before other undergraduate CSUs. Afterward, any CSU may go live. CSUs optimally go live prior to summer orientation audits begin in June and MUST go live prior to the first class day of the fall semester, at the latest. 

Once a CSU has gone live, having hundreds or thousands of students running audits will likely bring opportunities for coding improvements. CSUs can migrate most updates from PROD-setup to PROD-live without notifying the Degree Audit team. Adding new or deleting existing requirements require a migration request to the Degree Audit team specifying which catalog to migrate. CSUs can also specify a field of study if the changes are limited to a particular field of study. 

After the initial “go live” email, academic deans do not need to sign off on subsequent updates. There should not be a significant need for more coding for a catalog that is already live. Coding changes should happen for the new catalog cycle before new students access, view, or run audits in IDA. 

Students:

Advising Codes

The University admits students into degree major programs via the school major code. This code is also known as the advising code or school major advising code. Advising codes align with a single field of study (FoS) and must match the FoS aligned with a student’s degree plan (DPI) profile. 

Student Profiles

CSUs flag multiple DPI codes as "default profiles." A weekly job attempts to automatically match and assign newly enrolled students to a default DPI profile based on the students’ advising code. Please visit our profile page for more information. CSUs identify students needing updates by reviewing on-demand profile reports. The Degree Audit team will send profile reports with filtering instructions at the start of the fall and spring semesters to identify students who need profile updates.  

CSUs are expected to examine all default profiles and replace them with tentative or official profiles. A student must have an official profile prior to graduating. If a student is pursuing a minor or certificate, those cannot be applied to default profiles. 

Once a student is consistently running the audits based off of their correct profile, they may discover issues that are unique to their situation. At that point, they will need to reach out to the CSU for assistance. Anyone authorized as an override maintainer can apply overrides to requirements or restrictions as appropriate. 

Certified Audits & Verifying Students for Conferral

CSUs identify students who are likely to graduate based on progress to degree (PTD) and graduation applications. CSUs must assign graduating students official profiles and an expected CCYYS for conferral in their graduating semester. Graduating students are coded on the VO screen in NRRECS. Contact diplomas@austin.utexas.edu for help with conferral. 

The Degree Audit team assists with conferral verification by running automated certified audits on behalf of all CSUs. We announce staggered certified audit run dates in advance of final exams to staff as designated by the CSU’s IDA coder. Staggered certified audits run for students already coded to graduate in the current semester and typically run from the first final exam date through the grade processing date. 

Verify 100% PTD & CCYYS Prior to Conferral 

Certified audits use completed courses only to determine whether a student has reached 100% PTD. CSUs must review students with certified audits less than 100% PTD and either resolve the issue or remove the student from conferral. CSUs resolving issues must manually rerun certified audits to ensure the student is at 100% PTD before conferral. 

The Degree Audit team also provides CSUs a Certified Verification List report to help them identify students with certified audits less than 100% PTD and identify corrections needed to students’ minor and certificate conferral CCYYS. For more information about minors and certificates, please review the minor/certificate page.  

Getting Help

In addition to our online training manual, the Degree Audit team is always happy to help. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We answer questions through both email and Teams chat. We are always happy to provide individual training sessions.