Degree Audit User Training | Minors/Certificates

The college of the department offering the minor/certificate will code the requirements in IDA 2.0, and the coding process will be the same as coding major degree requirements.

For minor/certificate documention beyond IDA, please click here.

Sequence records

The minor requirements will be housed on their own sequence record based on the major degree plan code. Every major degree plan will have one “Minor/Certificate” scoped requirement that will serve as a trigger to pull these minor sequence records. By default, the trigger requirements will carry 15 estimated hours. Colleges will be able to adjust the estimated hours to zero if a minor is not required for that major degree plan.

The trigger requirement has the second-lowest priority when sequencing your requirements, ahead of electives. If your major degree plan carries one or more elective requirements, those electives should be sequenced last, while the minor trigger should be sequenced second-to-last. In all other cases, the minor trigger should be sequenced last.

All previous minor requirements will change to elective requirements with the 2016-18 catalog roll-over, and existing degree plans will need to be reviewed.

Coding minor requirements

Below are the steps to code the minor/certificates:

1. Add degree plan code and catalog. The minor and certificate degree plan codes will have the same format, and will include the college, FOS, and auto-generated sequence number (ex: L HIS01). They will also carry their credential type (MN for minors, or CT for certificates). These degree plan codes are maintained by the Office of the Registrar after they have been approved and added to the new minors system.
2. Code requirements.The requirement types are the same as for a major degree plan. The metadata under each requirement type is used to form the basis and parameters of the requirement.
   • Course work requirements to seek specific courses. (Note: You should not mark the “Minor” checkbox within your course list filters.)
   • Totals requirements to seek total hours from applicable courses. Every totals requirement must exclude unused coursework.
   • GPA requirements to seek minimum GPA from applicable courses. (Note: This may not be needed, depending on how the minor/certificate is legislated.) Every GPA requirement must exclude unused coursework.

     Certificate requirements

     • Minimum of 18 hours, but not more than 24 hours. To be set by the college offering the certificate based on legislation.
     • At least half of the coursework must be completed in-residence.
     • At least one course must be outside the requirements for the major. Courses may fulfill other degree requirements.

     Minor requirements

     • Minimum of 15 hours, but not more than 18 hours. To be set by the college offering the minor based on legislation.
     • None of the specified coursework can include unnumbered topics courses.
     • Minimum of six hours of upper-division coursework. EXCEPTION: In these instances, the minor must include at least nine semester hours of coursework beyond first-year competence in a foreign language, including at least three hours of upper-division coursework.
     • At least half of the coursework must be completed in-residence.
     • At least 9 hours must include course work not used to satisfy the requirements of the major. Courses may fulfill other degree requirements.

3. Add requirement restrictions if needed. All minor/certificate restrictions will be handled as dependent (option or requirement) restrictions.

Minors/Certificates on Student Profiles

Once a student has been approved to seek a minor/certificate, the minor/certificate may be added to the student’s profile in IDA 2.0.

If the student has been approved (through the Registrar Documents Submission application) to seek a minor/certificate, the approved credential will display on the pull-down menu in IDA 2.0 when adding or updating a 2016-18 profile. The credential type (MN or CT) will precede the degree code.

Minors and certificates may still be coded manually on the VO screen in NRRECS and the XP screen in NRDAPF at this time. Only approved minors/certificates may be added to a 2016-18 profile. The degree code will include MN (minor) or CT (certificate).

Running Minors/Certificates in IDA 2.0

Audit requests for the 2016-18 catalog will operate similarly to requests for previous catalogs. For individual audit requests, drop-down menus will be provided and will include all approved degree plan codes. For multiple EID audit requests, the form will include text boxes for manual entry of the codes.

Certificates may be run in conjunction with a major, or they may be run independently. When you run a certificate independently, the certificate is the main credential and needs to be entered in the Degree Plan field. Minors must be run in conjunction with a major.

Students and advisers may request audits using major and minor/certificate plan codes outside of their school and major.

When population audits run, the minors are pulled from the students’ profiles.

Moreable minors (Business Administration, Biological Sciences, etc.) will no longer exist starting with the 2016-18 catalog.

Minors/Certificates and Progress Toward Degree

PTD hours for a degree audit in the 2016-18 catalog will include the hours for the minor/certificate being pursued. PTD will be calculated based on the estimated hours for the sequence of the minor/certificate. If no minor/certificate is specified, then the estimated hours for the trigger requirement will be used instead.

Other considerations

If a minor/certificate is not specified and the trigger requirement has zero estimated hours (indicating that a minor/certificate is not required for the degree plan), then the trigger requirement will show as complete on the audit.

It is important that you review any requirements that were previously scoped as “Minor” but are now scoped as “Elective” in the 2016-18 catalog. Generally, when a course cannot be used to “double-dip” into both MN/CT hours and elective hours, those unfulfilled elective hours are added to the total number of hours needed for the degree.

Audits for standalone certificates will not carry a PTD, and none of the independent restrictions, including the duplicate restriction, will apply. Advisers are encouraged to run audits in conjunction with the major.