Academic Unit Data Standard

Intended Audience and Contact Information

Contact	Chief Data Officer, Office of the CIO
Intended audience:	Internal UBC
UDM Domain	Organization
Data Standard ID	DS0116

Definition

An Academic Unit is an organization type that represents a school, college, campus/senate, or other units within the institution. These units can recruit and admit learners, offer programs of study or courses and may facilitate key administrative functions, or administer student awards. An Academic Unit is also used with academic appointments.

Purpose

This standard aims to achieve consistency around the data created for Academic Unit across the University.

This standard applies to all UBC applications collecting and creating organization names. Exceptions are listed in the Dispensation section.

Standard

Academic Unit Attributes

The following are the attributes of an Academic Unit:

Attribute	Definition	Format
Academic Unit Name	A set of words by which an Academic Unit is officially known as.	Text Note: Academic Unit Names are approved by the appropriate Curriculum Approving Body. Where the same Academic Unit Name exists on both campuses, append the applicable Curriculum Approving Body designation in parentheses to distinguish between them, using the following naming convention: <Academic Unit Name> (<Curriculum Approving Body>) For example: Faculty of Science (Okanagan); Faculty of Science (Vancouver). Please see the Curriculum Approving Body Data Standard for the list of accepted values to use when this naming convention applies.
Academic Unit Code	A unique code for an Academic Unit.	Text 4 alpha-numeric characters
Academic Unit Type This attribute is referred to as Academic Unit Subtype in Workday Student.	A classification of Academic Units based on their academic function and authority within the university.(pending approval)	Reference List See Academic Unit Type section for accepted values.
Academic Unit Hierarchy Level	The hierarchical level assigned to an Academic Unit Type within the ordered structure of Academic Units. (pending approval)	See Academic Unit Hierarchy section for accepted values.
Effective Date	The date when an organization is used in Business Transactions.	Date
Active Indicator	Indicates if an organization is active for business usage.	Boolean
Academic Unit Credit Basis	Indicates if the Academic Unit is Credit, Non-Credit, or Not Applicable.	Reference List See Academic Unit Credit Basis section for accepted values. Note: This is derived from the System of Record. Should this rule become insufficient to define the credit basis for an Academic Unit, contact Enterprise Data Governance.

Academic Unit Hierarchy

Academic Unit Types are assigned to one of the following levels:

Level	Accepted Academic Unit Types
01	Institution
02	Campus / Senate
03	Faculty, Program Office, or Library
04	School, Department, Institute, College, or Program Unit (credit or non-credit)

Academic Unit Type

The following are the accepted values for Academic Unit Type:

Accepted Value	University Glossary Term	Definition
Institution	Institution [Academic Unit Type]	The highest-level Academic Unit in the Academic Unit Hierarchy, representing the University as a whole and encompassing all other Academic Units.
Campus/Senate	Campus/Senate [Academic Unit Type]	A governing body that is responsible primarily for academic matters, and also acts as a curriculum approving body for the relevant campus as per the University Act.
Faculty	Faculty [Academic Unit Type]	An academic administrative division that typically encompasses a broad area of study and may contain one or more related units. All other academic units must reside within one or more Faculties, with the exception of Colleges. Faculties have statutory powers under the University Act.
Program Office	Program Office [Academic Unit Type]	A unit that has been created for the purpose of facilitating the joint offering of programs and/or courses between two academic units in non-credit learner systems.
School	School [Academic Unit Type]	An academic unit that is responsible for specific areas of study and research at all academic levels within a Faculty, traditionally has a vocational or professional focus, and offers specialized curriculum leading to distinctive degrees. The autonomy granted to Schools is at the discretion of the host Faculty/ies. Note: Although the current name of The Sauder School of Business suggests that its Academic Unit Type is a School, it is in fact an alternate name for the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration.
College	College [Academic Unit Type]	An academic unit similar to a Faculty but without the statutory powers of a Faculty. Colleges traditionally cross academic disciplinary lines and are created for special purposes such as international transition programs or graduate study.
Department	Department [Academic Unit Type]	A subdivision within a Faculty that focuses on specific and distinctive areas of study or disciplines and as a result requires relative administrative autonomy within the Faculty. It is responsible for organizing and delivering courses, conducting research, and supporting students and faculty in those fields.
Institute This is known as Centre Category 1 in Workday Student	Institute [Academic Unit Type]	An academic unit that generally specialize in research and graduate level education. Institutes are established by the Board of Governors and approved by the governing Senate.
Program Unit	Program Unit [Academic Unit Type]	A unit that has been created for the purpose of facilitating business process routing of programs and/or courses, or facilitating the joint offering of programs and/or courses of instruction between two academic units in the student system.
Program Unit (Non-Credit)	Program Unit (Non-Credit) [Academic Unit Type]	A unit that has been created for the purpose of recruiting and admitting non-credit learners, as well as offering or administering non-credit programs of study or courses.

Academic Unit Credit Basis

The following are the accepted values for Academic Unit Credit Basis:

Accepted Value	University Glossary Term	Definition
Credit	Credit [Academic Unit Credit Basis]	The Academic Unit has been approved by Senate to lead to a UBC Academic Credit credential or UBC academic credit standing.
Non-Credit	Non Credit [Academic Unit Credit Basis]	The Academic Unit may have been approved by Senate or the appropriate UBC Curriculum Approving Body to lead to a UBC Non-Credit credential.
Not Applicable	Not Applicable [Academic Unit Credit Basis]	The Academic Unit has not been approved by Senate or a Senate-designated UBC Curriculum Approving Body to qualify for any type of credential or standing from UBC. For example, UBC Affiliate College programs are considered neither Credit or Non-Credit as they do not lead to a UBC academic credit credential or UBC non-credit credential.

Accepted Value

University Glossary Term

Definition

Credit

Credit [Academic Unit Credit Basis]

The Academic Unit has been approved by Senate to lead to a UBC Academic Credit credential or UBC academic credit standing.

Non-Credit

Non Credit [Academic Unit Credit Basis]

The Academic Unit may have been approved by Senate or the appropriate UBC Curriculum Approving Body to lead to a UBC Non-Credit credential.

Not Applicable

Not Applicable [Academic Unit Credit Basis]

The Academic Unit has not been approved by Senate or a Senate-designated UBC Curriculum Approving Body to qualify for any type of credential or standing from UBC.

For example, UBC Affiliate College programs are considered neither Credit or Non-Credit as they do not lead to a UBC academic credit credential or UBC non-credit credential.

Compliance

The above standard for credentials must be complied at every stage of the data lifecycle with the exception of any dispensations (see Dispensation section).

All applications must collect data as recommended in this standard.
Enterprise Data Integration must adopt this standard.

Reference Data Compliance for Data Integration

The use of accepted reference data values in this standard for data integration among applications must comply with the enterprise integration pattern of leveraging the reference data common service API (Application Programming Interface) published in UBC MuleSoft Exchange.

Any application that intends to access real-time, case-level reference data should have the application owner or manager complete and submit a Request API Access form.

Mapping of Invalid Values from System(s) of Record (SOR) to Common Services

A common service can only accommodate standard reference data enumerations that are available in the SoR as approved by the Data Governance Steering Committee or Data Trustee.

A reference data value that does not match any of the standard reference data value enumerations is considered ‘invalid’. Any records from a SoR containing an invalid reference data value for a given data element or attribute must be mapped as an 'empty' value in common service(s). Where a reference data value may potentially have the same meaning as a standard enumeration but named differently in the system of record can be corrected to match the appropriate standard enumeration. Please consult with the EDG team in such cases.

Additional Reference Data values in a SoR that are not part of the standard reference data enumerations are to be omitted in the common service.

Dispensation

Legacy systems are exempt from this data standard. As systems are replaced, adoption of this standard is required.

For any compliance questions or requests for a temporary dispensation, please contact the Enterprise Data Governance Team.

Academic Unit Data Standard

Intended Audience and Contact Information

Definition

Purpose

Standard

Academic Unit Attributes

Academic Unit Hierarchy

Academic Unit Type

Academic Unit Credit Basis

Compliance

Reference Data Compliance for Data Integration

Mapping of Invalid Values from System(s) of Record (SOR) to Common Services

Dispensation

Related Documents

Office of the CIO

Related Sites

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