Intended Audience and Contact Information
| Contact | Chief Data Officer, Office of the CIO |
|---|---|
| Intended audience: | Internal UBC |
| UDM Domain | Academic |
| Applicability | Credit |
| Guideline ID | DG0005 |
Definition
A Program Area is a grouping of Programs of Study across different units based on similarities in order to facilitate administrative processes or shared ownership between multiple units in Workday. Some examples of how Program Areas are used include but are not limited to:
- Gaining efficiency in applying the same student eligibility rules to different programs across different units;
- Optimizing reporting by filtering data for a specific grouping;
- Modelling current UBC governance structure by identifying owning units for those programs of study that are owned by multiple units as a workaround to current configuration limitations on Owning Academic Units versus Coordinating Academic Units.
A Program Area Type is the category of Program Areas based on a shared administrative purpose(s). Each Program Area Type is associated with a Program Area Type Name and a Program Area Type Prefix.
Purpose
Due to the complexity of the data the Program Area and Program Area Type attributes have not been standardized in Workday. In lieu of a data standard, these guidelines have been created to provide recommendations around the creation of a Program Area and Program Area Type to encourage consistency in data entry for these attributes. For more details on Program Areas and Program Area Types, please see the Program of Study Data Standard.
Guideline
Program Area Name
The following is the naming convention that has been implemented in Workday for Program Area Name:
[<ProgramAreaTypePrefix>] <ProgramAreaDetail>
| Name Element | Description | Recommended Format |
|---|---|---|
| Program Area Type Prefix | The acronym of the Program Area Type. | Alpha (2-5 characters) See Program Area Type section for more details |
| Program Area Detail | The detailed title of the Program Area. | Text |
The following guidelines are recommended when creating a Program Area Name:
- The Program Area Detail should be as brief as possible while providing enough information for administrators and staff to understand at a glance the purpose of the Program Area, as well as distinguish it from other similar Program Areas.
- Abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided unless they are commonly understood by all administrators.
- Special characters should be avoided, with the exception of hyphen "-", plus sign "+", parentheses "( )", forward slash "/", and language-specific characters as necessary.
- All Program Area Names should inherit the prefix for the Program Area Type to which the Program Area belongs. The Program Area Type Prefix should ideally be contained in square brackets "[ ]". For guidelines on the Program Area Type Prefix please see the Program Area Type section below.
Program Area Type Name
The following guidelines are recommended when creating a Program Area Type Name:
- The Program Area Type name should ideally be as brief as possible while providing enough information for administrators and staff to understand at a glance the purpose of the Program Area Type, as well as distinguish it from other similar Program Area Types.
- Abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided unless they are commonly understood by all administrators.
- Special characters should generally not be used, with the exception of hyphen "-", "+", parentheses "( )" or language-specific characters as necessary.
Program Area Type Prefix
The following guidelines are recommended when creating a Program Area Type Prefix:
- The acronym should be uppercase alpha characters, between two and five characters in length.
- The acronym should utilize the key characters in the Program Area Type Name that help users understand at a glance which Program Area Type is being referenced.