Non-Substantially Equal (NSE) Program Changes

If a student changes from one program to another, and the programs are not "substantially equal," the student may have two overlapping Academic Years. The unused payment periods (PPs outside of a program) are marked Historic.

For example, if a nonterm student changes from one program to another during their first nonterm Payment Period NT_1_PP_1, and the programs are not "substantially equal," the student will have two Academic Years.

• In AY1, the unused PP2 or second payment period (e.g. NT_1_PP_2) would be marked as Historic. 
• In AY2, the student starts the new program.

NSE Program Change examples

• Nonterm-to-nonterm, where the programs have different lengths or other different characteristics
  • Special rules apply for determining Substantially Equal for nonterm programs. See more SBL Guidance: Program Changes
• Term-to-nonterm
• Nonterm-to-term
• Term-to-term with different term lengths

 If terms are the same length, most term-to-term changes should be processed as Substantially Equal and should not start a new Academic Year. For example, undergrad-to-grad changes are usually SE if they share the same set of terms.  

Nonterm PPs with 180-day rule

If a nonterm student has their first payment period closed by the Non-term: 180-Day Return Rule, the second PP in the AY will be marked Historic.

Term/NST Track Changes

Track changes are for the term and nonstandard term students who have multiple, different, overlapping terms within the same program. 

Track Changes appear on the Academic Plan. They visually look very similar to NSE program changes.

The student will have two AYs, one for each track. The first AY will have the actual term(s) in the original track. The extra terms in that AY will be marked Historic because they would never be linked to the active track.

SAY Middle-of-AY Program Starts

If a student first starts a program in the middle of a Scheduled Academic Year (SAY), the extra terms before the start are marked historic. 

For example, if a student has a Spring start, and the SAY is Fall-Spring-Summer (summer trailer), Fall would be marked Historic.

The student's academic plan would look like:

• Fall 2018 - Marked Historic because student's program hasn't started yet
• Spring 2019 - Active program
• Summer 2019 - Active program

Gaps Between Programs

If a term/NST student is not actively enrolled in a program, but the term appears on the Academic Plan, the system displays it marked as Historic.

For example, a student might complete one program, be unenrolled for a couple terms, and later come back and start a new program. If the gap terms appear on the Academic Plan, the system will mark those terms as Historic because they do not have any active program.

Displaying awards on unenrolled terms before AY starts

The Academic Plan screen also uses Historic terms for displaying awards that occur outside a BBAY. For example, a BBAY student might have an imported award for Fall, but the student only starts attending in Winter and the BBAY starts with Winter.  The Academic Plan screen displays the prior, Fall term in a collapsed (hidden) state at the beginning of the AY.  If a user expands and views the term, it is marked as Historic.

For that display-only term, the AY and Loan Period dates do not include the extra term. The historic term is used for display only, to show the award.

Students might potentially have multiple leading collapsed non-enrolled terms. The non-enrolled terms are not used for any dates reported to COD.