Graduation automation overview
The graduation automation process
When a student becomes eligible to graduate, the automation follows a step by step process that makes it easy for students to reach the ultimate goal of graduating and attending commencement.
The process
Once these qualifications are fulfilled, the graduation automation process begins by:
- Student becomes eligible to graduate based on the following qualifications:
- Student has an active degree seeking status.
- 90 cumulative units, including in-progress units.
- Student then can apply for graduation online.
- After applying, a student can make changes to name and address prior to degree being awarded.
- Advisors review students’ Academic Advisement Report (AAR) to ensure that all requirements are being met.
- Grades finalize, usually 2 weeks after the last day of the term.
- Office of the Registrar will batch award degrees.
- Advisors continue to review and clean up students’ AAR’s to allow degrees to post.
- Office of the Registrar will deny all remaining deficient graduation applications approximately 6-8 weeks after grades finalize and make the student eligible to apply for a future term.
If the student has been rejected during the graduation process for any reason, it is the responsibility of the student to reapply for graduation.
Restrictions
Some important information when applying online:
- Only terms within the following year will be available for students to apply online. If a student does not see a future term for which they wish to graduate, they should wait to apply until that term has become available. Past terms will not be available after the confer date of that term.
- Post Baccalaureate, China 1-2-1 and 2+2, and IUBH students will also submit the graduation requirements checklist, which is reviewed by the advisor and submitted to the Office of the Registrar.
- Student is charged the $35 graduation fee per degree/certificate.
- Student is sent an email verifying degree information after submitting the online graduation application.
- Note: Once a student applies for graduation, they will not have future term activation, cannot apply for course work after their graduation term, and will not receive an early enrollment appointment.
- After the first bachelor’s degree has been awarded, a student will need to apply for readmission through the Office of the Registrar to enroll in future course work.
Issues regarding students who are not eligible to graduate Accordion Closed
Advisors can check to see if a student is eligible to apply for graduation by going to the student’s Academic Advisement Report and looking at the “graduation status:”
There are two possible reasons a student status is not eligible and how to resolve:
- Student does not have an active degree seeking status. If the student has a discontinued career or is non-Degree Seeking in PeopleSoft, the student must apply for readmission.
- Student does not have 90 units (completed and in progress). If the number of units is preventing the student from becoming eligible, the advisor must contact the Graduation Area of the Office of the Registrar to request the student be made eligible.
Certificate-only students Accordion Closed
Certificate-only students cannot apply for graduation online. They must submit the application for certificate(s) to their advisor for review and signature.
Filling out the application for certificate(s)
The following contains some guidelines and considerations that need to be followed when filling the application for certificate form.
- Name: The student should list the name they want to appear on the certificate. If they have changed their name, they will need to submit a name change form with the Office of the Registrar along with appropriate documentation supporting the name change.
- Address: The address listed on the Application for Certificate(s) is where the certificate will be mailed. If the student wishes to change the address after submitting the application, they can do so through their LOUIE Student Center by editing the Diploma Address.
- Graduation term: Students should not apply to graduate with a certificate more than one year in advance. Please list the semester to be awarded in the upper right-hand corner of the Application for Certificate(s).
- Requirements: All remaining requirements for the certificate should be listed on the application, including coursework taken at an external institution and has yet to be transferred to NAU.
- Signatures: The following signatures are required on the Application for Certificate(s):
- Student signature
- Advisor signature
- Dean designee signature
- Graduation fee(s): The graduation fee(s) will be applied by the Office of the Registrar once the application has been received and processed.
- Changes: If changes in coursework occur after the Application for Certificate(s) has been submitted to the Graduation Area, a paper addendum is necessary to update the application. The addendum must be signed by the Dean Designee and sent to the Graduation Area.
Please note: Students who will be graduating with a certificate prior to the completion of their bachelor’s degree will need to complete the application for readmission to finish the requirements for their bachelor’s degree at NAU.
Making changes after the student has applied for graduation Accordion Closed
If the need to change a piece of information arises after completing the graduation application, it will not be enough to simply reapply. The following depicts the steps students need to take in order to make changes to their graduation form once this has been submitted depending on the type of information they wish to change.
- Name change: If the student wants a different name to be printed on the diploma than what is available, they will need to submit the Name Change form to the Office of the Registrar. This can be done before or after the student has submitted their graduation application.
- Address change: If the student wants their diploma mailed to a different address than what is available, they will need to make changes to their HOME address or add a DIPLOMA address through their LOUIE Student Center. This can be done before or after the student has submitted their graduation application.
- Add or drop of major and/or certificate: If a student wants to add or drop their major or certificate, or know they will not graduate in their current graduation term, the student must send an email to the Registrar’s Graduation Office at graduation@nau.edu requesting the appropriate change to the online graduation application. Please note: All individual graduation fee(s) are calculated into one lump sum fee that is posted to the student’s account; the student is not charged individual fees for each degree/certificate. By adding/dropping the major and/or certificate, the amount of the graduation fee may change. To ensure the student is correctly charged, the entire graduation fee must be refunded and reapplied once the student’s graduation application is corrected.
- Change of major and/or certificate
- The advisor or student requests the necessary changes by sending an email to graduation@nau.edu.
- Change of graduation term, minor, emphasis, and/or catalog year: If a student wants to add, drop, or change their minor, emphasis, and/or catalog year, the graduation application does not need to be withdrawn. Changes to a preexisting graduation term, major, certificate, catalog year, or minor will not affect the graduation fee.
- The advisor requests the appropriate changes from the Graduation Area by sending an email to graduation@nau.edu.
- The Graduation Area will make the necessary changes to the Student Program Plan and notify the advisor.
- The advisor is responsible for reviewing the AAR to ensure all requirements will be satisfied.
Post Baccalaureate, China 1-2-1 and 2+2, and IUBH students Accordion Closed
Post Baccalaureate, China 1-2-1 and 2+2, and IUBH students will also need to submit the graduation requirements checklist to their advisor in addition to their graduation application. The following depicts all special circumstances that may arise for all the previously described students.
- Requirements: Because these students do not have an Academic Advisement Report, and/or may have special circumstances that prevent the awarding of their degrees based on the AAR, all graduation requirements will be considered satisfied based from the graduation requirements checklist. Therefore, all remaining requirements for the degree should be listed on the checklist.
- Filling out the graduation requirements checklist: For a step-by-step guide on how to fill out the graduation requirements checklist, please refer to pages 1-2 of the graduation requirements checklist. Please note, the student’s name, address, and degree information will be processed from the online graduation application, not from the graduation requirements checklist.
- Signatures: Student signatures are not required on the graduation requirements checklist. The signatures required on the checklist are the minor advisor, certificate advisor, and the Dean Designee. These signatures certify all listed coursework on the graduation requirements checklist fulfill degree requirements.
- Changes: If changes in coursework occur after the graduation requirements checklist has been submitted to the Graduation Area, a paper addendum is necessary to update the checklist. The addendum must be signed by the Dean Designee and sent to the Graduation Area. Please see “making changes after the student has applied for graduation” for information on how to process changes to the majors, certificates, minors, emphases and/or catalog year.