Academic Structure

Academic Structure is the organisational hierarchy of your institution. It defines how programs are grouped under faculties, departments, and other administrative layers. The structure is flexible — you can model a simple single-level setup (programs only) or a deep multi-layer university hierarchy (Faculty → Department → Program → Specialization). All other academic records such as programs, intakes, and enrolments are anchored to this structure.

How Academic Structure Works

Academic units form a tree. Each unit has a type that determines its role in the hierarchy, and an optional parent that positions it within the tree. Programs are always the terminal nodes that connect to actual courses of study — all other unit types exist to group and organise programs for governance and reporting purposes.

The platform does not enforce a fixed number of layers. A small training institute might have programs sitting directly under the institution root, while a university might have four layers: Faculty → Department → Program → Specialization. You define the layers that match your institution.

Scenario: A college offers programs across two faculties. The administrator creates a Faculty unit called "Faculty of Engineering" and another called "Faculty of Business". Under each faculty, they create Department units, and then create Program units beneath the relevant departments. The programs then appear in Admissions and Enrolments scoped to their owning faculty.

Note: Structural changes affect future intakes only. Students already enrolled in a program remain associated with the structure as it was when they enrolled. Safe-change warnings appear when an edit could affect live intakes.

Unit Types

Faculty

The broadest organisational division, typically representing a school or college within a university (e.g., Faculty of Engineering, School of Business). Faculties can contain departments or programs.

Department

A subject-area grouping within a faculty (e.g., Department of Computer Science). Departments sit between faculties and programs and can be omitted if your institution does not use them.

Program

An academic unit node that represents a course of study. A Program unit must exist before a Program record (with its configuration, duration, and curricula) can be created. This is the only unit type that connects to enrolments.

Specialization

A terminal sub-track within a program (e.g., Marketing Specialization within a Business degree). Specializations always sit beneath a Program unit.

Group

A flexible, generic structural unit used when the standard types do not fit. A Group can appear at any level in the hierarchy and can be nested under another Group. Use it for cross-faculty research centres, offshore campuses, or any grouping that does not map to Faculty, Department, or Program.

Unit Statuses

Create an Academic Unit

To navigate to Academic Structure, go to Academic → Structure.

1. Click New Unit.
2. Select the Type — Faculty, Department, Program, Specialization, or Group.
3. Enter the Name of the unit.
4. Enter a Code (short identifier used in reports and exports, e.g., FAC-ENG).
5. Select a Parent Unit if this unit sits beneath another. Leave blank to place the unit at the top level.
6. Set the Status to Active or leave it as Draft if not ready.
7. Optionally set an Effective From date to indicate when this unit became part of the structure.
8. Click Save.

Note: A Program unit type must be created here before you can create a Program record in Academic → Programs. The Program unit provides the structural anchor; the Program record carries the academic configuration.

Edit an Academic Unit

1. Go to Academic → Structure.
2. Find the unit in the list or tree view and click its name or select Edit from the action menu.
3. Update the relevant fields.
4. Click Save.

Important: Changing the parent of a unit that has live program enrolments beneath it will affect reporting paths and permission scopes. A warning is shown before saving if this is the case.

Reorder Academic Units

Units at the same level within the tree can be reordered to control how they appear in pickers, reports, and the structure tree.

1. Go to Academic → Structure.
2. Switch to the Tree view if not already active.
3. Drag a unit up or down within its parent group to change its position.
4. The new order is saved automatically.

Note: Reordering is cosmetic only. It does not affect permissions or enrolment rules.

Delete an Academic Unit

1. Go to Academic → Structure.
2. Open the action menu for the unit and select Delete.
3. Confirm the deletion in the dialog that appears.

Important: A unit cannot be deleted if it has child units or active programs beneath it. Reassign or remove all children before deleting the parent.

Permissions

Next: Programs