Progression

Progression is the automated process that evaluates students' results at the end of a term and determines what happens next — whether they advance to the next term, repeat a term, repeat selected modules, or exit the program. Progression runs are created for a specific term (and optionally scoped to a program, intake, or curriculum period), produce a row of decisions for each eligible student, go through an approval step, and are then applied to create the next set of enrolments.

How Progression Works

At the end of a term, an academic administrator creates a Progression Run scoped to that term. The system evaluates each student's term enrolment record, checks their module outcomes against the program's curriculum rules, and produces a decision for each student — typically Advance, Repeat Term, or Repeat Selected Modules. These decisions form the run's rows.

An approver reviews the rows, can override individual decisions if needed, and then approves the run. Once approved, a user with apply permission applies the run. Applying processes each row: for students advancing, it creates a term enrolment in the next term; for students repeating, it creates the appropriate repeat enrolment. The run is then marked as Completed.

Progression runs are scoped and can be run incrementally. You can run progression for one program at a time, one intake at a time, or one curriculum period at a time rather than processing the entire term cohort in a single run.

Scenario: At the end of Semester 1, an administrator creates a progression run for the Diploma in Business program in the January intake. The system evaluates 45 students. 40 pass all modules and are assigned an Advance decision. 3 failed one module each and are assigned Repeat Selected Modules. 2 failed multiple modules and are assigned Repeat Term. The academic director reviews the rows, overrides one student's decision from Repeat Term to Advance based on extenuating circumstances, and approves the run. The administrator then applies the run, creating Semester 2 enrolments for the 41 advancing students and repeat term enrolments for the 4 repeating students.

Progression Run Statuses

Create a Progression Run

To navigate to Progression, go to Academic → Progression.

1. Click New Progression Run.
2. Select the Source Term — the term whose enrolments you are evaluating.
3. Optionally select a Program to scope the run to a single program. Leave blank to include all programs in the term.
4. Optionally select an Intake to scope the run to a specific cohort.
5. Optionally select a Curriculum and Curriculum Period to scope the run to students in a specific period of study.
6. Optionally select a Next Term — the term that advancing students will be enrolled into. If left blank, the system uses the next term in sequence based on the source term's academic year and sequence number.
7. Configure advanced options if needed:
   • Strict Mode — when enabled, students with unresolved blockers (e.g., missing outcomes) are excluded from decisions. Recommended for most cases.
   • Require No Blockers for Apply — prevents the run from being applied if any student rows have unresolved blockers.
   • Readiness Mode — controls how the system determines whether a student's outcomes are ready to evaluate.
8. Click Create Run. The system begins the preflight evaluation automatically.

Note: A term must have been finalized before progression can be run for it. Finalizing the term closes out all active term enrolments and ensures all module outcomes are recorded. See Finalize a Term.

Review Run Rows and Decisions

Once the preflight evaluation is complete and the run status is Preview Ready, you can review the decision rows before approving.

1. Go to Academic → Progression and click the run name.
2. Review the summary KPIs — the number of rows by decision type (Advance, Repeat Term, Repeat Selected Modules, etc.).
3. Click View Rows to see the full list of student rows.
4. Click any row to open its detail, which shows the student's module outcomes, the system-generated decision, and any standing or blocker flags.

Pro Tip: Use the filters on the rows list to focus on a specific decision type (e.g., show only students assigned Repeat Term) before reviewing and potentially overriding decisions.

Override and Intervene

If the system's decision for a student is incorrect — for example, due to an appeal, medical circumstances, or a data correction — you can override the decision before approving the run.

Override a Single Student Decision

1. Open the progression run and go to the Rows view.
2. Click the row for the student whose decision you want to change.
3. Click Override Decision.
4. Select the new decision from the available options.
5. Enter an override reason (required for audit purposes).
6. Click Save Override.

Re-evaluate a Student Row

If module outcomes were corrected after the run was created, you can re-evaluate individual rows without recreating the entire run.

1. Open the student's row in the run.
2. Click Re-evaluate.
3. The system re-calculates the decision based on the latest module outcomes for that student.

Repeat Selected Modules for a Student

If a student passed most modules but failed one or two, you can set up a repeat-selected-modules intervention directly from their row.

1. Open the student's row.
2. Click Repeat Selected Modules.
3. Select the specific modules the student needs to repeat in the next term.
4. Confirm the selection.

Important: Intervention actions require the academic.progression.run.intervene permission. Override reasons are recorded in the progression audit log.

Approve a Run

After reviewing and any necessary overriding, the run must be approved before it can be applied.

1. Go to Academic → Progression and click the run.
2. If the run is in Preview Ready status, click Submit for Approval first. The status changes to Approval Pending.
3. A user with the academic.progression.run.approve permission clicks Approve.
4. The run status changes to Approved.

Note: The same user who created the run can approve it if they also hold the approval permission. Separation of duties is controlled by your institution's role configuration.

Reject a Run

If the run needs to be revised, an approver can reject it. Rejected runs return to Draft status and can be re-evaluated or modified before resubmission.

1. From the run detail page, click Reject.
2. Enter a rejection reason.
3. Confirm. The run returns to Preview Ready status for further review.

Apply a Run

Applying the run executes the decisions — creating enrolments in the next term for advancing students and creating repeat enrolments for others.

1. Go to Academic → Progression and find the run in Approved status.
2. Click Apply Run.
3. Confirm the action.
4. The run status changes to Applying. Processing runs in the background.
5. Once complete, the status changes to Completed.

Important: Apply requires the academic.progression.run.apply permission. Applying a run creates real enrolment records. This action cannot be undone from the Progression screen — if a mistake is made, affected enrolments must be corrected manually via the Enrolments module.

Retry Failures

If a run completes with some rows in a Failed state (for example, due to a temporary system error), you can retry the failed rows without re-running the entire progression.

1. Open the failed run.
2. Click Retry Failed Rows.
3. The system re-attempts to apply only the failed rows.
4. Review the Failures tab for detailed error messages if rows continue to fail.

Cancel a Run

A run can be cancelled at any point before it has been applied. Cancelling is useful if you created a run by mistake or need to start fresh with different scope parameters.

1. Open the run from Academic → Progression.
2. Click Cancel Run.
3. Confirm the cancellation.

Note: Cancelled runs are read-only and remain visible in the run history for audit purposes. No enrolment changes are made when a run is cancelled.

Permissions

Next: Academic Overview