Glossary
| Term | Definition |
| Academic Career | UAMS academic programs are organized into GUS careers based on their calendar and academic rules. Academic work on transcripts is divided by career.
MEDI-Medicine |
| Academic Group | The college that a class is assigned to in GUS.
CHP: College of Health Professions |
| Academic Plan | An area of study or program in which a degree may be awarded. An academic plan may also define a specialization or track. For example, in the Graduate School the Clinical and Translational Sciences track is a plan and in CoN the MNSC specialties are plans. |
| Accepted/Admitted Student | An applicant who has been accepted into an academic plan. An accepted applicant may or may not accept the offer. In GUS, ADMT (admit) in program action indicates a student has been accepted. If the applicant accepts the offer, the code is changed to DEIN. |
| Active Student | A student who has an active program/plan in GUS. An active student may or may not be enrolled. |
| Applicant | An individual who has fulfilled the institution’s requirements to be considered for admission (including payment or waiving of the application fee, if any) and who has been notified of one of the following actions: admission, nonadmission, placement on waiting list, or application withdrawn by applicant or institution (as defined by IPEDS). |
| Arkansas Division of Higher Education (ADHE) | The Arkansas Division of Higher Education serves as the administrative staff for the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board. |
| Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board (AHECB) | The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board is comprised of 12 members who are appointed by the Governor. The Board is charged by law to coordinate higher education in Arkansas. |
| Bachelor’s Degree | The bachelor’s degree will be awarded to students upon successful completion of a program that requires a minimum of 120 undergraduate semester credit hours, including the 35-semester hour state minimum general education core (Appendix C), a minimum of 40 semester hours of upper-level courses, and a minimum of 30 semester hours (including 20 semester hours of upper-level courses) in the major field of study. (From AHECB Policy 5.11) |
| Calendar Year | A period of time from January 1-December 31. |
| Census Date | The date that enrollment information is captured for reporting purposes each term. For UAMS, this is also referred to as the 11th day headcount in fall and spring and 5th day headcount in the summer. |
| CIP Code | The Classification of Instructional Programs code is a six-digit code in the form xx.xxxx that identifies instructional program specialties within educational institutions. Example: 51.1201 is for Medicine |
| Completion Rate | The cumulative number of students in a given cohort graduating from a specified time period in a specified academic plan (as defined by UAMS). Cumulative Number of Students Graduating / Number of Students in Cohort = Completion Rate |
| Completion Term | The term that a student completes their degree. |
| Confer Date | The official date that degrees are conferred for each term/semester. |
| Credit Hour | The unit of measuring educational credit, usually based on the number of classroom hours per week throughout a terms as described in Academic Affairs policy 2.1.5. |
| Degree | An award conferred by a college, university, or other postsecondary education institution as official recognition for the successful completion of a program of studies (as defined by IPEDS). |
| Degree Seeking Student | A student who is enrolled in an academic plan that leads to a certificate or degree. |
| Distance Education | Education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor synchronously or asynchronously (as defined by IPEDS). |
| Distance Education Course | A course in which the instructional content is delivered exclusively via distance education. Requirements for coming to campus for orientation, testing, or academic support services do not exclude a course from being classified as distance education (as defined by IPEDS). |
| Distance Education Program | A program for which all the required coursework for program completion is able to be completed via distance education courses (as defined by IPEDS). |
| Doctoral Degree | The doctoral degree will be awarded to students who complete a minimum of 72 graduate semester credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree. The program of study includes 42 graduate-only semester hours beyond the master’s degree. (From AHECB Policy 5.11) |
| Ethnicity and Race | During the application process, applicants are asked the ethnicity and race to which they belong or identify with. Completion is optional.
First, applicants or student can select their Ethnicity (select one): Second, applicants or student are asked to indicate all race that apply to them among the following categories: |
| Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) | A student may at any time after matriculation place a data restriction on their student records to restrict access to biographical data from appearing in specific data reports as defined in Academic Affairs Policy 2.1.2. The restriction can be removed at any time. |
| First-Professional Degree | The first-professional degree (law, pharmacy, medicine, health-related professions) will be awarded to students upon successful completion of a program that meets all of these criteria: at least 60 semester credit hours of undergraduate coursework before entering the program, a minimum of 72 semester credit hours beyond the 60-semester hour entrance requirement, and completion of academic requirements to begin practice in the profession. (From AHECB Policy 5.11) |
| Fiscal Year (FY) | A period of time defined by July 1-June 30 of each year. Example: July 1, 2018-June 30, 2019=FY19 |
| Graduate Certificate | The Graduate Certificate or Endorsement is a 12-21 semester hour program that includes a focused collection of courses which when completed affords the student a record of coherent academic accomplishment in a given discipline or set of related disciplines. (From AHECB Policy 5.11) |
| GUS (Gateway for UAMS students) | The student information system utilized by UAMS. UAMS uses PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. |
| Higher Learning Commission (HLC) | A regional accreditor that accredits UAMS and degree-granting postsecondary educational institutions in 19 states. |
| Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) | A system managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) which involves institution-level data collections from postsecondary institutions that receive Title IV (financial aid) funds. |
| Master’s Degree | The master’s degree will be awarded to students who complete a minimum of 30 semester credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree that includes 50 percent graduate-only semester hours in the field of study. (From AHECB Policy 5.11) |
| NC-SARA or SARA | The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) helps establish state-level reciprocity agreements among states that offer distance education. |
| Non-degree Seeking Student | A student who is enrolled in courses and is not active in a program that leads to a certificate or degree (as defined by IPEDS). |
| Nonresident alien | A person who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who is in this country on a visa or temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely. |
| Residency | Residency status for tuition purposes is defined by Academic Affairs policy 3.2.1. |
| Retention Rate | The percentage of a cohort of students returning and enrolling to continue their education at UAMS from a specific time period to a specified time period (as defined by UAMS). Number of Students Retained / Number of Students in Cohort = Retention Rate |
| Session | A period of time within a term that a course can be offered. |
| Student Online Analytics and Reporting (SOAR) | SOAR is the name of the reporting tool that allows faculty and staff to have reporting capabilities outside of GUS. |
| Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) | The SREB is a nonprofit organization that works with 16 states to improve public education. |
| Student ID Number | Students are assigned student ID numbers when they apply, and the same number is kept if the student is accepted and enrolls. This number does not change. In GUS it is identified as EMPLID. |
| Student Semester Credit Hours (SSCH) | The sum of the number of students enrolled in each course multiplied by the credit hours awarded per student in each course. |
| Success Rate | A student’s completion of an academic plan or continuous active enrollment attempting to complete their academic plan. The rate is expressed as a percent (as defined by UAMS). Sum of Maximum of Retained Student and Graduated Student/Number of Cohort Students=Success Rate |
| Term | In GUS each academic term is specified by a four-digit number which designates the calendar year and semester within that year. The first three digits, with a deleted zero between the first and second digits, denote the year and the fourth digit denotes the term with 3 being for spring, 6 for summer, and 9 for fall. For example, a term value of 2189 denotes the fall term of 2018. The first three digits with a zero deleted after the first give you the year, 2018, and the fourth digit is 9 for the fall term. |
| Transfer Credit | Any educational course credit from another regionally accredited college or university that is accepted and posted to the UAMS student record and that will be applied toward the completion of a UAMS degree as described in Academic Affairs policy 2.2.8. |
Updated 9/18/2019