(U-WIRE) EVANSTON, Ill. -- The Northwestern University Office of the Registrar has submitted a proposal for an online degree auditing system that could be available to select majors through CAESAR as early as Fall Quarter.

The system would allow students to track degree requirements they have completed and see which classes they have yet to take, said University Registrar Suzanne Anderson.

Students eventually would be able to audit their completed courses against any major, Anderson said. For example, students would be able to see how close they are to a history or English major.

"I think it will be a good tool for students," she said.

Anderson said the pilot program probably would be available first to certain majors in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Depending on the success of the pilot, the program could be expanded to students in all majors and schools.

Assoc. Provost Rebecca Dixon said the registrar's office has been looking for a new degree auditing system since June 1996. The previous system, which was used only by Weinberg students, was discontinued because the software was not Y2K-compliant, Dixon said.

Students often had problems tracking their degrees with the old system, said Sameer Gafoor, Associated Student Government academic vice president. Many times, he said, the system was not updated regularly and had incorrect major or class information.

Having an online degree auditing system would prevent problems such as students missing degree requirements until the final quarter of their senior year, said Gafoor, a Weinberg junior.

Though the registrar's office would still be officially responsible for tracking degree requirements, an online system would allow students to access academic information more quickly, Dixon said. Currently, if students want to know their remaining requirements, they must either keep track on their own or visit their adviser.

"It (would make) the level of discussion between advisers and advisees much more sophisticated and purposeful," Dixon said.

The more concrete the degree requirements, Dixon said, the easier it would be to track a degree. Ad-hoc majors might have more difficulty tracking degrees because the requirements are more vague, she said.

Administrators have been seeking student input, Dixon said, and are looking at a project undertaken this quarter by 46 industrial engineering students. After surveying students and faculty about a possible degree auditing system, the project's members plan to make recommendations to administrators at the end of the quarter.

The CAESAR subcommittee of ASG's academic committee also has been involved in seeking student input since the beginning of the year, Gafoor said.

ASG passed a bill Jan. 17 calling for degree auditing on CAESAR.

"This is the biggest and the best thing to come out of ASG academic committee this year," Gafoor said. "Even though it's in the beginning process, we sincerely believe this is something the university and students agree on."

(C) 2001 Daily Northwestern via U-WIRE

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