Glossary

Accelerated Program
An academic degree program in which students may complete in fewer than the usual number of years, most often by attending summer sessions and carrying extra courses during the regular academic term. UCCS offers a number of accelerated programs that allow students to earn both a baccalaureate and a master's degree in five years.

Admitted Student
Applicant who is offered admission to a degree or certificate-granting program at UCCS.

Admit Types
Admit Types are codes attached to student applications which represent types of admission criteria to facilitate the admissions process. Admit types are not used to determine a student's cohort assignment. Admit type codes are as follows:

Applicant
An individual who has fulfilled the institution's requirements to be considered for admission.

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Certificate Program
A recognized postsecondary credential that is conferred upon the satisfactory completion of a postsecondary education program. A recognized credential is one that is eligible for Title IV federal student aid. For IPEDS, there are several types of certificate programs:

• Postsecondary Certificate: an award below the baccalaureate degree which requires less than 30 credit hours.
• Postsecondary Certificate: an award below the baccalaureate degree which requires at least 30 but less than 60 credit hours.
• Postsecondary Certificate: an award below the baccalaureate degree which requires at least 60 but less than 120 credit hours.
• Post-baccalaureate Certificate: an award beyond the baccalaureate degree but does not meet the requirements of a master's degree.
• Post-master's Certificate: an award beyond the master's degree but does not meet the requirements of a doctoral degree.          

Cohorts
Generally refers to new incoming first-year students in the fall unless otherwise specified. For reporting to IPEDS and most external organizations, the first year cohort is the number of incoming first-time full-time first-year degree-seeking students in the Fall term and may include Fall students who enrolled as such in the preceding summer term; the transfer cohort reflects incoming students who are new to UCCS but who have prior attendance records from another institution. Cohorts are usually bifurcated into full-time (12 or more attempted credits for undergrads; 9 or more attempted credits for graduate students) or part-time. Beginning in 2016-2017, the IPEDS cohorts include 8 subcohorts based on full-time/part-time, Pell/No Pell, Subsidized Loan/No Subsidized Loan, and First-Time/Non-First Time (which includes transfers). These subcohorts are evident in the IPEDS Outcomes Survey.

CIP Code
The Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) provides a taxonomic scheme that supports the accurate tracking and reporting of fields of study and program completions activity. CIP was originally developed by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 1980, with revisions occurring in 1985, 1990, and 2000. See the National Center for Education Statistics' CIP website for further information. Also refer to the UCCS Degree Crosswalk and the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) list of approved programs at https://highered.colorado.gov/Data/Degrees.aspx.

Common Application
The standard application form distributed by the non-profit organization called Common App which is dedicated to lowering barriers to higher education by providing a streamlined application process and form recognized by over 900 institutions.

Composition Type
Composition types are course attributes that describe how the course is made up. Composition types include but are not limited to: clinical, dissertation, field studies, independent study, internship, laboratory, lecture, main lab section, other, practicum, recitation, research, seminar, studio, and workshop.  

Concurrent Enrollment
Students enrolled for credit at UCCS wherein that credit is also recognized by another institution. This includes local high schools (often called high school concurrent or high school dual enrollment) and other CU institutions (often called CU Concurrent).

Contact Hour
A unit of measure that represents an amount of time for scheduled instructional activity (e.g. class time). Usually calculated for a course on a term basis. 

Credit Hour
The unit of measure for which a student enrolls. UCCS recognizes three types of credit: main campus (state-funded instruction), extended studies (cash-funded instruction), and non-credit. In the past, these categories had been referred to as C1, C2, and C3 respectively (with the C representing Colorado Springs and the numbers representing the type of credit). External reporting for IPEDS and SURDS includes credit-bearing hours attempted by students. Credit Hours may be further differentiated into taken units, earned units, and transfer units.

CU-Data

CU-Data is the CU branded name for Cognos. It is a web-based tool for accessing reports on UCCS student enrollment and is available through the MyUCCS employee portal under Quick Links. If you cannot see the CUSPG > Institutional Research folder when you login, then submit a request for access by (a) completing the CU:FERPA training course in Skillsoft and (b) emailing irdata@uccs.edu to request access to our user group.

Data Governance

A well-defined and communicated data governance structure and policy, with clearly established roles and responsibilities and a universally understood central repository for data definitions, standards, use and interpretation. Data governance defines processes, standards, and controls for data entry, use, and reporting to ensure efficient and effective operations. The purpose is to ensure institutional data are managed as university-wide assets to ensure efficient and effective operations and to facilitate reliable reporting, analytics, and decision support.

Degree-Seeking Status
A status tied to a student through his/her academic plan. Degree-seeking plans include those that award a degree (bachelor's, master's, or doctorate), all gainful employment certificates, certificates recognized by CDHE (see the list of approved programs), and all undergraduate plans except those specified as non-degree. Undecided, pre-professional, and university studies plans are considered degree-seeking. High school concurrent student plans are not degree-seeking plans.

Digital Measures
A purchased software program used by faculty to record their scholarly activities and manage faculty reviews. The Institutional Research Office purchased the software in 2015 and maintains the program for Academic Affairs. The program is now called Watermark Faculty Success.

Doctoral Degree -- Professional Practice
A doctor's degree conferred upon completion of a program providing the knowledge and skills required for professional practice. The degree is awarded based on at least six full-time equivalent academic years. These include the Doctorate in Nursing Practice and the Doctorate in Business Administration at UCCS. Other examples are Law (JD) and Medicine (MD). Professional practice doctoral degrees often require practice rather than a dissertation.

Doctoral Degree -- Research
A degree that requires advanced work beyond the master's level, including the preparation and defense of a dissertation based on original research or the planning and execution of an original project demonstrating substantial artistic or scholarly achievement.

Dual Enrollment
A program through which high school students may enroll in college courses while still enrolled in high school.

Ethnicity
As of 2010, race/ethnicity categories were changed in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget's Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity which was posted to the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Education. New reporting categories include the following: Nonresident Alien, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, and Two or More Races. Per the guidelines, an individual without U.S. citizenship and carrying a temporary visa will be categorized as a Nonresident Alien regardless of other race/ethnicity selections. An individual self-identifying as Hispanic will be categorized as Hispanic regardless of other race/ethnicity selections. And individual self-identifying as any combination among American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or White will be categorized as Two Plus. Note that the Two Plus category does not include Nonresident Alien or Hispanic.

IPEDS descriptions: 

Hispanic or Latino: A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America including Central America who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community attachment.

Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Black of African American: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

First Generation Student
Defined as a student who reports that the highest level of their parent(s) is (a) not missing and (b) less than a four-year degree. A student with at least one parent who has earned a four-year degree is not a first generation student. When information about the highest education level of a parent is missing, the student's first generation status is unknown.

First-Time First-Year Student
A student attending any institution for the first time at the undergraduate level, including students enrolled in the fall term who attended the institution for the first time in the prior summer term. Also includes students whose prior enrollment at UCCS was in a non-degree seeking high school concurrent program. Generally, any student is deemed a first-time first-year student only once in their entire higher education career.

FTE
FTE or Full Time Equivalency is applied to students and employees in a variety of ways. The Colorado Department of Higher Education calculates Student FTE as the sum of reportable credit hours taken divided by 30 for undergraduates or divided by 24 for graduate-level students in a 12 month period. This measure assumes that a full-time undergraduate student takes 15 credit hours per term or 30 credit hours per year. For CDHE, reportable credit hours exclude placeholder courses and any credits paid via the employee tuition benefit. For some IPEDS reports, Student FTE is calculated as the number of full-time students plus 1/3 of the number of part-time students (with part-time defined as <12 hours for undergrads or <9 hours for graduate students). For employees, FTE generally refers to the full-time percent of the job (and most positions are benefits-eligible at 50%).

Graduation Rate
The graduate rate as reported to IPEDS is the most commonly understood and widely used definition. It is the percentage of the first-time full-time degree-seeking cohort who earn a baccalaureate degree within 6 years (or 150% of normal time of 4 years). IPEDS graduation rates are also calculated at the 8-year mark which is called the 200% Graduation Rate. IPEDS graduation rates may exclude students who died, were permanently disabled, deployed on active duty, or left for a mission.

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Military Affiliation
Also see Veterans. A student is considered to be affiliated with the military if any of the following are true:

• they are currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the National Guard, Reserves, and Reserve Officer Training Core (ROTC)
• they formerly served in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the National Guard and Reserves (includes protected veterans and other veterans)
• they self-identify as active duty, formerly served, or a military dependent
• they are receiving military-related tuition assistance
• they are enrolled in ROTC courses
• their records are found in the DOD or VA databases
• they have an active service indicator (determined by UCCS) as active duty, veteran, or family member of active duty/veteran 

Pell Grant
The Pell Grant is awarded to low-income undergraduate students. The amount of the award varies every year; the maximum for 2016-2017 was $5,815 per award year. Receipt of a Pell Grant is often used as a proxy to determine the number or percentage of students who are low-income. 

Plan
The CU-SIS term used to identify a student's academic plan. The plan is associated with a plan type that must be one of the following: major, minor, course of study, certificate, licensure, or additional major. For example, Asian Studies is a plan with a plan type of minor. Some plans are further differentiated by subplans that refer to a variety of options or tracks that are subsumed under the larger plan. The student's combination of career, program, plan, and subplan over time is often referred to as his or her plan stack. The plan is particularly important because it partially determines a student's tuition rate and financial aid eligibility.

Primary Plan
Within a student's plan stack, one plan is assigned primary status. The primary plan determines, among other factors, the tuition rate a student is charged.

Pronouns / Preferred Pronouns
Students are able to choose preferred pronouns via the UCCS Student Portal. Pronouns include: she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, ze/hir/hirs, and xe/xer/xers. To learn more about these options, visit the Registrar's website on Updating Personal Information. To learn more about pronouns and appropriate use, visit Pronouns 101 on the LGBTQ Resource Center's website. (As of Spring 2021, preferred pronouns are not yet available for faculty or staff.)

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