University of Manitoba - Faculty of Arts - Sociology - How to Interpret the Arts UMAchieve Audit
How to Interpret the Arts UMAchieve Audit

If you have declared your degree program, UMAchieve will run a declared audit for you based on your degree program, major and/or minor selections and the appropriate Academic Calendar year for your declared degree.

At any point, you are able to run a “What-If” audit and select any degree choice available in Arts (or another faculty), and the major and/or minor course selections you are interested in to see your progress in that program.

As of June 2020, most of the degree programs in the B.A. General and B.A. Advanced degrees are programmed in UMAchieve.  If you cannot find your program listed, that is because it is not available in the UMAchieve system yet. In that case, you will need an Art Academic Advisor to provide further information for you.  The B.A. Integrated Studies and B.A. Honours degrees are not listed in UMAchieve as of yet.

Academic Calendar Year
The Academic Calendar year chosen is important when running a “What-If” audit as that dictates the academic rules applied to the audit.  

  • With each calendar year there is a potential that the regulations and/or course requirements of a certain program have changed, therefore you should always run a “What-If” audit using the most recent/current academic year.
  • If you were to enter a new program, your Academic Calendar Year would be declared as the most current Fall/Winter Term.


Components of the Audit
UMAchieve is a tool to be used in conjunction with regular advising consultation with an Arts Academic Advisor.  The Faculty of Arts Academic Advisors are the official source of information and provide final authority on the completeness of your degree program.

The Arts UMAchieve audit has several components that identify your progress in a degree program as well as the specific requirements and courses you have yet to complete.

Icons & Color Codes
UMAchieve used icons and color codes to identify the state of progress for each requirement listed.  

  • If any requirement is noted differently then expected, that would be an indicator to discuss this with an Arts Academic Advisor.
  • The easiest way to identify what you have remaining is to look for the Unfulfilled requirements noted by red “x” boxes, and begin planning your course selections in that area.

UMAchieve Legend

Charts

  • The information in these charts are approximations of your degree requirement completeness and are not to be taken as an official record.
  • Pie and Bar Charts symbolizes the how many credit hours in your Major, Minor and Options courses are complete (green), in progress (blue) or unfulfilled (red).  However, these charts do not take into account the Degree Requirements that must be met within or in addition to the courses used in the Major, Minor or Options components of the audit.
  • The UMAchieve GPA calculates a GPA on the courses used in the audit.  There may be some requirements that are exceptions and/or not encoded in this system and therefore this is not an accurate reflection of your true cumulative or degree GPA.

UMAchieve Charts

Courses

  • Courses used in the audit are in chronological order (i.e. first completed).
  • If you complete a course that fulfills a requirement it will be used in the audit first regardless if you complete a course at a later date with a higher grade.
  • Only courses matching the audit criteria (i.e. timing, grades, lists, etc.) will be used, and the rest of your course work will fall to Excess Courses.
  • Sometimes this results in preferred or more appropriate courses falling to Excess Courses and not being used.
  • Arts Academic Advisors can review the audit and determine if an exception or notation on your audit needs to be made to correct any errors.


Major and Minor

  • Lists the course requirements in that Major as outlined in the Program Charts in the specific Academic Calendar for that year.
  • A Minor (dependent on the student's program) can be declared in any Faculty or School providing the Minor program consists of a minimum of 18 credit hours.  This means that you can choose a Minor offered by the Faculty of Arts or from another Faculty or School at the University of Manitoba.


Options

  • B.A. General and B.A. Advanced have two categories of options;
  1. Options outside of the major and minor – all courses used towards this requirement must be from subjects other than your declared major or minor.
  2. Options from any subject – any course acceptable for credit in the Faculty of Arts may used here, whether it is taught by an Arts department, comes from your declared major or minor area or from a different faculty entirely.  Sometimes this is referred to as “free” electives.

Degree Requirements in the Faculty of Arts
The following requirements must be completed to graduate with your degree. The degree audit uses only the courses from the above Major, Minor and Options sections to complete the below requirements.

Therefore, you need to review the Excess Courses section for course work that could be used towards these requirements, especially if you have a requirement unfulfilled that should be considered complete. In such cases, contact an Arts Academic Advisor for assistance.

To complete your degree in least amount of time and coursework, it is possible with careful planning and course selection that you can complete these requirements within the credit hours allotted in the Major, Minor and Options portion of your degree.  Although in most instances, Academic Advising is not required, it is strongly recommended that you work with an Arts Academic Advisor to degree plan strategically to complete these requirements without excess coursework where possible.

  • 5 Subject Field Requirements – 6 credit hours in 5 different subjects. 
    • can be comprised of courses taught by the Faculty of Arts or another faculty.
    • can be a 6 credit hour spanned course or two 3 credit hour courses from the same subject.

 

  • Courses from the Faculty of Arts – total number for credit hours of courses that must be taught by the Faculty of Arts.
    • Courses in your Major and Minor (if your Minor is taught by the Faculty of Arts) can count towards this total.
    • If you are still in progress to complete your Major or Minor take this into account and adjust your planning accordingly as majors and minors in Arts departments will count towards this total.

 

  • Courses at the 2000 level or higher – total number of credit hours that must be completed above the 1000 (first year) level.
    • Courses in your Major and Minor (if your Minor is taught by the Faculty of Arts) can count towards this total.
    • If you are still in progress to complete your Major or Minor take this into account and adjust your planning accordingly as course in you major and minor above the 1000 level will count towards this total.

 

  • Humanities Requirement – 6 credit hours taught by a discipline that focuses on Human Culture.
    • The Faculty of Arts has defined which subject and/or courses will fulfill this requirement in the Academic Calendar, on our website for reference, and in the specific “Select From” list in the audit.

 

  • Social Sciences Requirement – 6 credit hours taught by a discipline that focuses on Human Society and Relationships.
    • The Faculty of Arts has defined which subject and/or courses will fulfill this requirement in the Academic Calendar, on our website for reference, and in the specific “Select From” list in the audit.

 

  • Sciences Requirement – 6 credit hours taught by a discipline that focuses on structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.
    • The Faculty of Arts has defined which subject and/or courses will fulfill this requirement in the Academic Calendar, on our website for reference, and in the specific “Select From” list in the audit.

 

  • Written (English) Requirement (W) – 3 credit hours from a course with significant content in Written English.
    • The University of Manitoba has defined which courses will fulfill this requirement in the Academic Calendar, on our website for reference, and in the specific “Select From” list in the audit.

 

  • Mathematics Requirement (M) – 3 credit hours from a course with significant content in Mathematics.
    • The University of Manitoba has defined which courses will fulfill this requirement in the Academic Calendar, on our website for reference, and in the specific “Select From” list in the audit.

 

  • Residency Requirement – total number of credit hours that must be taught at the University of Manitoba.
    • This requirement limits the amount of credit hours you are permitted to use from transfer credit awarded either prior to your admission to the Faculty of Arts or on a Letter of Permission.

 

  • Residency Requirement for Université de Saint-Boniface – total number of credit hours that must be taught at the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus for USB transfer students.

 

  • BA Minimum Credit Hours for Graduation – minimum number of credit hours that must be completed with a passing and/or required grade to be awarded your degree.
    • As this is a minimum, dependent on your course selections and performance, you may be required to complete more than the minimum to meet all degree requirements.
    • The B.A. General degree requires a minimum of 90 credit hours.
    • The B.A. Advanced degree requires a minimum of 120 credit hours.

 

  • Excess Courses – this lists the courses that are not being used in the audit.
    • Review this section carefully to identify if there are any courses or credit hours that do not seem appropriate in this section.
    • There may be instances in which courses that should be used in the audit have been placed in this section. 
    • Consult with an Arts Academic Advisor if you have any questions or concerns about courses in the Excess Courses section and we can review the audit and determine if an exception or notation on your audit needs to be made.