SGS Annual Audit of Student Files
SGS #014, 2010-2011
TO: Graduate Chairs, Graduate Directors and Graduate Coordinators
FROM: Brian Corman, Dean of Graduate Studies and Vice-Provost, Graduate Education
CC: Cheryl Misak, Vice President and Provost, School of Graduate Studies Staff
Date: April 15, 2011
RE: SGS Annual Audit of Student Files
Attached is the report on the SGS annual audit of graduate student files undertaken by the School as part of our responsibility for the oversight of graduate programs and their administration.
Graduate units have the primary responsibility to make and communicate admission decisions and maintain official student files. For its part, the School of Graduate Studies has the responsibility to ensure that minimum admission standards and proper documentation are maintained, and that student records are properly managed. The annual audit also allows SGS to provide in-person support and advice regarding particular problems faced by graduate units.
SGS Student Services Officers and Assistants conducted our audit of student files during February and March from 15 randomly selected graduate units. This audit has been conducted annually for the past ten years, and this most recent audit completes the second year of our third five-year cycle.
Highlights include a decrease in the number of errors compared with the averages in both the first and second cycles. The individual findings for the departments that were audited have been forwarded to the respective Graduate Chairs with a copy to the relevant Graduate Coordinators.
The attached report shows that this year's audit focused on two aspects of the maintenance of student files: admission criteria and registration/in-program documents. Also scrutinized are five diagnostic reports generated from ROSI, which indicate noncompliance in data entry.
Based on the findings of the audit, I ask you to ensure that these practices are followed in your graduate unit:
- An annual progress report must be submitted by the supervisory committee for all Ph.D. students beyond their second year in program and recorded in the student file and on ROSI. This requirement was approved at SGS Council in 1996 and has been outlined in previous correspondence. A useful strategy to ensure that annual reports are submitted is to designate a certain time of the year (e.g. “May Monitoring”).
- Late grades or grade changes should be submitted to the School.
- Admission recommendation forms should be used to document the decision to admit a student using the correct ROSI admission codes.
Forms may be found on the SGS website: www.sgs.utoronto.ca/adminsupport/form
On a related note, when assessing international credentials, please address any questions or concerns to your Student Services Officer at the School. Our staff members have considerable expertise in this area and are happy to examine any questionable documents or to provide other feedback about foreign credentials.