Academic Regulations and Records Office
Academic Regulations and Records Office

Reading the Advising Worksheet

Advising Worksheet is the default view when you log onto DegreeWorks from AIMS.

  • Your basic information is at the top of the worksheet.
  • Courses that are used or still needed to study will be listed against the requirements in the middle of the worksheet.

(Note: You can hover the image to zoom-in & move the mouse around to pan it.) screen shot of advising worksheet

Registration Checklist is an abridged version which displays courses and requirements you still need to complete.

(Note: You can hover the image to zoom-in & move the mouse around to pan it.) screen shot of advising worksheet

Frequently Asked Questions

    • You should review your advising worksheet at least a few times in each semester, particularly:
      1. Before course registration to check the courses you need
      2. Before you meet with your advisor or upon receiving email notification that your advisor had written notes for you
      3. After your grades are available

    • Your course registration record will be transferred to the DegreeWorks system daily at midnight. Any changes to your course add/drop will normally be seen on your advising worksheet tomorrow.

    • As the requirements for any major, minor, college requirements, etc may change over time, "catalogue term" is used to differentiate the set of requirements that you are following. Normally, for your degree and gateway education requirements, the catalogue term will be the same as your admission term to the Bachelor's degree programme. If you find that what you have studied do not follow exactly the requirements of the catalogue term that you are following, please discuss with your advisor immediately.

    • You must not mix up your DegreeWorks advising worksheet with your transcript. Your transcript is the official academic record at the University. Only the GPA as shown in your transcript is the official GPA recorded by the University. DegreeWorks, on the other hand, is a tool that helps you monitor your progress towards degree completion. The GPAs that appear in the header of the blocks of requirements are for your reference only. It gives you and your advisor an overview of your progress in different areas in your degree. The area GPAs will also be helpful to monitor the progress in some minors that require a minimum GPA for award.

    • DegreeWorks matches your academic record against your degree requirements using a "best fit” scenario. It will try to match as much completion of requirements as possible with some programmed priorities. This process will not always be perfect, particularly when multiple possibilities exist and you have just started pursuing an area of study. Normally, when you have taken more courses, DegreeWorks should better match your plan. You can also use the "Look Ahead" function and add the courses you plan to take in future to test the degree audit.

      If you are about to complete your degree and you still find that the courses do not fit in your requirements as expected. Please contact the Academic Regulations and Records Office (ARRO) or your home academic unit for assistance.

    • You should first check with the Academic Regulations and Records Office (ARRO) or your home academic unit if you find that the courses you have taken are not counted in your degree audit. If you have questions about your degree requirement or study plan, please discuss with your major leader or academic advisor. You can also send an e-mail to your advisor by clicking their name in your advising worksheet.

    • Yes, you can print your worksheet by clicking the "Print" button at the top of the manual bar.

    • You can click the name of your advisor in your advising worksheet to send him/her an email. Besides, your advisor's contact information can be found from the "Student Record" tab in AIMS and choose "My advisor/Mentor and my Mentees".

    • Please contact your home academic unit to check if any advising services are available to you. Also, they can explain and help with the assignment of an advisor if necessary.

    • If you are having issues with viewing your DegreeWorks worksheet, please try to clear cache and cookies in the browser you are using. For Internet Explorer:
      1. Open the "Tools" (imgage of IE) menu at the top right hand side of the browser.
      2. Select "Internet Options"
      3. Click the "Delete" button in "Browsing history" section under the "General" Tab.
      4. Uncheck the "Preserve Favorites website data" box.
      5. Check the "Temporary Internet files and website files", "Cookies and website data" and "History" boxes.
      6. Check the "Delete" button at the bottom. It will take a few seconds to clear the cache memory and cookies.
      7. Click "OK" to quit the dialogue box.
      8. Close and reopen the browser.
      9. Login "DegreeWorks" via AIMS again.
      For Firefox:
      1. Open the browser menu (image of firefox) at the top right hand corner.
      2. Select "History" and then click "Clear Recent History"
      3. Select "Everything" from the drop down menu of "Time range to clean".
      4. Check the "Browsing & Download History", "Cookies", "Cache" and "Active Logins" boxes.
      5. Click the "Clear Now" button.
      6. Close and reopen the browser.
      7. Login "DegreeWorks" via AIMS again.
      For Chrome:
      1. Open the browser menu (imgage of chrome) at the top right hand corner.
      2. Select "Settings".
      3. Click "Show advanced settings" at the bottom to open the "Privacy" setting menu.
      4. Click the "Clear browsing data" button
      5. Choose "the beginning of time" from the drop down menu at the top.
      6. Check the "Browsing History", "Download History", "Cookies and other site and plugin data", "Cached images and files" boxes.
      7. Click the "Clear browsing data" button.
      8. Close and reopen the browser.
      9. Login to "DegreeWorks" via AIMS again.

    • Both What-if and Look Ahead help you plan your studies and show you how the courses you have taken and how the courses you plan to take will apply to your graduation requirements. In Look Ahead, you can quickly enter a list of courses you plan to study in future and run a degree audit to check how the courses meet your current degree requirements. In What-if, you can hypothetically change your major, minor or stream. If you are planning to declare or change their major, minor or stream, the What-if feature will help you see how the courses you have taken will apply to the new degree requirements.

    • Since What-if scenarios are not stored in DegreeWorks, you need to print them out if you wish to show your advisor the What-if scenarios. Alternatively, you can work through What-if together with your advisor in DegreeWorks.

    • No, the What-if scenario cannot be saved in DegreeWorks. You need to run the What-if scenario again when you wish to see it. You can also print the What-if scenario by clicking the "Print" button at the top of the manual bar.

    • No. The offering of course section is subject to availability of teaching staff and other resources. Listing a course in your plan does not guarantee that the course will have available places for your registration and have no time conflict with the other courses in the plan However, your study plan information will help academic units to better gauge course demand when preparing for class schedule in the upcoming semesters. This will help the University to provide sufficient class sections to help students complete their study plan as much as possible.

    • No. You will have to review the course catalogue and make sure you fulfil the pre-requisite requirement. In your advising worksheet, courses with pre-requisite are highlighted with an asterisk *. Click on the course code and check the course catalogue before you work out your study plan.

    • The courses that you put in the study plan will be validated against the University course catalogue. If you put in course codes belonging to another University in your study plan, errors will be prompted when you save your plan. If you would like your advisor to review the courses you plan to take during exchange, please place a dash (-) before the course code (e.g. –AC 1234). You can also put a note in the notes section explaining your study plan during exchange programme.

    • Yes. Your advisor can see your plan(s). You can inform your advisor for academic advising after you have finished building your plan.

If there is any inconsistency or ambiguity between the page contents and the Academic Regulations (AR), rules and guidelines, the AR, rules and guidelines shall prevail.