Accurate Banner Data: Key to Optimizing Degree Works

By Nicole Parker, Degree Works Consultant, David Kent Consulting

Degree Works is only as accurate as the Banner data it receives. Below is a quick overview of common issues and fixes to maximize Degree Works accuracy.

When people think about Ellucian Degree Works, they often jump straight into conversations about audits, scribing, or the Student Educational Planner. But what many institutions overlook is that Degree Works is only as strong as the data it receives from Banner[washburn.edu]. At its core, Degree Works doesn’t make independent decisions. It reads curriculum rules, student attributes, test scores, and course history that are stored in Banner – and then presents that information in a way that advisors and students can act on. Ellucian itself emphasizes that “accessible, streamlined data” is what enables effective degree audits and advising, meaning if Banner data is messy, Degree Works simply can’t produce accurate results. In addition to that, if the underlying records in Banner are incomplete or inconsistent, no amount of scribing or Degree Works configuration will make the audits accurate.

How Banner Drives Degree Works

Degree Works relies on critical data points from Banner, including:

• Catalog terms, majors, and program codes – define a student’s official academic path (which requirements apply).
• Transfer credit setup – determines how external coursework is evaluated, articulated, and applied to the record.
• Course attributes and curriculum rules – establish equivalencies, prerequisites, and repeat logic for courses.
• Student attributes – denote special program affiliations (honors programs, athletic eligibility, learning communities) that can affect requirements.
• SOATEST (test scores) – placement exams or competency tests stored in Banner that may fulfill certain degree requirements.
• Financial aid and Course Program of Study (CPoS) settings – tie academic data to federal aid eligibility and disbursement (using Degree Works to identify courses that count sc.edu).

Behind the scenes, Degree Works integrates with Banner through regular data feeds(typically nightly or real-time batch jobs) and pulls student information directly from the Banner database. In other words, if it’s not in Banner, Degree Works won’t see it.

When these elements are clean and aligned, Degree Works audits run smoothly. When they’re not, errors show up in audits- often leading advisors to assume the problem is with Degree Works itself. For example, if Banner’s transfer articulations are incomplete, Degree Works may flag valid transfer courses as unmet requirements. Nationally, students lose an average of 43% of their credits when they transfer schools ellucian.com– often because those credits don’t properly apply to their new program. A robust transfer credit setup in Banner helps avoid such lost credits by ensuring Degree Works slots incoming courses into the right requirements.

Degree Works as a Mirror

One of the most powerful aspects of Degree Works is that it quickly exposes issues with Banner configuration. For example:

• An audit showing missing requirements might actually highlight a catalog term mismatch in Banner.
• Transfer credits may not apply toward a requirement if Banner articulations aren’t configured properly.
• An audit that looks “wrong” often reflects missing Banner data (e.g., a student attribute or test score that wasn’t entered).
• A large backlog of Degree Works exceptions often points to curriculum rules or attributes that aren’t coded correctly in Banner.
• Sometimes the culprit is simple: human data entry errors in Banner that cascade into Degree Works.

In this way, Degree Works acts like a mirror-reflecting the quality of the institution’s student records and Banner configurations.

Conversations That Start with Degree Works

Many optimization projects we’ve led at David Kent Consulting start with a registrar or advising team saying, “Degree Works isn’t working the way we expected.”. Often these are common Degree Works audit issues that we have addressed before. What we usually discover is that Degree Works is working exactly as designed-it’s the Banner data feeding it that needs attention. Those conversations often expand into:

• Reviewing transfer credit articulation processes to reduce manual overrides.
• Cleaning up student record maintenance in Banner (attributes, statuses, test scores).
• Adjusting curriculum coding strategies to minimize exceptions.
• Exploring compliance requirements (like Course Program of Study (CPoS) and Title IV) that tie Banner directly to student financial aid outcomes sc.edu.

(CPoS is a federal financial aid process that uses the Degree Works audit to identify courses eligible for aid.)

How Institutions Can Optimize Both Systems

To truly optimize Degree Works, institutions need to think holistically about both Banner and Degree Works together. At David Kent Consulting, we focus on:

• Policy-aligned scribing that reflects your catalog and Banner rules.
• Banner configuration reviews (transfer credit setup, attributes, test score entries) to support accurate audits.
• Cross-training functional teams so registrars and advisors understand these data dependencies.
• Sustainable maintenance practices that keep Banner and Degree Works in sync term after term.

Our  Ellucian Banner consulting and Degree Works consulting services cover these areas end-to-end, ensuring the two systems work together seamlessly. (This holistic approach applies whether your Banner environment is on-premises or hosted in the cloud. Even in an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)deployment, the same data integrity principles remain critical.)

5 Banner Elements That Make or Break Degree Works Audits

• Transfer Credit Setup: Are articulations configured correctly? Clean transfer data = fewer exceptions in Degree Works.
• Course Attributes: Cross-listings, repeats, and equivalencies all need to be accurate. These drive block logic and sharing rules.
• Student Attributes: Honors, athletics, and learning community codes must be entered. Missing attributes = missing requirements in audits.
• SOATEST Scores: Placement/competency test scores (math, language, etc.) must be recorded. Incorrect or missing scores create audit gaps.
• Human Data Entry: Incomplete or inconsistent Banner records will cascade into Degree Works. Standardized entry and validation reduce errors.

The Takeaway

Degree Works is a powerful advising tool, but it can’t “fix” student records on its own. If Banner isn’t set up and maintained correctly, Degree Works will surface those issues front and center. Institutions that treat the two systems as interconnected-rather than siloed-see the biggest gains in audit accuracy, advisor efficiency, and student success.

At David Kent Consulting, we help institutions optimize both Banner and Degree Works so they work together seamlessly. Our team of Ellucian Banner consultants spans the full spectrum of the product-from functional registrar and advising support to technical ERP and cloud specialists. With clean Banner data and policy-aligned scribing, Degree Works becomes what it was meant to be: a clear, trusted guide to graduation.