Assign curriculum to cohort

Select a curriculum version for a cohort, understand impact on student study plans, and change or disconnect when needed.

Assigning a curriculum version to a cohort gives every student in that cohort a structured study plan based on the curriculum’s module slots, study periods, and elective groups. The cohort is the operational enrollment group; the curriculum version is the academic blueprint those students inherit.

In higher education, a cohort typically means an intake group that starts together and progresses under the same set of rules. In Fuxam, that shared rule set is the assigned curriculum version — not an ad-hoc list of courses.

Why it matters

Without a curriculum assignment, a cohort has no shared module structure to clone into student study plans. Assignment is the bridge between Database blueprints and living enrollment:

• Required modules become study-plan obligations.
• Elective groups become election options for students.
• Version pinning protects earlier intakes when you revise the program for the next year.
• Curriculum study periods can be mapped to real organization terms for that cohort’s calendar.

Getting the version right at cohort creation (or carefully changing it later) is one of the highest-impact administrative decisions in program setup.

How it fits

Before you start

• Finish the curriculum version you intend to assign (study periods, modules, elective groups, credit review).
• Know which study program version the cohort belongs to.
• Know which organization terms in Chronology this intake will use for Semester 1, Semester 2, and so on.
• For an existing cohort with enrolled students, read the impact guidance below and on Manage cohort curriculum before changing versions.

Where to assign a curriculum

Curriculum assignment happens in the Study Programs → Cohorts area:

When creating or editing a cohort, use the Curriculum and version selectors to pick:

• Curriculum — which curriculum record the cohort follows.
• Version — which curriculum version defines the cohort’s module structure.

Both fields are required for a connected cohort.

What students receive: the study plan

When a curriculum version is assigned to a cohort:

• Students added to the cohort receive study plan entries cloned from the curriculum’s module slots (required modules and structural placement).
• Elective groups from the curriculum are cloned into each student’s study plan so they can elect optional modules.
• Each student’s plan stays tied to the curriculum version active when they joined, unless you explicitly change or propagate updates.

Study periods meet the calendar

Curriculum study periods (Semester 1, Semester 2, …) are program-sequence labels. For a given cohort they are mapped to organization terms (for example WS 2025/26, SS 2026). That mapping lets planning and election windows use real dates while the curriculum blueprint stays reusable across intakes.

A later cohort on the same curriculum version maps the same Semester 1 label to a later organization term.

For propagate, reset, and skip options when changing a curriculum on an enrolled cohort, see Manage cohort curriculum.

Change or disconnect a curriculum

From the cohort Curriculum tab toolbar, use Manage Curriculum to:

• Edit Curriculum — open the source curriculum in the Database editor.
• Change Curriculum — select a different curriculum or version for the cohort.
• Disconnect — detach the cohort from the shared curriculum and manage a cohort-specific subversion.

Disconnecting creates a cohort-specific copy so local changes no longer affect the master curriculum in the Database. That cohort-specific blueprint is for exceptions — not the default way to revise a whole program for the next year.

Worked scenario

1. Curriculum office finishes B.Sc. Informatics, version PO 2025, with six study periods and reviewed ECTS totals.
2. Student administration creates cohort WS 2025/26 under the matching study program version.
3. They set Curriculum = B.Sc. Informatics and Version = PO 2025.
4. Semester 1–6 are mapped to the cohort’s organization terms.
5. Students added to the cohort receive study plans: core modules appear as required; elective groups appear when election rules and windows allow.
6. For WS 2026/27, the office publishes version PO 2026 and assigns that version to the new cohort — WS 2025/26 stays on PO 2025.

Best practices

• Complete and review the curriculum version before the first student is added to the cohort.
• Document which curriculum version belongs to which intake year so staff do not assign “latest” by habit.
• After assignment, open the cohort Curriculum tab and confirm required vs elective modules look correct.
• Prefer disconnect only for true exceptions; prefer new versions for planned program revisions.
• Coordinate curriculum version labels with study program version labels for the same intake.

Common pitfalls

• Assigning a draft or incomplete version — students immediately inherit missing modules.
• Changing curriculum on a large enrolled cohort without reviewing the confirmation impact.
• Editing the master curriculum in Database when you meant to change only one disconnected cohort copy — or the reverse.
• Assuming curriculum change updates course planning automatically — you may still need to adjust planning separately (see cohort curriculum guidance).
• Mapping the wrong organization term to Semester 1 (calendar mismatch for the whole progression).

FAQ

Related pages