Overview
This article explains the application setting that controls which Student Status is automatically pre-selected when a new student is created, and when a new Educational Program is added to a student’s record. This setting is found under: General Customizations > Student Form > Status Management, with the label “Set Default Student Status (when a user adds a new educational program)”.
Setting the correct default value here reduces manual work for registration/office staff and helps keep student records consistent, since every new student and every new Educational Program will start out in a known, predictable status unless staff intentionally change it.
What This Setting Does
When this setting is configured with a Student Status value (for example, “Active”), the following happens automatically, without any extra action from the user:
- When a staff member creates a brand-new student record, the Student Status field on the form is automatically pre-filled with the value configured here.
- When staff add a new Educational Program (also referred to as a School Registration) to a student — whether the student already exists or is still being created — the new Educational Program’s own status is also pre-filled with this same value.
- Staff can still manually change the pre-filled status before saving, unless a separate setting has been used to lock the field (see “Related Settings” in the Notes section).
In short, this setting answers the question: “What Student Status should the system assume by default, unless someone deliberately chooses another one?”
Where It Is Used
This setting affects the following areas of the application:
- Student > Create New Student — the general Student Status field on the new student form.
- Student > Existing Student Record > Add Educational Program — the status of each new Educational Program added to an existing student.
- Bulk Actions > Add Educational Program to Multiple Students — when an Educational Program is added in bulk to a group of selected students, every new program entry created this way also receives this default status.
- Admissions > Convert Application into Student — when an application submitted through the back-office Admissions area (not the online Parents Portal application form) is converted into a full student record, the resulting student and their Educational Program(s) receive this default status, provided no status was already assigned.
Note: when a student applies through the online Parents Portal application form, a separate, dedicated setting controls the initial status instead of this one (see “Related Settings” in the Notes section).
Main Setting / General Settings / Student Form/ Status Management / Set Default Student status (when a user adds a new educational program)
The option selected from the drop-down list is set to be the student’s default registration status, when a student is created. In addition, when the user adds new educational programs to the student, the registration status for each programm will be this default status.
Setting -> Active -> Request for information (Figure 1 & 2)
Figure 1
Figure 2
Business Logic / Behavior
- The value configured is one of your institution’s own Student Status entries (for example: Active, Pending, Graduated, Withdrawn). This list is drawn from your institution’s own configured Student Status list, not from a fixed list built into the system — so the specific options available depend on the statuses your institution has already set up.
- The default value is applied only when a status has not already been supplied for the record. If a status is already present on the record for any reason, this setting will not override it.
- The default status pre-fills the field but does not, by itself, lock or restrict changes to it. Staff can still change the status on the form unless the related “Forbid end users from changing the initial default Student status” setting is also enabled (see Notes).
- The same default value is used both for a student’s own overall status and for the status of any new Educational Program(s) linked to that student, so staff will normally see the same status appear consistently across a student’s record.
K-12 Mode vs. Higher Education Mode
This setting behaves identically whether the institution is operating in standard (K-12) mode or in Higher Education Mode (turned on via the “Enable Configuration for Higher Education” setting — see Notes). There is no difference in how the default status is applied between the two modes.
The one relevant difference under Higher Education Mode is unrelated to the status value itself: when adding an Educational Program while Higher Education Mode is active, the form also requires a Curriculum Structure to be defined for that program. This additional requirement applies regardless of which default status is configured here.
Example(s)
Example 1 – New Student Creation. A school configures this setting with the value “Active.” A registrar creates a new student record for a student named “Jordan Miller.” As soon as the form opens, the Student Status field already shows “Active.” The registrar reviews the record and saves it without needing to manually pick a status.
Example 2 – Adding an Educational Program to an Existing Student. Later, the same school adds a second Educational Program, “Elective – Digital Arts,” to Jordan Miller’s existing record. The new Educational Program is automatically given the status “Active” as well, matching the default configured in this setting.
Example 3 – Bulk-Adding an Educational Program. The registration office bulk-adds a new Educational Program, “Summer Enrichment Track,” to 40 selected students at once. Every one of the 40 new program entries is created with the status “Active,” without staff needing to set it individually for each student.
Example 4 – Converting an Admission Application (Back Office). An applicant, “Casey Reyes,” applies through the back-office Admissions area, where staff enter the application directly rather than the applicant using the online Parents Portal. When the application is approved and converted into a student record, the new student and their Educational Program are both set to “Active” by default, because no status had already been assigned. Had Casey applied through the online Parents Portal instead, the separate “Default Application Status (Draft application)” setting would have been used instead of this one.
When to Use
When to Set a Value
- Set a value whenever you want new students, and new Educational Programs added to any student, to start from a consistent, predictable status instead of being left blank.
- This is especially important if your institution also wants to lock the status field on the student form (via “Forbid end users from changing the initial default Student status” — see Notes). In that case, a value here is required; otherwise staff will be unable to save new student records at all.
- Useful whenever your institution has a clear “standard” starting status for newly admitted or newly enrolled students (for example, “Active,” “Enrolled,” or “Pending Confirmation”).
When to Leave It Unset
- Leave this unset if your institution prefers staff to manually choose the correct status every time a student or Educational Program is created — for example, when several very different starting statuses are used depending on the situation and no single one should be assumed by default.
- Also reasonable to leave unset if your institution relies mainly on the online Parents Portal for new student applications, since a separate Admissions setting (“Default Application Status”) already controls the initial status for those records.
Notes
Related Settings:
- “Forbid end users from changing the initial default Student status” (General Customizations > Student Form > Status Management – Locked_New_Student_Status) – if enabled, this setting must already have a value, otherwise new student records cannot be saved.
- “The status change date can be up to X days back” (General Customizations > Student Form > Status Management – Apagoreuetai_I_Allagi_Katastasis_Prin_Apo_X_Imeres) – governs how far back a later status-change date may be set; part of the same Status Management area but unrelated to the default value itself.
- “Use additional change reason in status change” (General Customizations > Student Form > Status Management – Use_Second_Change_Reason_Status) – adds extra fields when a status is changed later on; does not affect the initial default value.
- “Default Application Status (Draft application)” (Admissions > Application Management > Application Submission Default Values – Admission_DefaultApplicationStatus) – takes over instead of this setting specifically for students created through the online Parents Portal application form.
- “Enable Configuration for Higher Education” (Customization for Higher Education > Higher Education Customization > Basic Settings – Xrisi_parametropoihshs_kolegiou) – switches the institution into Higher Education Mode; does not change how this setting behaves, but affects other aspects of the Educational Program form (see Business Logic / Behavior).
Prerequisites:
- At least one Student Status must already exist in your institution’s Student Status list before a value can be selected for this setting. If that list is empty, there will be nothing available to choose from.
Confirmed vs. Assumed Behavior:
- Confirmed: the default status applies to new students, to new Educational Programs added individually or in bulk, and to Admissions conversions performed from the back office.
- Confirmed: the setting does not override a status that has already been assigned to a record.
- Assumption (inferred from how the setting is designed, not explicitly stated in the interface): institutions with many different Educational Program types may still want to review each program’s status individually after a bulk operation, since a single default status is applied uniformly regardless of the specific program being added.
