Ahead of the Launch of Workday Student, it is critical that staff and faculty have access to the business capabilities, functions, and data within the new system that enable them to perform the tasks required for their positions at UBC. Access to Workday Student is governed by what is known as Security Roles.

What are Security Roles?

Security Roles are permission groupings that will ensure staff and faculty have the access required to do their job when Workday Student launches. UBC staff and faculty already have security roles assigned to them in Workday for HR/Finance. Security Roles are assigned to positions within UBC, not individual people.

An example of a Security Role grouping is Undergraduate Academic Advisors at the Faculty Level. People identified for this Security Role are those in positions where they perform faculty-level academic advising. Users with this Security Role have access to grant academic concessions, modify pathways, registration, and program completion. 

A position can have more than one Security Role assigned to it.

Learn more here. 

Security Role Assignments

IRP Student has been working directly with Data Stewards and processing area owners from across both campuses to ensure all relevant positions at UBC have been mapped to the appropriate Security Roles. Once Workday Student goes live, so will the Security Roles assigned to positions.

Workday Student Security Roles: Understanding the vocabulary

• Security Role: This is a generic term for permissions that control what people can see and do within a particular system. In the Classic SIS, security roles are referred to as permission groupings.
• Assignable Roles: This is a Workday Student term for security roles. Security Roles are permissions that allow access to data, reports, and functionalities within Workday. Example: Student Records Faculty Hold Specialist.
• Security Groups: This refers to sets of permissions that govern what assignable roles can see and do in Workday. Security groups are linked to assignable roles in the backend and are not a user-facing concept.
• Role-based access is when assignable roles are assigned to positions, not individual people. The majority of security roles at UBC are role-based.
• User-based access is when security groups are assigned to individual users. This type of access is used very infrequently at UBC.
• User Groupings/user groups: These are sets of assignable roles that are bundled together to enable access to related activities and data. Assignable roles can belong to more than one user grouping. User groupings are established based on operational objectives of positions in UBC. Example: Academic Advising – Faculty Level

With this transition to Workday Student, you will be required to familiarize yourself with brand new words that the Workday Student system uses. Visit this page to learn more.  

More details on Security Roles, access, and support will be shared with the UBC community throughout 2023.