Case Study: Purdue University Northwest achieves streamlined transfer equivalencies and clears 4,500‑item exception backlog with Ellucian

How Purdue University Northwest simplified transfer equivalency for students and staff

Purdue University Northwest (PNW), a metropolitan university serving about 9,300 students, needed to replace a labor‑intensive, paper-based process for handling transfer course equivalencies and exceptions (the so‑called “bingo sheets”) and to standardize approvals across campus. To address this, PNW partnered with Ellucian and evaluated Ellucian Workflow alongside Ellucian Degree Works and Ellucian Ethos to automate routing, approvals, and communication.

Ellucian’s solution—integrating Ellucian Workflow with Degree Works and Ethos—enabled students to submit petitions through Degree Works, automated routing to advisors, chairs or deans, sent status notifications, and updated degree records. The implementation cleared about 4,500 exceptions, standardized transfer approval decisions, delivered timelier student feedback, and improved staff visibility for course planning and additional workflow automation.

Purdue University Northwest

Carol Coupet

Executive Director of Enterprise Applications