Understanding the date of birth backfill

A student record in Colleague with no date of birth causes problems downstream, and the gap is often noticed only later. DualEnroll can fill it in from the student's own record when it pushes an application. Read on for what it writes, and when it leaves the record alone.

Why this matters

When a student applies through DualEnroll, the application collects their date of birth. If DualEnroll then matches that student to a person record that already exists in your SIS, that record sometimes has no date of birth on file, common for older or sparsely populated records. Previously, staff had to re-key the date of birth into the SIS by hand, even though the application already had it.

With this optional setting turned on, DualEnroll fills in the date of birth on the matched record automatically during the application, but only when your SIS record doesn't already have one.

How it works

• Only on matched existing records. It applies when DualEnroll matches the applicant to a person who already exists in your SIS. New records created by DualEnroll already receive the date of birth as part of being created.
• Only when the date of birth is missing. If your SIS record already has a date of birth, DualEnroll leaves it exactly as it is. It never changes or overwrites a date of birth that's already there.
• Automatic, with no extra step. When it applies, the date of birth is written during the application. There's nothing for staff to click per student.
• Colleague / Ethos only. The setting applies to colleges integrated with Ellucian Colleague through Ethos.

What it does not do

• It does not overwrite a date of birth that is already on the SIS record.
• It does not apply to students who are admitted manually outside the normal match. Only to records DualEnroll matched automatically to an existing person.
• It does not change any field other than date of birth.

How to turn it on

The setting is off by default. To have it enabled for your college, contact your DualEnroll representative or the Help Desk. A DualEnroll team member turns it on for your college.