Sessions, cohorts, programs, tracks

In higher education, the teaching structure is less linear than in schools. A student belongs to a cohort (their year group), but also to tracks or programs (their specialization) and to tutorial or lab groups. They sometimes follow several cohorts at the same time (minor, double curriculum). This page summarizes how Omniscol models these situations.

Cohort = Omniscol class

The cohort (informally, the "class of" a given year) corresponds to the Omniscol class in the administrative sense, for example "L3 Computer Science 2026" or "M2 Finance 2025-2027". It is the entity that gathers the group of students who entered at the same session.

Classes are named unambiguously, with the entry date for large curricula:

• L1 SI 2026 — first-year bachelor's degree in Engineering Sciences, 2026 intake,
• M1 Marketing 2026-2028 — first-year master's degree, two years.

Tracks and specializations

A track is a study orientation within one cohort or across several: "Data option", "Entrepreneurship minor", "XYZ double degree". Omniscol modeling depends on the complexity:

• Simple track within one cohort — a group inside the class (for example L3-Info 2026-Parcours Data).
• Cross-cohort track spanning several cohorts — a group of groups that gathers the matching groups from several classes. See Groups of groups.
• Double curriculum (students following two full tracks) — a special case where the same student receives two class assignments over the year. This is the exception to the general rule that two classes do not share learners.

Sessions

A session is a defined teaching period: a semester, a quarter, an intensive 2-week module. Omniscol handles sessions through:

• the publication ranges of timetables (one timetable per session, published on the corresponding weeks),
• the school years (a school year can cover several sessions).

For short or non-recurring programs (seminars, continuing education modules), prefer the calendar mode (included in the Premium plan) over the classic weekly grid. See Calendar mode.

Students with atypical paths

Frequent cases in higher education:

• Students repeating a year who have passed some course units and not others.
• Mobility students (Erasmus, exchange) — assigned to a host class with track adjustments.
• Work-study students — alternate school weeks and company weeks; the rhythm is modeled with alternate weeks or with a dedicated calendar timetable.