The NCAA Foreign Student Records Committee continued its task of establishing expected dates of secondary school graduation for many foreign countries at its most recent meeting.

Such determinations are necessary because of legislation adopted by Division II on amateurism that takes effect August 1, 2001. Prospective student-athletes will be charged with a season of competition during each calendar year of participation in outside competition after high-school graduation and before initial full-time collegiate enrollment.

At its February 24-25 meeting in Tampa, Florida, the committee set the expected date of secondary-school graduation for 40 countries (see accompanying chart). The order in which countries' educational systems are being studied is based on the number of submissions filed with the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse in 1999.

The committee has set its February 2002 meeting as the target to complete its study of more than 150 countries and approximately 500 educational certificates.

Should a Division II institution have a prospective student-athlete from a country that has not yet been reviewed, it should contact Lisa Roesler, the staff liaison to the committee, at the NCAA national office.

In other business, the committee:

Recommended Robert Watkins, assistant director of the Graduate and International Admissions Center at the University of Texas at Austin, as chair; and

Commended Cliff Sjogren and G. James Haas for their terms of service to the group, which was known as the NCAA Consultants on Foreign Student Records from its inception in 1973 until 2000. Both men were members of the group from its beginning through this meeting.

Chart: Formula for Determining Secondary-School Graduation (PDF*)

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