Q: Why has the status date changed while the status remains unchanged at "Editor Assigned"?

It's been just a few days since you have submitted your manuscript. The journal review process is time-consuming and you will have to be more patient. I can understand that you need an early decision for your graduation, but you will have to wait for at least a few weeks for each status to change. Your manuscript's status currently is "Editor Assigned." When the paper is at this stage, the editor has quite a few tasks at hand. During this stage, he/she will have to: 

1. Conduct an initial editorial screening of the manuscript

2. If the paper clears this screening, look for peer reviewers

3. Send out review invitations

4. Wait for the reviewers to accept the invitations

5. If one or more reviewer does not accept the invitation, start looking for reviewers again

All this will definitely take a few weeks, especially since the Editor must be handling several manuscripts at the same time. The fact that the status date changed indicates that the editor accessed your manuscript from the backend. This means that he/she must be actively working on processing your manuscript. Therefore, please be patient and wait for a few weeks. If there is no status change even a month after submission, you can write to the editor.

Related reading:

• What does a status change from "Editor assigned" to "Under review" and back to "Editor assigned" mean?
• What does the status "Editor Assigned" indicate?
• How long does the status remain "With Editor" after initial submission?
• What does the status "With editor" mean and how long does it take?