Special Permissions Process
* If you are unable to add a course through web registration and are not sure why, the Academic Timetable ('Notes' section) and Academic Calendar are the first resources you should use to help you undersand why this is the case.
STEP 1: SUBMITTING A SPECIAL PERMISSION REQUEST
To request special permission to register in a course for which you do not have the required pre-requisite(s):
- Contact the Departmental Counsellor in the department that offers the course. So, for example, to request special permission to take an Applied Math course, contact the Applied Math Department. Provide them your name, student number, the course you want to register in and the reason why you can't register in it directly.
To request special permission to take more than 5.0 courses in the Fall/Winter term
- E-mail our academic counselling team with your request - include your name, student number, and reason for requesting to take a course overload. [Note that you need at least a 70% average (on a full academic load) in the previous academic year to be considered for a course overload.]
To request special permission to take a course at an Affiliate College:
- Students may be able to enroll in certain Affiliate College courses themselves if the relevant course(s) are not offered on main during the same session, so try adding the course via web registration, and follow these special permission request steps if you were unsuccessful in enrolling:
- Check the online Academic Timetable - if the Notes section indicates that 'home faculty permission' is required and you were unable to add the course via web registration, first send an email to our academic counselling team with your request
- If the Academic Timetable does not indicate that 'home faculty
permission' is required, your first step is to contact the specific
Affiliate College that offers the course you are interested in taking.
If they grant you permission to take the course, they can email our
academic counselling team the special permission details.
STEP 2: MAKING SURE YOUR HOME FACULTY ACADEMIC COUNSELLING TEAM RECEIVES / APPROVES THE SPECIAL PERMISSION
For special permissions recommended by a Department or an Affilliate College...
- Your home faculty academic counselling team needs to be informed...
- For special permissions granted by noon on January 12th, the special
permission can be emailed to our academic counselling team
- For special permissions
granted after January 12th at noon, make sure to get the special permission in
writing (e.g., print out the emailed special permission or ask for the
permission to be written on your add/drop form, etc) because you will
likely need to add the course via paper add/drop, and we ideally want
the special permission to be submitted along with the paper add/drop
form.
What happens once our academic counselling team approves your special permission?
For situations where our counselling teams approves your extra course load request OR an academic counsellor approves a special permission that was granted by a Department or Affiliate College...
...Our counselling team will post the special permission comment on your academic record...
Follow these steps to check for special permissions you've been granted:
- Log in to Student Centre
- Select 'Academic Records' from the blue menu bar on the left side
- Select 'View Special Permissions'
STEP 3: ENROLLING IN A COURSE FOR WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED SPECIAL PERMISSION TO TAKE (OR ENROLLING IN AN EXTRA COURSE AS PART OF AN INCREASED COURSE LOAD)
To enroll in a course for which you have been granted special permission...
- If the special permission has been posted to student centre before January 13 at 4:00pm, call the Registrar's
Helpline (519-661-2100), and ask them to enrol you in the relevant course(s)
- If your special permission has not been granted and/or hasn't been posted to student centre by January 13 at 4:00pm, you will need to add the course via paper add/drop
Please Note: For any special permission requests that are not supported by our academic counselling team, we will inform you of that decision.
See our YouTube video for more details about the special permissions process.
