University nomenclature defines a course as “a unit of study in a subject area by a description of activities.” A class is an offering of a course to one or more students.
New courses developed by University of Saskatchewan instructors and/or Departments must be approved at the Department and College level.
The course would then be submitted by your College to the University Secretary for University-level approval through the University Course Challenge procedure. If the course is not challenged within a month, it is deemed to have University approval. At this point it is up to the Department to fill out a Course Creation form so that the course can be set up on the SiRIUS student information system for registration.
Course deletions, prerequisite changes and minor program changes are also approved through the Challenge procedure. Larger curricular changes, such as new programs (including the courses developed for new programs) and program deletions need to be approved by the Academic Programs Committee of University Council. Consult the University Secretary for more information.
Your College may have its own form for new course proposals; an example of a New Course Proposal Form is also available from the University Secretary or from the Academic Programs Committee website.
Course deletions, changes to prerequisites or corequisites, and any changes to program requirements or to courses required in a program outside the sponsoring unit must go through the University Course Challenge procedure. Please refer to the "Year At A Glance" memo sent to each college by the Registrar for all deadlines and important dates regarding the course and program approval process.
Any of the following changes may be approved at the College level:
Significant changes in courses which are listed in the program requirements of students in other Colleges may also require University-level approval through the Course Challenge procedure. Consult the University Secretary for more information and the Year At A Glance memo for deadlines.
Where any of these changes require a new course number (such as changing credit units or splitting a course), the instructor should contact Registrarial Services to determine which course numbers are available for use. Course numbers cannot be reused until they have been out of use for ten years.
What classes are offered in any given term is a decision of the Department or College. Classes have to be built and activated in the SiRIUS student information system before they can be displayed on Class Search or registered in through PAWS. During Fall and Spring, Departments and Colleges decide what classes they want to offer during the next Spring and Summer terms and Fall and Winter terms respectively. At this point either Departmental or College or unit staff begin to build and maintain the classes in SiRIUS. The classes for upcoming terms are displayed in Class Search as they are built so that students can see what will be offered in those terms. In March, Spring and Summer term classes are opened up to registration for all students; in June, Fall and Winter term classes are opened to registration on a priority basis based upon a student’s college and year in program.
Yes, there are a couple of University-level deadlines to be aware of. New courses which are tied to proposals for creations of new programs or revisions to existing programs need to be approved by the Academic Programs Committee (APC) of University Council. March 15 is the deadline for APC to consider such proposals for implementation for the following Fall Term.
As well, January 10 is the deadline for submission of new courses or changes to existing courses to University Course Challenge for inclusion in the Course and Program Catalogue for the following year.
You should also check as to specific deadlines for new or changed courses (or programs) that your College may have.
Departments can place a total enrolment limit on any class; they can also restrict enrolment in their classes to students registered in certain Colleges or programs, or can restrict enrolment to students who have been granted permission to take the classes. These restrictions are placed on classes when they are built and are enforced by PAWS. As of the fall of 2009 PAWS checks for prerequisites and corequisites to ensure students meet the requirements of the classes they are registering for. Instructors and Department Heads can also issue prerequisites waivers for students in their classes.
Departments wishing to give permits/overrides to particular students do so by enabling the records for those students, whereupon they can register themselves in PAWS (for Colleges which do not use PAWS, the College office would register the student). Permits/overrides are placed on a student’s account at the Department or College level and include the following: PERMISS (grants permission for departmental approval classes), LIMIT (overrides limits on classes that are full), RESTRICT (overrides all other restrictions), TIME (overrides time conflicts, granted by College only), DUPLICATE (overrides repeat conflicts within the same terms, such as two Special Topics classes with the same course number taken simultaneously), and REPEAT (overrides repeat rules, granted by College only).
Open Studies students have not been admitted to a College but can register in some classes. After all degree-credit students have been given an opportunity to register in on-campus classes, Departments may at their discretion release spaces in these classes to Open Studies students. In the past, most Departments have indicated that the majority of their first- and second-year classes may be released to Open Studies students if the classes are not filled.
Council has given blanket approval for Special Topics courses in all previously-approved subject areas. These courses are numbered x98 or x99, and can be offered at the 200-, 300-, 400-, 500-, or 800- level. Undergraduate special topics courses must be approved by the College of the Department offering the class; graduate special topics must be approved by the College of Graduate Studies and Research using the GSR form 204. A special topics class on a given topic may only be offered twice; if a Department wishes to offer it for a third time, the course must be submitted as a new course through the University Course Challenge procedure.
Department Heads should consult with the Registrar if they are considering setting up classes which do not conform to the usual teaching periods or which will be offered as a Study Abroad or co-op/internship class. There may be implications for student loans, income tax, insurance, refund schedules, and other considerations in which we will need to be involved.
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