Registering for Courses

Prerequisites, Constraints and Reserved Spaces

When you register for courses, the enrollment system checks that you have the prerequisites for each course AND that you satisfy any registration constraint that may be in place. If you have the prerequisites and satisfy the constraint, then you should be able to register in each course. Some basic medical science departments take things one step further during registration for Fall/Winter courses and reserve spaces in some of their courses for students registered in certain modules. When there are reserved spaces in a particular course, you may not get a spot in a course if the block of spaces for students in your module fills up before you register.

Go to Access to Courses to find out about the three enrollment periods and watch Kathy Boon's video about how to use the constraint charts.

Tools to help with registration:

The Office of the Registrar has tools on the Academics webpage to help with registration, including:

  • Draft My Schedule
  • Register in Courses - how to add a course(and multiple courses at once), drop a course,  "swap" courses, use the wait lists for courses, etc.
  • Fall/Winter Timetable
  • Academic Calendar

The worksheets below should be used as a guide for course selection. You can submit for review but ONLY submit it if you are not sure that you will satisfy the requirements!

Prerequisites: what prior course(s) do I need to have completed?

Each course description in the Academic Calendar specifies the prerequisite courses that you must have previously completed in order to register in a particular course.

If you don't have the stated prerequisite for a course, then you can contact the departmental counsellor in the department that offers the course to ask if special permission might be granted.

Constraints (priorities and restrictions): can I get a spot in the course I want?

Priorities and restrictions are registration constraints that many departments use to regulate enrollment in courses. Most priorities and restrictions specify in which module(s) you have to be registered in order to gain a spot when enrollment opens.

Priorities:
If you are not registered in one of the modules specified in the priority, then you have to wait until the priority lifts. As long as you have the prerequisite and space is still available in the course, then you should be able to register as soon as the priority lifts (later in July).

Restrictions:
If you are not registered in one of the modules specified in the restriction, then you are not allowed to register for the course. Restrictions are different from priorities in that they are always in place during online registration.

How do you know if a priority or restriction exists?
The notes beside each course in the online Fall/Winter Academic Timetable specify if constraints are in place for the course. If you try to register for a course and get an error message that states "available spaces are reserved ...", then you aren't included in the priority or restriction.

Charts of constraints for basic medical science courses:
The priorities for basic medical science courses are displayed in chart form - see the information on Constraint Charts below.
NOTE: Special permission to waive the constraints for basic medical science courses is not granted.

Constraint Charts for basic medical science courses: who has access to which courses?

Refer to Access to Courses for links to the constraint charts for basic medical science courses.

FAQs about Registering for Courses

What to do about timetable conflicts, courses that are full, etc. (special permission)

You may contact a departmental counsellor to ask if special permission might be granted to register for a course:

  • for which you don't have the prerequisite
  • that has a timetable conflict with another course
  • that is full

Make sure that you contact a departmental counsellor in the department that offers the course when asking for special permission.

There is more information about the special permission process on the Academic Counselling Team's website.

Note that basic medical science departments do not grant permission to waive constraints (priorities or restrictions).