Prerequisites, special permissions and corequisites

High School prerequisites are required for many courses at Douglas College. Official High School transcripts must be received and processed prior to registration. Students who do not meet course prerequisites will not be able to register in those courses. Students are encouraged to verify their registration the day after they register in courses.

If students have taken courses at another post-secondary institution and would like to use them as prerequisites, a Transfer Credit Request Form (PDF) must be submitted to Enrolment Services, along with official post-secondary transcript(s). Transfer Credit requests may take approximately four to six weeks to process, even longer for courses taken at Post Secondary Institutions out of province or out of Canada. If Requests for Transfer Credit have not been submitted well in advance, students will not be able to register in those courses. See Transfer your Credits for more information.

Some course prerequisites require assessment or placement testing. Refer to the Douglas College Calendar to ensure that all course requirements are met prior to registration.

Prerequisites and assessment testing

For detailed, up-to-date information on prerequisites and assessment testing, please consult the Douglas College Calendar.

You can review the full programs and course description in the Douglas College Calendar.

Further information on assessment testing can be found in the assessment testing section.

Secondary school transcripts and provincial exams

If you applied and were admitted to Douglas College without submitting your official secondary school transcript, and if you subsequently want to register in a course that has a secondary school course prerequisite, you must complete one of the following steps:

• Submit your official Canadian secondary school transcript to the Registrar's Office by the deadline.
• If you miss the above deadline, or if your official secondary school transcript is from another country, you must obtain special permission to waive course prerequisites prior to registration. Special permission must be entered into the Registration System by the Instructor/Department prior to registration.
• If you attended another college or university before coming to Douglas College, and have not asked for a review for transfer credit of that transcript, your work at those institutions is not part of your academic record at Douglas College. If this occurs, you will not be able to register for courses requiring those prerequisites.
• Students who have taken a prerequisite at Douglas College or another college or university must have a minimum grade of "C-" in the prerequisite course. Some courses or programs require a higher grade.

The Registration System will not permit registration in a course unless the prerequisites have been met or are currently in progress.

Students currently enrolled in the prerequisite course at Douglas College will have prerequisite compliance checked when grades have been recorded. If prerequisites are not met, deregistration will take place at that time.

Note: A grade of "I" (incomplete) does not qualify as a course prerequisite. Students with an "I" grade in a prerequisite course must complete special permission requirements before the course deregistration deadline. The decision to accept an "I" grade as a prerequisite rests with the teaching department, not the Registrar's Office.

Special permission

In extraordinary circumstances, a department or faculty member may grant special permission to register in a course for which you do not have or cannot prove prerequisite compliance. You are responsible for obtaining this special permission from the department. Special permission must be obtained well before you register in the course.

Corequisites/linked courses and lab courses

If you register for a course with a corequisite, you must register in both courses at the same time or you will be dropped from that course without notice. If you receive a link error message, please check registration information to ensure you are trying to register in the correct combination of courses. This information is available on-line using the course schedule.

Lab courses

If you are registering in a course that requires a lab section this information will be listed in bold on the course schedule. For example the listing for BIOL 2321 states: Must ALSO register in BIOL 2321 L01 or L02. Students are required to register in one of the listed Lab Sections (section number starts with L) as registration in the lecture section does not register you in an accompanying lab section. Lab sections have their own CRN.

Permission to repeat a course

A student may register for the same courses as a credit or audit student a maximum of two times. Students in Mastery evaluated courses may register three times, unless the individual Department or Discipline has a different policy. A student who withdraws will be considered to have "registered" if the withdrawal occurs after the course change period at the end of the second week of classes. Students may appeal for special consideration to the Registrar by completing a Request to Repeat a Course form.

Please note if you are repeating a course you have already passed it is not eligible for student loan funding.

Limits on registration credits

You may not register in more credits than the maximum allowed for your program (see list ). Program overloads will be considered based on policy outlined in the College Calendar. Overload requests must be made to the Registrar or to the Associate Registrar. The registration system will prevent you from registering in an overload unless permission has been granted before your scheduled registration time.

Credit limits

18

Registration holds

If you have any of the following holds on your account, you will be stopped at the initial phase of registration and will not be able to proceed to course registration. Holds apply to any student who has:

• an outstanding fee balance (e.g. tuition, NSF charges, bookstore purchases, etc.)
• outstanding library fees or books
• failed to return physical education equipment
• not submitted a final secondary school transcript
• not returned keys to the Music Department
• outstanding items in the Psychology Lab

Holds can be placed on your record at any time. You may be able to do an initial registration but find subsequent access is denied because of a hold on your record.

Holds may take up to one full week to release once you have cleared the obligation. Please be aware that an uncleared hold can delay registration and may mean that you miss registering for courses you want or miss dropping a course by a specific deadline. You should clear any holds well before registration as releases cannot be processed in less than one week.

You can check your holds on-line. Follow the prompts to the Student Records menu.

Academic probation

Students attending Douglas College are required to meet a minimum standard of performance. The information concerning probation is outlined in the College Calendar.

Those students who do not meet the standard are placed on probation and must consult with a Student Success Advisor. Students who are newly placed on probation must consult with a Student Success Advisor no later than October 22, 2020 if they are intending  on taking courses in Winter 2021. Students who do not meet with an Advisor by this date will not be able to access their student record or register in future semesters.