Prerequisites, Special Permissions and Corequisites

• Special Permission
• Co requisites/Linked Courses and Lab Courses
• Permission to Repeat A Course
• Limits on Registration Credits
• Credit Limits
• Registration Holds
• Academic Probation

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 no later than October 1.
• 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.

Douglas College does not require BC Secondary students to write optional provincial exams.  Since Language 12 Arts (ie: English 12, Communications 12, etc) is not an optional provincial exam but is a mandatory provincial exam, Douglas College does requires BC students to write the provincial exam for their Language Arts 12 requirement.  The only exception to this is students who are eligible to enroll, and are completing the BC Adult Graduation Dogwood Diploma.  These students are not required to write the provincial exam for their Language Arts 12 requirement. 

• 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.

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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.

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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.

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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. To book an appointment with the Registrar, please contact Mary Cope at 604-527-5350.

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

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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.

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Credit Limits

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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.

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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 a College Counsellor. Students who are newly placed on probation (based on Fall semester grades) must consult with a College Counsellor no later than March 5, 2010. Students who do not meet with a counsellor by this date will not be able to access their student record or register in future semesters. Students placed on probation prior to the current semester must consult a counsellor prior to registration.

Counsellors will be available in Student Services (Room 4600) Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm. There will be drop-in times and some late afternoon appointments as well. Call Student Services at 604-527-5486 for drop-in hours or to make an appointment. Students who do not see a Counsellor will be deregistered from all courses. Normal refund policies will apply.

Students who are already on probation but who fail to meet the requirements set for them will be deregistered from all courses once their probationary grade-point average is calculated. Students at this stage of the probation process are required to withdraw from the College until the end of the following major semester (Fall or Winter); these students will be refunded 100 percent of fees paid.