Open Studies Students and Auditors
An Open Studies Student is a student who is allowed to take credit courses, but who is not admitted to a program leading to a degree or diploma.
Open Studies students must complete an Application/Registration form which is available also from the Registrar's Office in hard copy.
To be eligible for registration under this category, students must be either 18 years of age or older by the commencement of the session to which they are seeking admission or holders of an Alberta high school diploma or equivalent (Open Studies non-degree) or holders of an approved degree from an "accredited" institution with a minimum of three years of recognized university-level course work and an approximate 2.00 grade point average (Open Studies degree).
Open Studies non-degree students:
are limited to registering in a maximum of three half courses per session to a total maximum of ten half-course equivalents (including withdrawals);
are allowed only one "D" or "D+" grade; students who obtain an "F" grade or a second "D" or "D+" grade will be refused further registration under this category (withdrawal may be considered as failing to achieve the required standard). Review for discontinuation takes place at the end of the Winter Session and the end of the Summer Session;
are not permitted to register in Fall/Winter Session courses until August 15 EXCEPT for Weekend U sections, where registration begins with the Advance Registration day (February for Spring/Summer sessions and May for Fall/Winter sessions)
Open Studies degree holders are not restricted by the limitations in course registration stated above but will not be permitted to register for Fall/Winter Session courses until August 1. It should be noted that Open Studies degree holders will be subject to dismissal if their academic performance is less than satisfactory. Faculty regulations regarding performance apply.
Offshore applicants requiring acceptance letters for immigration purposes are required to submit their Application / Registration form and all required documents to the Office of the Registrar no later than June 1 for Fall Session, March 1 for Spring and/or Summer Sessions, and October 15 for Winter Session. Students are encouraged to apply early due to varying processing times required by Canadian Immigration. They must also satisfy the University's English Language Proficiency requirement.
Undergraduate rules and regulations of the University apply to all Open Studies students.
1. Auditing privileges are extended to students who have applied for admission and have been officially admitted to the University and to Visiting and Open Studies students. Click here to retrieve a Permission to Audit form.
2. (a) The audit fees are outlined in the fees section of the University Calendar.
(b) All auditing fees are non-refundable.
3. ACADEMIC STAFF and VISITING SCHOLARS (not to be interpreted as visiting students) are eligible to audit without payment of fees, are not required to seek admission to the University, but must obtain written permission from the instructor of the course on a Permission to Audit form obtainable from the Office of the Registrar. Such audits will not be recorded on an official transcript. Academic staff and visiting scholars who wish to have an audit course recorded on an official transcript must pay the regular audit course fees.
4. A course in which the student is registered and attends as an auditor, will be entered on the student's record. It will not count towards any degree or diploma program, nor will the student in an undergraduate faculty be permitted to change registration in that course from audit to credit or credit to audit status after the change deadline at the beginning of the session in which the course begins. (Since attendance in an audit course is compulsory, the Registrar shall be informed when any student registered as an auditor is not attending the course and/or has been required to withdraw by the instructor. The course shall be deleted from the student's record.)
5. The auditing students shall, before admission to the class concerned, obtain written permission on a Permission to Audit form from: first, the dean of the faculty in which they are registered; and second, the instructor teaching the course. (Permission obtained from a dean shall not bind the instructor to accept a student as an auditor in the class.) In addition, students wishing to audit courses offered by quota faculties must obtain the approval of the dean of the quota faculty.
6. The auditing student shall not participate in class discussions, assignments, examinations or in laboratory or like parts of the course. An invitation by the instructor for a student to participate in activities other than class discussions must be subsequently approved by the head of the department offering the course.
7. Applicants may audit a course which was previously successfully completed and may take for credit a course which was previously audited. Approval will be required as stated above.
8. Any student seeking to audit courses must meet all admission, registration and fee deadlines applying to regular students.
N.B.: Students wishing to audit a course which is full should refer to our overload policy.