When we give you transfer credits, it means that we recognize a course you’ve already taken as equivalent to a University course. We may recognize courses you’ve successfully completed at another academic institution, such as a CEGEP, college, university or high school.

Generally, if you have 24 to 53 transfer credits, you’re considered a second-year student. If you have 54 to 80 transfer credits, you’re considered a third-year student. Transfer credits are normally given for 1000-level courses (first-year courses) and sometimes for 2000-level courses (second-year courses). This means you can take courses at the 2000 and 3000 level as long as you have the prerequisites.

There are two types of transfer credits.

Course-specific transfer credits

If you’ve been given transfer credits for a specific course code in your program, this means we recognize that you’ve completed a specific course in a specific discipline at a specific level. For example, if you’ve been given transfer credits for the PSY 1102 Introduction to Psychology: Applications course, you don't have to take PSY 1102 and you don't have to replace it with any other course. We consider that you’ve passed PSY 1102, and you get full credit for it towards your degree.

Example

If you have transfer credits for ENG 1100 and it’s a requirement for your program: 

• You don’t have to take ENG 1100.
• You don’t have to replace it with any other course.

If you have transfer credits for ENG 1100 and it’s not a requirement for your program:

• You can replace certain optional courses (for example, three optional course units in English (ENG) at the 1000 or 2000 level).

  OR

• You can replace three elective units. 

  BUT

• You can’t replace any other course from your program requirements that has a specific course code (ex. ENG 1120).

General transfer credits

If you’ve been given transfer credits for a specific discipline and level only, for example PSY first year level, or OPT 1XXX, without a course code or title, you have been given general transfer credits. You can use these units to reduce the number of elective or optional courses you must pass. You cannot use general transfer credits to replace a compulsory course.

Example

General transfer credits with a subject can:

• Replace three optional course units (the optional course must match the subject and level)
        OR
• Replace three elective units

General transfer credits with OPT as the subject can:

• Replace three elective units

General transfer credits can’t replace any course in your program requirements with a specific course code.

To see a detailed report of the transfer credits you were awarded, please consult the My Academic Requirements application in uoZone.

For high school students: You may receive transfer credits for courses completed in the International Baccalaureate or the Advanced Placement (AP) programs, or in a lycée.

Exemptions

If you’ve received an exemption for a course, this means that we recognize that you’ve already learned the majority of the concepts taught in the course, so you don’t have to take it again. However, if we exempt you from a course, you must replace it with another course worth the same number of units to have enough units to graduate.

Knowing what your program requires will really help you build your timetable. See the programs and courses website or My Academic Requirements in uoZone to make sure you enrol in all courses or activities you need to get your degree.

These courses and activities fall into three categories:

• Compulsory courses: specific courses in your discipline that you must complete.
• Optional courses: courses you must choose from a set list of courses.
• Elective courses: courses you choose from all the courses offered at the University according to your personal preference. For example, if you’re enrolled in a history degree, you can take a physics or Spanish course as an elective.

To find out when we recommend you take your courses during your program, take a look at the course sequences. 

If you choose not to follow the recommended sequence, it is important to contact your faculty because this could cause delays in your academic timeline and affect your graduation date.

If you were admitted for the Winter term or if you take courses during the Spring-Summer term, your faculty’s undergraduate office will be able to provide information to help you make adjustments to the course sequence.

Adapting your course sequence

Remember that course sequences don’t consider your transfer credits or exemptions, which vary from student to student. If you’ve received transfer credits, you may need to change your course sequence to keep the correct number of courses per term and maintain part-time (one to three courses) or full-time (Four+ courses) student status. The number of courses you take per term could also affect your graduation date.

Once you understand the types of transfer credits and courses explained above, follow these steps to plan your schedule:

Using your transfer credit report and course sequence, you can:

• Eliminate the courses you’ve received course-specific transfer credits and/or exemptions for (for example, PSY 1101).
• Eliminate one optional or elective course for each course you’ve received general transfer credits for (for example, if you’ve received transfer credits for PSY 2XXX and one of your program requirements is to complete 15 2000-level or higher PSY units, you can eliminate one course).

To fill your schedule, you may need to move up courses from later in your sequence. When doing this, please note:

• Your suggested course sequence considers the term in which courses are typically offered, so it’s best to keep courses in the suggested order when possible. 
• To choose which courses to move up, look for compulsory or optional courses. To see if you have the prerequisites, use our program catalogue and select the course code.
• You can also move up your electives. They often don’t require prerequisites. See the electives without prerequisites.
• Course codes indicate the year of study, but if you have the prerequisites, you can take any level of course in any year. It’s normal if you’re admitted with a year’s worth of courses to have some 1000-level courses to complete.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email our mentors.

Plan your course selection

• If you’re a full-time student, you would usually take five courses in the fall term and five in the winter term. If you’d like to enrol in a sixth course in a given term, you must first get permission from your faculty.
• Choose your compulsory and optional courses first. This part is easiest because most of these choices are already made for you.
• Choose your electives. Take your time when deciding because there are a lot of courses available in a multitude of disciplines. Select courses according to your interests and your desired timetable.
• Make sure to maintain a good balance of compulsory, optional and elective courses throughout your studies.

To be considered a full-time student you must enrol in at least 12 units (normally four courses) each term. Generally, students enrol in five courses each term to complete their degree in four years.

Course offering

Programs are offered in English and in French. It should be noted that some courses are not offered each year.

Electives

If you’ve never taken a university course or if you don’t have the prerequisites for a specific discipline, check out the list of electives without prerequisites, read the descriptions and take note of the courses that interest you.

Language and make-up courses

If we’ve indicated in your offer of admission that you need to enrol in a second-language course or take a make-up course in mathematics or science, you will need to follow the enrolment process for Language and make-up courses.

If you’re interested in taking a modern language course (Arabic, Chinese, German, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish), you will need to follow the process to enrol in modern language courses and perhaps pass a placement test first.

Course evaluations

Course evaluations completed by previous students can help you with your course selection.  Students fill out a teaching evaluation questionnaire to evaluate all courses consisting of at least nine hours with the same professor. Once compiled, results are available in the S Report, which describes certain aspects of a professor's teaching methods. The report is available through uoZone, under Applications.

Students in the French Immersion Stream 

You can contact an immersion mentor who can help you plan your course selection and go over all your options. You can also visit the French immersion website to find out more. You might be required or encouraged to enrol in a French as a second language course. In this case, the course will count as the sixth course in your term. Contact your faculty or the French immersion team for support.

Understand the course timetable tool and course components

The class timetable search tool allows you to find out when and where courses are offered. It displays all available sections for a given course.

A course is a pre-set package of academic activities (lectures, discussion groups, labs, etc.) identified by a specific course code and worth a specific number of units.

Each course code has two elements. The first is the discipline (subject) code and identifies the field of study (i.e., BIO for Biology). The second is the catalogue number (also referred to as course number in the Enrol application) and assigns each course a unique identifier.

Courses can comprise various academic activities, with each activity identified in a section code. The first letter of the section code groups activities of the same parent activity (usually a lecture). For example, in course code BIO 1130 A00, A00 represents a lecture. In BIO 1130 A01, A01 represents a laboratory. Both are academic activities in section A of course BIO 1130. Note that you cannot enrol in classes with overlapping schedules because it will create a timetable conflict, which is not permitted.

Some sections are reserved for students in certain programs. To know which sections are available to you, go to uoZone, under Applications, then Enrol. Once you’re on the enrol page, refer to the My Available Seats column in the search results.

The earliest course start time is 8:30 a.m. (some laboratory sessions may begin earlier) and the latest possible end time is 10 p.m. Some courses are offered on Saturdays.

Find out more about what makes up a course code, different course component types, and the various codes used at the University by consulting the Understanding course enrolment terminology page.

Create sample timetables

Once you have checked your program requirements and course sequences, planned your course selection and understood how the course timetable tool works, start to create sample timetables to get ready before the official course enrolment period begins. This way, you’ll have a better idea of courses you want to add to your timetable when you start enrolling.

Perform searches in the class timetable search tool (note that the course timetable for each term is available at least one week prior to enrolment). In addition, we encourage you to use the timetable template (printable PDF - PDF, 107KB). Create more than one draft timetable, since you have to prepare for both the Fall and Winter terms.

The timetable template is already divided into time slots based on the University of Ottawa’s class periods. Select more courses than you need and build different samples of your timetables in case there is a time conflict or a course is full. The more sample timetables you create, the easier it'll be for you to swap things here and there to come up with your final schedule.

Some courses may be restricted (limited number of spots, reserved for students in specific programs, etc.), so there is no guarantee a spot in these courses will be available, even if you meet all eligibility requirements.

If you have to enrol in make-up courses, put these in your timetable first, since they don't show up in your course sequence. After you've finished adding your make-up courses, put in your compulsory courses, followed by your optional and elective courses.

Wherever possible, enrol in all your compulsory 1000-level courses in first year, your 2000-level courses in second year, and so on. Since some programs don't have many compulsory 1000-level courses, you might end up taking some higher-level courses, either elective courses without prerequisites or other courses in your discipline, as long as you have the prerequisites.

To avoid excessive web traffic on our online tools, course enrolment schedules are determined by your faculty and year of study.

• First-year students and newly-admitted students coming from CÉGEP or college: Tuesday, May 21, 2024 at 8 a.m.
• Second-year students (having successfully completed at least 24 units): Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at 8 a.m.
• Third-year students (having successfully completed at least 54 units): Tuesday, June 4, 2024 at 8 a.m.
• Fourth-year students (having successfully completed at least 81 units): Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at 8 a.m.

Year of study: For an explanation on how we calculate your year of study for enrolment purposes, please see Understanding course enrolment terminology.

Enrolling in courses and making changes to your course selection for Fall and Winter terms is possible until the dates indicated in the Important academic dates and deadlines.

Once your enrolment period has begun, go to the Applications menu in uoZone and click on Enrol. 

Make sure to register for the Fall, January and Winter terms at the same time.

Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Our enrolment support team can answer your questions and guide you through the enrolment process.

If you have technical problems with uoZone or any other accounts, complete a Service Desk request. You will need your student number.

Wait list

The enrolment module features a wait list system. If you’re interested in a course but all sections are full, you can place your name on a wait list and you will automatically be enrolled when a spot becomes available, subject to any enrolment limits and providing spots are reserved for your program.

We strongly recommend that you read our Wait list FAQ before using this function.

Impossible for you to enrol online? You can do so in person or by mail. First, get your course selection approved by returning the completed and signed undergraduate enrolment form (PDF, 229KB) to the academic secretariat of your faculty, department or school, by mail or in person.