ECPS Procedures for waiving required courses

 1.    Applications for course waivers are occasionally approved in cases where a student has already taken a course that is the equivalent of a required ECPS course.  To initiate a course waiver application, the student first needs to talk to and secure approval of their advisory committee.  If the student is interested in waiving the course/s because they have taken an equivalent of the course/s, or have prior relevant experience, they need to provide a course syllabus for the course/s they would like waived, their transcript documenting course/s grades, and if they are using their relevant experience to waive the course, documentation and information about the experience.  Normally, the waiving of courses need to be completed by the end of the student’s first term in the program.  Students are not able to ask for transfer credit because a course which counted towards one degree cannot be used to count towards another degree. 

2.    The course that is being proposed as equivalent to an ECPS required course for which a waiver is being requested must (a) have been completed no longer than five years from the date of the waiver application and (b) must have been awarded a grade of at least B (74% at UBC).   

3.     If the student’s advisor or advisory committee supports the request, the program committee will need to submit the request to the departmental graduate advisor for approval.  The request for waiver should be supported by a memo providing a rationale, including evidence to show the student does have the equivalent course/s. The evidence for equivalency should include course outline/s, information about the textbook used and the grade/s the student obtained.  The advisory committee might also want to check with the coordinators of the areas through which the required courses are offered to confirm equivalency of the course/s.  If there are problems regarding the waiving of the course/s, these can be brought to the attention of the department head.

4.    Courses that are departmental requirements for all programs, such as 571, 579 and 601A and 601B, are unique to the exigencies of the program, and therefore it is, practically speaking, impossible for students to have taken these courses prior to entering the program. Therefore, they are rarely waived.

 How to Submit a Request for Assessment of a Course Waiver:

• A cover sheet can be downloaded here that must accompany all required
  course waiver requests. It is available in both .rtf (Word) and .pdf
  formats. Download Cover Sheet (PDF)

• All documents should be provided to the ECPS Graduate Coordinator in hard
  copy format, and not sent by email as attachments or in the body of an email
  message.

• A course waiver does not provide any course credit. Students need to review
  their PGS with their Advisor, and determine whether the waiver of the course
  will result in the need to select another course to meet program
  requirements.

• Changes to the PGS need to be approved by a student's Graduate Advisor and a
  revised PGS submitted to the Graduate Office, ECPS.