Once the professor with whom a student wishes to study has agreed to direct a reading course, the Reading Course Application and a complete Syllabus should be submitted to the Department Chair with a copy to the Academic Administrative Assistant.
If the course is approved at the departmental level, the Reading Course Application Form, Syllabus and the Student Transcript are submitted to the Dean's Office for review. If the course is approved at the decanal level, it will be sent directly to the Registrar's Office where the student will be manually registered in the course.
Please note that, due to the various approvals and steps involved in arranging a reading course, it is important to submit all required documents by July 1st for the fall term and by November 30th for the winter term. Failure to submit in a timely fashion with all parts of the form and syllabus complete can result in delays which may impact the ability to begin the course on schedule or to meet the requirements to receive any pending forms of student funding.
The Reading Course Syllabus
Please note that the syllabus should not be submitted via the syllabus system. Instead, it should be sent by email directly to the Chair with a copy to the Academic Administrative Assistant along with the application form. If all components of the syllabus are not included, it will be turned back by the Dean's Office.
The syllabus must include all of the same components required for all university courses, including:
- the course number (4901H half credit or 4900Y full credit), title and term
- the names of student and supervisor
- a short description of the proposed course
- a reading list
- a breakdown of the required assignments and grading breakdown
- an indication of frequency and length of meetings
- an alternate course title for the student's transcript (30 characters max)
- costs of texts and all materials or resources required for the course
- university policies (i.e., academic integrity, access to instruction, sharing/distribution of course content, absenteeism, missed tests/examinations etc.)
- course policies (i.e., late penalties)