Current Students

Undergraduate External Courses

This page gives all the information you need about enrolling in courses outside of the Bachelor of Information program.

Enrol in Faculty of Information courses outside BI program

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This applies to BI students interested in taking Master of Information (MI) courses as electives.

BI students are permitted to enrol in a maximum of 0.5 credits of graduate-level courses. These are considered special requests and must be approved by the BI Program Director, the MI Director, and the instructor teaching the graduate course.

To request to enrol in an MI course, submit an MI Course Request form to Student Services. If approved, Student Services will enrol you in the course.

Note: you will not be able to use any graduate-level courses taken during your undergraduate degree towards any future graduate degree.

Enrol in UofT courses outside Faculty of Information

This applies to BI students interested in taking UofT courses outside the Faculty of Information as electives.

First, verify when the host Faculty/Department allows external students to enrol. For example: The Faculty of Arts & Science has priority enrolment for their own students. Their website will indicate the date when they will allow non-Arts & Science students to enrol in their courses.

If the course has a pre-requisite that you don’t have, you’ll need to email the instructor or department directly to get permission to take it. If you enrol without this permission, you may be removed at a later date without warning.

Then, check the following information in ACORN:

  • Ensure that there is available space in the course.
  • Ensure that the course doesn’t conflict with your required INF courses.

Once you’ve verified the above information, you can enrol in course yourself on ACORN. If you cannot enrol, please email Student Services for assistance.

All Faculty of Information grade submission deadlines must be met, regardless of the deadlines of the other department(s) involved.

Course Exemptions

In rare circumstances, an exemption from a specific course requirement may be given, permitting the substitution of another course to meet degree requirements. The purpose of this exemption policy is to free students from having to retake essentially the same course from a previous undergraduate degree.

To be approved, the two courses must be almost identical in learning outcomes and content.

Notes:

  1. If approved, an exemption does not reduce the overall course credit requirements for the degree. You must replace the exempted course with another.
  2. An exemption will only be considered based on another undergraduate degree-level course taken in the past five years, and only for a specifically identified and documented course.
  3. Research assistantships and professional experience are not accepted as a basis for exemptions.
  4. The exemptions policy does not exist to let students mix and match program requirements based on their interests or scheduling needs. Requests made on those grounds will not be considered.

To request an exemption, submit to Student Services all the items below in a single package or PDF file:

  • A completed BI Request for Course Exemption Form
  • A syllabus of the course you have taken
  • An official transcript showing your final grade in the course you have taken. This does not have to be submitted if the Student Services Office already has an official copy of your transcript on file
  • A statement indicating why you believe an exemption is justified

Exemption request packages must include all documentation listed above to be considered; incomplete packages will not be accepted. Exemptions are assessed by the Program Coordinator. Students will be notified in writing when a final decision has been made. There is no appeal process for denied exemptions.

Exemption requests should be submitted by September 30th of the first term of a student’s degree program.