As stated in the introductory paragraphs for the course changes and program modifications, these changes are being made to ensure that students are better prepared and thus result in improved student outcomes. Waitlists are orthogonal to these changes (see waitlist issues for more details) and staffing varies from year-to-year and as such can only be addressed through the hiring of faculty and sessional instructors.
That depends on the timeframe.
These changes are not expected to have an immediate impact on waitlists. There is an expectation that course demand will change as more students need to complete core courses and obtain necessary prerequisites, which will be addressed via adjustments to course offerings.
In the long-term, yes we do expect to see an impact on waitlists. As students are better prepared for advanced courses we expect to see an increased success rate. With an increased success rate there will be fewer students needing to take courses more than once. Which should result in fewer students occupying waitlist slots.
Yes.
The department is continuously working to determine when best to offer courses in the regular session. Past course offerings should never be taken as an indicator of what will be offered in the next year; if we used the course offerings from years ago we would have only a fraction of the seats/sections we do now. You can expect to see courses switching terms, being offered in both terms, or having more/less sections available. This will be done based on expected demand resulting from these changes, other changes that have been made in recent years, and demand growth/reduction for individual courses.
It is also worth noting that departments like Statistics are happily planning for increased demand in their courses.
Note that course scheduling will be released via Aurora under the regular university schedule and we will not release any course plans prior to the official release date.
Please note that, as stated in course changes, this applies specifically to the following 4000-level courses only: COMP 4020, 4140, 4190, 4300, 4380, 4420, 4510, and 4710, and is only in effect for the 2023/24 academic year for students who need 30 credit hours (or fewer) to complete their degree.
A student that is following a recommended program grid (such as the Honours program) and is entering the 2023/24 academic year having completed 90 credit hours has a reasonable expectation to graduate through the completion of the required complement of 4000-level COMP courses. We want to give these students every opportunity to complete their degree on schedule. Students needing more than 30 credit hours will take longer to complete their degree and as such have time to fill any gaps in the courses they have taken.
No.
Summer course scheduling is based on instructor availability. Taking all of the 3000-level courses, along with 4620, has always been an intense undertaking. It is worth noting that the course schedule does have balance such that only two 3000-level 6 week courses are offered concurrently.
A co-op student wanting to complete 2080 this summer will not be able to take either 3010 (same time slot) or 3170 (2080 is a prerequisite). But, focusing on successfully completing 2080 is more important than taking a mix of 2000- and 3000-level courses.
Finally, we advise against taking three 6 week courses at the same time, with or without also taking 3350. A student can expect a normally scheduled course to require, on average, 8-9 hours of work per week. A 6 week course would then require, on average, 16-18 hours of work per week. Taking two such courses, along with 3350, thus results in upwards of 45 hours of work per week. Or, that's already a full-time job.
By the time these changes come into effect they will have been worked on for almost 3 years. After extensive discussions between department faculty members to discuss curriculum shortcomings the department asked the undergraduate curriculum committee to look into a proposed set of program changes and course modifications. This committee reviewed the proposals and looked at historical success rates to determine which proposals had merit and which should not be pursued or needed modification. The committee then presented the complete proposal to Department Council for voting. Upon approval the proposal moves on to the next phase.
Before the proposal is presented to COCAP, the Faculty of Science committee on courses and programs, a series of consultations are undertaken with other departments/faculties on campus. The course modifications were reviewed by the departments of Mathematics, Physics & Astronomy, Statistics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, along with the Data Science program, co-op office, and Université de Saint-Boniface. The program modifications were reviewed by the departments of Mathematics, Physics & Astronomy, and Statistics, along with the co-op office and the Dean's office. Without these reviews the proposal would not have been considered by COCAP and thus would not have moved forward.
After approval by COCAP the proposal is reviewed by the Faculty Executive committee prior to presentation to Faculty Council (made up of every faculty member of the Faculty of Science). Following this approval the proposal moves on to the university's Senate. Here the proposal was reviewed by two sub-committees: SCIE, the senate committee on instruction and evaluation, and SCCCC, the senate committee on curriculum and course changes. It is at this level where we discuss our transition plans and how we will be communicating these changes to students. Part of this approval process is to ensure that this has been adequately considered and defined.
Following these sub-committees the proposal is reviewed by Senate. After the proposal is approved by Senate the editing of the Academic Calendar begins, roughly in February, so that it is ready for publication in the Spring. Our proposal called for publication of a summary of the changes prior to the publication of the calendar. This was approved and resulted in what you see on this website.
Note that all meeting minutes and packages submitted to all committees/councils are part of the public record.