University Calendar Quick Start Guide

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 [Updated for Fall Term 2019]

What is the University Calendar?

The Calendar is one of the principal sources of U of A policy information for students.  Among other information, it reflects admission requirements and deadlines, academic regulations, programs of study, academic standards, degree requirements and general University policies for both undergraduate and graduate students.

By the act of registering for a course or a course of study, each student at the University of Alberta agrees to observe and be bound by the terms of this notice, and the terms, conditions, academic standards, rules, regulations, policies, and codes of behaviour contained or referenced in the Calendar. Therefore, it is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the contents of the Calendar.

Accessing the University Calendar

The quickest way to access the most recent version of the University Calendar is by using the link uab.ca/calendar

Other ways of accessing the Calendar include:

• Searching for ‘calendar’ in the ualberta.ca main page search bar
• From the ualberta.ca main page, clicking on ‘Current Students’ and then finding the University Calendar link further down that page
• Visiting www.ualberta.ca/registrar/calendar, especially if you are looking for an archived version of a Calendar published prior to 2015

Selecting the Right Edition of the Calendar

Use the drop down menu in the top right of each page to select the Calendar Year you are looking for.

Notes:

• All students should annually refer to the current Calendar for appropriate Faculty academic standing regulations.
• Continuing students should refer to the Calendar that was in effect at the time they were admitted (or readmitted) for the regulations governing their degree program requirements. 
• See Changes in Regulations  for more information.

Using the Calendar Search

Search Tips: 

• Use whole words or phrases.
• Use wildcard search operators (eg. biomed*) to help you find terms you are unsure of
• Avoid using boolean search logic (eg. AND, OR) as it is not recognized by the search function.
• Checking the “Whole Word/Phrase” box will limit the search to the specific words entered into the search. Unchecking this box will return search results containing any of the words entered into the search.
• Limiting your search to words that are more unique to the specific phrase, policy, course, or program you are looking for will help keep the list of search results short.

Limiting the Location of Your Search Using the ‘Entire Calendar’ Drop Down Menu

The Calendar is made up of different types of pages. The default search is the entire Calendar, but if you know the type of page you are looking for, you can limit the search by using the Calendar Search drop down:

Clicking on the Advanced Search link will provide you with similar search options.

Understanding Your Search Results

The calendar search function will automatically divide your search results based on the type of page your word/phrase is found on. 

By using unique words/phrases, you can narrow the scope of your search.  Pages with your word in the title will be listed before pages where your word shows up in the content.

You can also change the way the search results are displayed by clicking Alphabetical or Ranked in the top right hand corner.

Browsing Using the Calendar Menu

The Calendar Menu on the left of every page makes it easy to navigate to and browse different pages of the University Calendar.

Short Descriptions for Pages of Interest

Inquiries  - descriptions and contact information for Faculties and student services across campus

Academic Schedule, Dates, and Deadlines  - important dates throughout the academic year (ex. Reading Week, exams, etc.) including important deadlines for registration, tuition payments, and application for convocation.

University Regulations  - general regulations that apply to all students.

• Registration  - policies around course registration, withdrawing, and auditing
• Fees Payment Guide  - how much are tuition and fees; policies around fee payments
• Academic Regulations  - residence requirements, exams, grading, academic standing

Graduate Policy and Regulations  - policies specific to graduate studies, including academic standing, as well as supervision and examinations. This section also has links to all of the graduate programs.

The Faculties  - each faculty has their own Faculty Regulations section that contains all of the regulations that are specific to that faculty. Undergraduate students are encouraged to read both the General University Regulations (above) as well as their faculty’s specific regulations. You can also find all of the undergraduate programs offered by each faculty.

Undergraduate Programs  - a comprehensive listing of all undergraduate programs offered at the University of Alberta

Graduate Programs  - a comprehensive listing of all graduate programs offered at the University of Alberta, organized by department

Glossary  - a collection of definitions for various terms found throughout the Calendar

Course Listings  - information about how to read course descriptions, as well as additional notes on registering for courses. This page also has a filter that allows you to search for courses. The course descriptions in the calendar match those found in Bear Tracks.

Course Listings

The course descriptions found in the University Calendar are the same as the ones found in Bear Tracks. Some users may find it easier to review them here in a different format.

The Course Listings page has a course filter that will help locate specific classes:

• Prefix - Only use this if you know the prefix of the course you are looking for
• Code or Number - Must be a complete number. Partial numbers (eg. 1xx, 1*, etc.) are not recognized.
• Keyword - Will search for classes with Keyword in title first, course descriptions second.

Printing Pages or Saving Pages as PDFs

In the top right corner of every page of the Calendar, there is a small print icon.  Clicking on this icon will provide you with a printer-friendly version of the page you are on.

In the printer-friendly version, you can click “Print this Page” to bring up your Print menu.  From this menu, you can either send the page to print, or select “Save as PDF” to save a PDF copy of this page to your computer.

PDF Versions

https://www.ualberta.ca/registrar/calendar

Note: the 2019-2020 University Calendar is the last one that will be published in PDF format.  The 2020-2021 University Calendar will only be accessible in the online format.

In the ‘Previous Calendars’ menu, click on the specific year you are looking for.

Each PDF page will display a list of links to different sections of that calendar in PDF format.

Questions about the Calendar

If you have questions about the information in the University Calendar, there are a number of places you can go to for assistance.