Undergraduate Curriculum Management

1. Academic unit fills out the Undergraduate New Course Proposal.

• Re-use the course number if the same number hasn't been used for a minimum of 10 years.
• Don't hesitate to confirm the status of an available course number with the Senate and Academic Services office, email "sfucal@sfu.ca" to enquire.
• Adding W designation – Creating a W version doesn't automatically delete the non-W course. A course deletion form must be filled out to delete the non-W course.
• For Co-operative Education program courses, please ensure to involve the Co-operative Education program manager or curriculum manager.
• For other reminders, review the reminder sheet.

2. Academic unit submits the course form and reading list to lib-courseassessment@sfu.ca for a library review.

• The library review will take approximately 2 weeks. For more information see: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/about/overview/collections/course-assessments

3. Academic unit submits the undergraduate new course form and the library assessment information to the Faculty Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC).

4. UCC sends the course form by email to the Associate Dean of the Faculty for an overlap check.

5. Upon completion of an overlap check, the Associate Dean submits the information to the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies (SCUS).

6. SCUS approves the new course and submits to Senate for information.

7. After Senate, Senate and Academic Services staff processes the course in SIMS, CurricUNET and the Academic Calendar per the approved effective date.

• NOTE: Course changes are made in SIMS Course Catalog and automatically carry over to the Academic Progress Reports.

1. Academic unit fills out the Undergraduate Course Modification Form. Please review the instructions and reminder sheet before completing the Undergraduate Course Modification Form.

NOTE: If you are changing the course number, please conduct course impact analysis. Course impact analysis is reviewing the effect of course number change and/or course deletion on other courses’ prerequisites and corequisites. When a course number changes, the new number needs to be replaced in all places where the old course number is currently listed as a prerequisite and/or corequisite. To conduct the course impact analysis, follow the procedure below:

• Go to the https://www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/courses.html.
• Click on your academic unit’s page.
• Find all instances where the course is listed as a prerequisite and/or corequisite. Hint: use Ctrl +F to find on page.
• If you find that the course is currently listed as a prerequisite and/or corequisite, fill out the undergraduate course modification form to update the prerequisites and/or corequisites in those course(s) to the new number. 

As part of document processing procedures, Senate and Academic Services staff updates all programs where the course is currently listed to the new course number. Academic units, however, need to ensure that if a lower division course is changing to an upper division course or vice versa that this still makes sense in the program requirements. For example, in a list of “complete these upper division courses”, the new number isn’t a lower division course or vice versa. 

2. Academic unit submits the form to the Undergrad Curriculum Committee (UCC). 

3. UCC approves and submits the form to the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies (SCUS).

4. SCUS approves the revisions and submits to Senate for information.

5. After Senate, Senate and Academic Services staff processes the changes in SIMS, CurricUNET and the Academic Calendar per the approved effective date. 

• NOTE: Course changes are made in SIMS Course Catalog and automatically carry over to the Academic Progress Reports.
• NOTE: Changes to or adding writing, quantitative or breadth designations (WQB) follow a different process. See the UCIL website for more information.

Once a course is deleted, it disappears from the Calendar. For example, if a course was part of a program requirement and it is deleted, it will no longer be listed as part of the requirements. When a course is deleted, it no longer makes sense for that course to continue to be listed as a prerequisite in other courses. Hence, to figure out the impact of course deletion on programs and courses, it is useful to do a program and course impact analysis.

Step 1. Program Impact Analysis

1. Contact the Senate and Academic Services Office (sfucal@sfu.ca) for a program impact list. The program impact list states all programs that have a particular course in its requirements. Please submit this program impact list along with your course deletion form. 

2. Once you have the program impact list, please go to each program and review how deleting this course affects the program requirements. If deleting this course has a more substantial impact on the programs (i.e. it states "complete two of" and both of the courses under "two of" are being deleted), please also submit a program modification form.  

3.  Academic unit will also need to notify other academic units who list the soon to be deleted course in their program requirements as the other academic units may also need to update their programs to account for the deletion. The program impact list shows all other academic units that need to be contacted. 

Step 2. Course Impact Analysis

To conduct the course impact analysis, follow the procedure below:

1. Go to the https://www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/courses.html.
2. Click on your academic unit’s page.
3. Find all instances where the course to be deleted is listed as a prerequisite and/or corequisite. Hint: use Ctrl +F to find on page.
4. If you find that the course is currently listed as a prerequisite and/or corequisite, fill out the undergraduate course modification form to update the prerequisites and/or corequisites for those course(s). 

As of right now, there is no report that helps to identify the other academic units to contact for course impact analysis.

Step 3: UCC, SCUS, Senate

1. Once program and course impact analysis are done (as outlined above), the academic unit submits the Undergraduate Course Deletion Form and the program impact list along with any other undergraduate course modifications and program modifications to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC).

2. Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC) approves the deletion and submits the form with a cover memo from the Associate Dean to the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies (SCUS).

3. SCUS approves the deletion and submits to Senate for information.

4. After Senate, Senate and Academic Services staff processes the deletion in SIMS, CurricUNET and the Academic Calendar per the approved effective date. 

• NOTE: A deleted course is a permanent withdrawal and therefore cannot be reinstated.

1. The chair of the academic unit submits a memo* requesting approval of an STT course to the Dean of the Faculty. This memo should include the following information:

• rationale 
• course title (long and short)
• proposed course subject and number (in case the academic unit later decides to make the course permanent, please choose a number available for permanent use)
• short course description (50 words max.)
• units
• course components 
• grading basis
• prerequisite
• final exam: yes or no
• proposed term(s) of offering

STT courses will normally expire after a maximum of three terms (as stated in S. 96-5). The practice allows courses to be offered in three consecutive terms unless a specific request is received and approved for a specific time period to ensure that the course is in fact offered on a temporary basis.

2. For STT proposals that are approved, the Dean of the Faculty will communicate the approval to the Registrar's office (email kdn1@sfu.ca) for implementation.

3. Senate and Academic Services staff processes the course in SIMS, CurricUNET, and the Calendar per the approved effective date and will notify the academic unit and the schedules department. 

*Note: for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) STT courses, please use the form provided through the Dean's office.

1. Once a year Senate and Academic Services sends a list of undergraduate courses which have not been taught in the previous four academic years (or more) to the academic units for consideration of temporary withdrawal.

2. Academic unit reviews the list of courses and decides whether to keep, to delete, or to temporarily withdraw each course.  

3. Academic unit submits their list to the Faculty Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC).

4. Faculty Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC) approves the revisions and submits to the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies (SCUS).

5. SCUS approves and submits to Senate for information.

6. After Senate, Senate and Academic Services staff processes the withdrawal in SIMS and the Academic Calendar per the approved effective date. 

Sample Proposals

• S.15-8
• S.15-11

Since Senate has already approved the course, a request to reinstate a course with no changes does not go through the regular approval process. To reinstate a temporarily withdrawn course with changes, please follow the process outlined in modifying an existing course.

After a course has been temporarily withdrawn, it can be reinstated by:

1. Sending a memo to the Senate and Academic Services Office (kdn1@sfu.ca) stating when the course will be offered.

2. Senate and Academic Services staff reinstates the course in SIMS and the Calendar per the relevant effective date.

• NOTE: A deleted course is a permanent withdrawal and therefore cannot be reinstated.