Academic Calendar 2024-2025

Introduction

How to Use the Arts and Science Calendar

The Arts and Science Calendar is divided into a number of sections, which are described in detail below:

Regulations

Admission Regulations

The Admission Regulations govern the admission of students into the Faculty of Arts and Science, whether directly from high school, from another postsecondary institution, or from another Faculty or School within Queen’s University.

Academic Regulations

The Academic Regulations govern student conduct and academic progression within the Faculty. Attention is drawn in particular to Academic Regulation 1 (Academic Integrity); 2 (Enrolment and Registration Priorities); 10 (System of Grading and Transcript Notations); 13 (Academic Standing) and 16 (Requirements for Graduation). Students must comply with all the academic regulations of the Faculty, as well as those Senate Policies that govern student conduct and academic progression within the University as a whole.

Senate Policies may be found at: http://www.queensu.ca/secretariat/policies

Academic Petitions and Appeals Regulations

The Academic Petitions and Appeals Regulations govern the process by which students may appeal decisions regarding academic integrity and other academic matters. These might include: the grade received in an assignment, exam or course; to add or drop a course after the academic deadline; to waive a requirement to withdraw; or to request aegrotat or credit standing in a course. Student’s attention is also drawn to the Senate Policy on Students’ Appeals, Rights and Discipline (SARD), available at: https://www.queensu.ca/secretariat/policies.

Dual/Second Degrees and General Degree Upgrade Regulations

These regulations outline the special regulations for a student who is attempting more than one undergraduate degree within the Faculty of Arts and Science, either concurrently with a degree from another Faculty or School (Dual Degree) or consecutively when the first degree was obtained either from Queen’s University or elsewhere (Second Degree). This section also contains information on the degree upgrade process, wherein a student holding a General (3-year) undergraduate degree from the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen’s may upgrade it to an Honours (4-year) degree.

Departments/Schools

Each Department, School, or other academic unit that offers Plans or other academic programs through the Faculty of Arts and Science is listed in the Calendar.

The Departmental sections contain the following information:

  • Contact information for the Department;
  • A brief overview of the Department or unit’s academic mission;
  • Useful information for students regarding departmental policies;
  • Details of Degree Programs and Plans and other study opportunities.

Degree Plans, Certificates, and Course Lists

Degree Programs

The Calendar outlines the basic requirements for all Degree Programs offered by the Faculty of Arts and Science. These requirements are reproduced within the Academic Requirements Report in SOLUS, under the “Total Unit Count” and (when applicable) “Other Program Requirements” headings. The “Total Unit Count” counts all courses taken to meet the requirements of the degree, both elective and Plan components. The “Other Program Requirements” appears if students have failed to achieve other breadth or minimum requirements, or have exceeded the maximum number of courses allowed in a certain category.

Degree Plans

All Degree Programs in the Faculty of Arts and Science require courses to be chosen from one or more Plans. These sections of the Calendar outline the detailed requirements for each Plan and indicate in which degree program(s) they may be used. The Department or other academic unit responsible for the administration of the Plan is also listed. Students should, in the first instance, contact this Department if they require further information. Each Plan is divided into six sections. Sections 1 through 4 are reproduced within the Academic Requirements Report in SOLUS in much the same format as may be found in this Calendar:

  1. Core Courses: These are required courses in the Plan, for which there is little or no choice in the course that must be taken. Each line lists the courses that must be taken to fulfill the requirement. Individual courses are separated by an “or” statement, an “and” statement (comma) or an “and/or” statement (semicolon). Brackets may also be used in some cases to collect course requirements. Each requirement line is reproduced within the Academic Requirements Report.
  2. Option Courses: These are required courses in the Plan, but there is significant choice allowed in the course(s) that may be taken. Again, each requirement line is reproduced within the Academic Requirements Report. Often the list of courses is quite long, so a more general notation is used, such as “6.0 units from HIST at the 200 level”, which means that any course in History at the 200-level may meet this particular requirement.

Course Lists

Some Departments allow lists of courses in many different subjects to meet a requirement. Such lists are too long to be written out in full in SOLUS, so appear as a course list in the Calendar. For example, GPHY_Physical is a course list of all the courses that may be used to fulfill the physical geography requirements of a Geography or Environmental Science Plan. The detailed course lists are located following the Degree Plan to which they pertain in the Calendar and should be used in conjunction with the Plans section of the Calendar and the Academic Requirements Report in SOLUS.

Option Lists

In some cases, there are two or more sets of options listed, and there is a choice of fulfilling one of these sets of options to achieve the Plan requirements. This is known as an option list. For example, the Economics Major Plan requires a student to complete either a Thesis or Seminar Option. In the Academic Requirements Report, all the possible option lists appear, and courses fill in on all option lists until all the requirements of one option list are met. Once the requirements of one option list are fulfilled, all the remaining option lists disappear from the report.

  1. Supporting Courses: These are courses from other disciplines that are usually required as prerequisites to upper-year courses within the Plan. Supporting courses are listed in the Academic Requirements Report, again much as they appear in the Calendar. Supporting courses may be shared with the core, option, or supporting requirements of any other Arts and Science Plan when students are following Major-Minor or Joint Honours Plan combinations.
  2. Additional Requirements: These are other course requirements that must be met in addition to, and are shared with, the core, option and supporting components of a Plan. Such requirements might include a minimum number of units at a certain year level, a minimum or maximum number of courses allowable from a certain course list, or other breadth requirements. The other requirements section in the Academic Requirements Report only appears when students have failed to meet the requirement in question, or if they have broken a maximum rule. Once the requirement is fulfilled, it disappears from the report.
  3. Substitutions: In a few cases, Plans have option requirements that cannot be programmed automatically into SOLUS. In these cases, alternate choices are listed in the Substitutions portion of the Plan requirements. If a student believes a substitution is warranted in their Plan, they should contact the Department administering that Plan and request a manual exception to be entered.
  4. Notes: This section contains other useful information or academic advice pertaining to a Plan.

Certificates

Certificates provide students with the opportunity for new expanded credentials that can help students develop both general and specific skills that meet their particular career needs.

Course Lists

Detailed lists of courses that may be used to fulfill the various Plan requirements follow each Degree Plan. These lists should be used in conjunction with the Degree Plans sections of the Calendar and the Academic Requirements Report in SOLUS.

Course Descriptions

This section of the Calendar contains details of all courses offered through the Faculty of Arts and Science. These are embedded within the offerings of each academic unit, and may be searched independently.

A course entry may contain the following items:

  1. Course Number  
    Courses are numbered as follows:

    Courses numbered from P01 to P09 are pre-university level courses offered at the discretion of the Department, and are primarily intended for students who do not have Ontario 4U or equivalent standing in the subject. Unless otherwise indicated, these courses are offered for credit as electives in any degree program.

    Courses numbered P10 to P99 are intended primarily as electives and normally do not lead to further courses in the subject, unless under special conditions specified by the Department.

    Courses numbered 100 to 199 are introductory courses, normally taken in first year. They may be differentiated by method and/or intention, and typically lead to further work. There are also 100-level courses which are intended primarily as electives and do not lead to further work.

    Courses numbered 200 to 299 are normally taken in the second year and usually require a previous course in the subject. They are typically standard second-year courses for all plans.

    Courses numbered 300 to 399 are normally taken in the third year and have prerequisites determined by the Departments. They are required in the third year of four-year programs, but are not necessarily required in three-year programs.

    Courses numbered 400 to 499 are normally taken in fourth year and are primarily intended as senior courses in the four-year programs. However, they are open to all students who meet the prerequisites.

    Courses numbered 500 to 590 are reading or undergraduate thesis courses.

    Typically, course numbers for independent study include the following: 594/3.0, 3.0-unit course; 595/6.0, 6.0-unit course; 596/12.0, 12.0-unit course; 597/18.0, 18.0-unit course; 598/9.0, 9.0-unit course.

    When a course number is changed, the former number for the course will appear under Exclusions or Equivalency following the course description for five years subsequent to the change. Students who take longer than five years to complete a Degree Plan are advised to consult departmental academic advisers to ensure that the courses they select do not duplicate work previously completed.
  2. Course Weights: Course weights follow the course number and are separated by a stroke, for example, HIST 121/6.0 or CISC 121/3.0. Some courses have weights that are percentages or multiples of 3.0, for example, DRAM 247/1.5 or MICR 499/9.0 or BIOL 537/12.0.
  3. Course Title
  4. Course Description
  5. Notes: When present, these indicate if the course is available at Bader College, if it is available through Arts and Science Online, or if there are any fees or special requirements associated with the course.
  6. Total Learning Hours that a typical student would spend in various activities associated with the course: L = Lectures; S=Seminars; Lb = Laboratories; T = Tutorials; G = Group Learning; I = Individual Instruction; O = Online Activities; Oc = Off-campus Activity; Pc = Practicum; P = Private Study
  7. Recommended: When present, these may include recommended high school background or other courses that are recommended prerequisites for the course. However, the student is not obliged to hold these prerequisites in order to enrol in the course.
  8. Prerequisite statements: Many courses have prerequisites, that is previously completed courses or other requirements that must be met before a student may enrol in a course. Students who do not meet these requirements will not be allowed to enrol in the course in SOLUS.
  9. Exclusion statements: Some courses have exclusions, that is a list of one or more other courses whose content overlaps sufficiently that only one of them may be used as credit towards a degree program. Students will not be allowed to enrol in two courses that exclude one another in SOLUS. If a student does complete both courses, only one will be counted towards the degree program. In such a case, the Academic Advisement Report in SOLUS will indicate an exclusion warning.
  10. One-Way Exclusion statements: A few courses, particularly language acquisition courses, must be taken in the correct order if credit is to be given for both. A One-way Exclusion indicates that a student may not enrol in the course if they have already completed one or more of the courses listed in the one-way exclusion statement. Registration will be blocked on SOLUS. However, the student may take the courses in the opposite order, i.e., they may first take the course listed in the one-way exclusion statement followed by the course in question. Courses listed in one-way exclusions, if taken in the correct order, will both be credited towards the requirements of a degree program.

Timetable Information

Not every course listed in this Calendar is offered every year. For the most up-to-date information on course offerings, students are advised to view the 2024-2025 course timetable on SOLUS or consult with the appropriate department.

Curriculum Changes

Students should be aware that course offerings and program requirements change from time to time. Departments work in conjunction with the Faculty Curriculum Committee to ensure that changes in the curriculum are made with the least amount of disruption to continuing students.

Enrolment Limits and Cancellation of Under-enrolled Courses

The University reserves the right to limit enrolment in any class which becomes oversubscribed, even if the course description does not indicate a limited enrolment. As well, under-enrolled courses may be cancelled.  

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