Course Selection for Incoming Undergraduate Exchange Students | Fall 2025
Course Registration
All course registration or changes must be done by your Study Abroad Advisor. Exchange students cannot register for classes online using WebAdvisor like our full-degree students do, as the system will not recognize whether you have completed the prerequisites for the courses. After the University of Guelph has received your exchange application and course selection forms, your Study Abroad Advisor will register you for the courses you have requested and will let you know the results. For any changes you want to make to your course registration after that, you must contact or see your Study Abroad Advisor. You can still use the WebAdvisor Planning feature to check your schedule and make sure there are no timetable conflicts.
Although a full undergraduate course load at the University of Guelph is 4 or 5 courses per semester (2.0 - 2.5 credits), it is recommended to list 8 or 9 courses on the course selection survey (and have all of them approved by your university, if required). When it is time for us to register you for your courses, this should ensure that at least some of the courses you have requested will be possible.
The Fall course schedule is usually posted by mid-June and Winter by mid-October.
Select the ‘Log In’ button at the top right-hand corner, sign in with your U of G login information
Select ‘Course Catalogue’
Select ‘Advanced Search’ along the top and specify the following items:
Term: select the term that you will be studying in Guelph (e.g. Fall)
Subject Area: Choose one or more subject area(s) that interest you
Location: select Guelph (you are NOT eligible to take courses at Guelph-Humber or the Ridgetown campus)
Academic Level: Most choose either the undergraduate or graduate level programs. Speak with your Study Abroad Advisor if you're interested in other courses.
Leave everything else blank
Select the ‘search’ button
Here is an example of a course description from our Academic Calendar:
MATH*2200Advanced CalculusFall Only (LEC 3) [0.50]
The topics covered in this course include infinite sequences and series, power series, tests for convergence, Taylor's theorem and Taylor series for functions of one variable, planes and quadratic surfaces, limits, and continuity, differentiability of functions of two or more variables, partial differentiation, directional derivatives and gradients, tangent planes, linear approximation, Taylor's theorem for functions of two variables, critical points, extreme value problems, implicit function theorem, Jacobians, multiple integrals, and change of variables.
Prerequisite(s): 1 of IPS*1510, MATH*1090, MATH*1210, MATH*2080
Location(s): Guelph
Course Code Component
Example
Description
Subject Area
BIOM
Outlines which faculty this course falls under
Course Level
4070
Course Level break down:
1000’s = first year
2000’s = second year
3000’s = third year
4000’s = fourth year
6000 & 7000 = graduate level (Master & PhD)
Course Title
Biomedical Histology
Semester Offered
Fall Only
This component may say:
Fall Only
Winter Only
Fall and Winter
Unspecified (sometimes it's offered in winter, sometimes in fall, and sometimes not at all)
Lecture Hours / Week
LEC:2
Outlines the number of lecture hours per week. Most lectures are held for a total of three hours a week
LEC Tues, Thur / 10:00am-11:20am: has 2 lectures a week, on Tues. & Thur.
LEC Mon, Wed, Fri / 12:30pm-1:20pm: has 3 lectures a week, on Mon, Wed, & Fri.
Lab Hours / Week
LAB:3
Outlines the number of lab hours per week. Note: not all courses have lab hours, in which case it will say LAB: 0. Labs are time for practicing what you learned during lectures. Seminars are small group lessons/discussions that are often led by student Teaching Assistants.
Credits
[0.5]
Most courses are worth 0.5 credits, but some are 0.75, 1.0, or 1.25 credits. The max. credits students can take is 2.75. You must obtain signed permission from a U of G Program Counsellor to take more than 2.75 credits (note: taking more than 2.5 credits is not recommended)
In Canada, it is important for students to attend all or most of the lectures, laboratories, and seminar times to succeed in the course.
Prerequisites are courses that must be completed before registering for this course to ensure students have the required background knowledge needed to understand the material and do well in the course. Prerequisites are listed on WebAdvisor, and you can select courses to see a short description of topics that were covered. Please note:
You are required to make sure you have completed similar prerequisites courses from your home institution or have equivalent background knowledge
You are NOT required to prove that you meet each prerequisite (with some exceptions)
U of G is not responsible for academic problems that exchanges may encounter because they do not have appropriate prerequisites for a course
Before we can register you for your courses, graduate exchange students require approval from both the course instructor (professor) and the Graduate Coordinator for each course you select. Your Study Abroad Advisor will contact the course instructor and Graduate Coordinator on your behalf to seek the approvals.
Exchange students cannot register for courses in the following programs:
VETM – Veterinary Medicine
Master of Business Administration
Master of Hospitality and Tourism: note, that exchange students can take courses starting with TRMH pending department approval but are not able to take 6000 level (graduate) courses starting with HTM
Master of Leadership (LEAD)
Graduate exchange students cannot take the Psychology practicum courses PSYC 6471, 6472, 6473, 7991, 7992, 7993, and 8000
Data Science
Closed courses are full. You can still request enrolment in closed courses on the course selection survey as sometimes your Study Abroad Advisor is able to get permission from the academic departments to register students even if the class is full. If we can’t register you for the course, there are some other options available:
Many students change the courses they are registered for during the first week of classes and spaces often become available.
Once you arrive, you can ask the professor for special permission to be added to the class; the professor will have to sign a waiver form if they agree.
Graduate exchange students can take courses from any degree program (except for restricted programs) as long as they have the prerequisites for the course.
Some graduate exchange students choose to take a 3rd or 4th year level undergraduate course(s) at the University of Guelph. If you intend to take any undergraduate courses, it is advised that you also read the Undergraduate Exchange Course Selection Guide which contains more detailed information about undergraduate courses. However, if you want to take undergraduate course(s), CIP must still seek approval from the course instructor and Graduate Coordinator before we can register you for the course(s). And you should seek approval from your home university before requesting undergraduate courses.
Graduate exchange students wanting to engage in research during their period of study must identify a U of G professor who is willing to supervise their research. As the purpose of our exchange agreements is mainly for students to come and take courses at the University of Guelph, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to find a professor to supervise you for research. Most of our graduate programs have a webpage that lists the professors who teach in that department and what area of research they are engaged in. When you contact a professor(s) to ask if they would be willing to supervise you, it is important to indicate that you are coming on an exchange semester(s) and are not looking for a paid research position. Please note that it is not possible for graduate exchange student research to be supervised by a third-party such as a business or other off-campus entity.
Most course lectures at the University of Guelph are held for a total of three hours a week. Many graduate courses have one 3-hour lecture on the same day each week. However, some courses may have a shorter lecture period held several times a week. For example, a course listed on WebAdvisor as LEC Tues, Thur / 10:00AM-11:20AM, means that the lecture is twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There may be an additional time required for a laboratory component of a class which will be listed below the lecture times. In Canada, it is important for students to attend all or most of the lectures and laboratory times to succeed in the course.
The section number of the class is found after the course code. For example, for ANTH*6080*01 Anthropological Theory, *01 is the course section. Sometimes the section number changes if there are several different times when you can take the class, in which case, you must choose the section that fits your schedule best. However, most graduate courses only have one section time, listed as *01 or *0101.
If you need more detailed course outlines (syllabi) for specific courses, see the list of departmental course outline websites on this page. If you can’t find the course outline you are looking for there, try typing the course code in the search box at the top right hand corner of the U of G homepage and a link to the course outline may come up in the search results.
It is often not possible to take a practicum/placement course as an exchange student at U of G. These are often restricted to U of G students in specific programs.
Academic Integrity
Academic misconduct can come in many different forms. Issues of plagiarism, cheating on exams, copying another student’s work, or falsifying documents for example will not be tolerated. Understanding academic integrity and the academic code of ethics within the Canadian context will be key to your success at the University of Guelph. For more information regarding the academic code of ethics, please visit the Academic Integrity webpage. Such issues are taken seriously within higher education. Hence, you are encouraged to review the guidelines and understand the potential consequences that students may face if academic integrity is breached.
All graduate students are required to take the online course entitled UNIV 7100 Academic Integrity. This course will take approximately three hours to complete.
