Academic Affairs

Establishing, Enforcing, and Waiving Prerequisites

Effective: July 23, 2009
Last Updated: July 23, 2009

Policy Owner: Academic Affairs

Procedure/Annotations:  Course proposals should indicate whether a prerequisite is enforced, printed in the class schedule, or both.  Prerequisites are enforced by the registration system at the point of registration; students will not be able to register unless the prerequisite course is on the student academic record.  Note:  transfer credit is not included on the academic record that feeds into the registration system.  Students who completed the prerequisite from a transfer institution will not be able to register in a course that enforces the prerequisite without instructor of department permission.  

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1. Departments and colleges should be selective in determining prerequisites for courses. Prerequisites should not be set for a course except in progressive, sequence courses or where departments can clearly demonstrate that a student will not be able to complete the course successfully without first completing the prerequisite course work.

2. Where prerequisites have been set, catalogs and course materials must list them and advise students to take only those courses for which the prerequisites have been met.  

3. Where prerequisites have been set, instructors may require that any student who has not taken the specified prerequisites for the course must withdraw. Instructors may, however, grant permission, on an individual basis, for a student to take a course without having taken the prerequisite(s