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Scheduling of Courses Registration Guidelines and Class Size

Policy 

1. Course Scheduling

  1. Scheduling of courses for a semester must initially be made by the Program Director at least 3 months before the beginning of the subsequent semester.

  2.  The Program Director must prepare the schedule of courses in concurrence with the faculty members. 

  3. A University-level scheduling committee (chaired by the Registrar) shall meet to check the first draft of the schedule from all colleges, and resolve any problems related to conflicts in the course schedule.

  4. All changes including but not limited to course addition/deletion, section cancellation, classroom changes or class time changes etc. must come from the Program Director only.

  5. After the beginning of the semester, schedule amendments and necessary changes may take place after the add/drop week which is the first week of classes. All changes will be compiled in one file by the Program Director and sent to the Registrar on the Thursday of the add/drop week @ 12 noon. The registration team will update the faculty and student Portals. Final Changes should take place by the end of the advising week and before the 1st day of classes.  Changes after the 1st day of classes are not recommended. 

  6. Sections of undergraduate courses offered during regular semesters with less than 10 registered students will be canceled except the sections that have students who are expected to graduate in the same or the following regular semester, and where the course is not offered in the following regular semester.  Exceptions can be made by the VPAA. 

  7. Sections of graduate courses for MBA and LLM with less than 5 registered students will normally be canceled. Exceptions can be made by the VPAA.  

  8. For the PhD program, the minimum class size for the core courses is 5 and for the specialization courses is 3. Exceptions can be made by the VPAA.  

  9. The academic units need to provide an even distribution of courses in terms of days offered. 

  10.  The registration deadline for continuing students is the end of the add/drop week. For new students, it is the end of the second week of the semester. For continuing students only financial penalties apply for late registration. Undergraduate courses can be offered on any day from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm and the suggested timings are listed in Table 1.

  11.  Master and PhD courses can be offered on any day from 9:00 am till 10:00 pm.

  12. The academic units need to provide an even distribution of courses in terms of days offered. The department directors must balance the course distribution and not offer the majority of the courses during a certain time/day. For example, if the same course is offered in 3 sections, it should be scheduled with one section in the morning at 9 am, another section during the middle of the day, and a third section in the evening at 6 pm. If the course is offered twice, at least one of them must be scheduled in the evening and should be scheduled on different days.

  13. During the month of Ramadan, course lectures and lab times are reduced and announced before the Holy Month begins.

  14. To prepare the course schedule, the following timetable (Table 2) is recommended to streamline the process: 

    Table 2: Timetable for Schedule Preparation

    Semester Week

    Activity

    Week 6

    • The colleges shall determine the courses to be offered in the following semester/term and send the list to the Registration Department to compile all the courses in one file.

    Week 7

    • The scheduling committee shall meet to check the first draft of the schedule from all colleges and resolve any problems related to conflicts or contradictions in the class schedule.

    • The unit heads shall make the required amendments in consultation with the committee.

    Week 8

    • The scheduling committee shall meet again to approve the revised class schedule and compile all college schedules into one.

    Week 9

    • The registration department shall verify the schedule and ensure its consistency with the general rules.

    • The list of approved courses will be entered into CAMS, a copy will be sent to the University library for text book orders.

    Week 10

    • The Registration Department shall announce the schedule through CAMS for the students’ review to allow them to detect any conflicts that may delay their graduation and report them to the concerned college.

    • The committee shall resolve any conflicts in the class schedule.

    • The final class schedule shall be approved by the Program Directors.

    Week 11

    • The registration department shall finalize the schedule on CAMS and notify the students.

    • Program Directors shall notify the faculty members and students.

    • Schedule changes will not be accommodated at this point. Justified changes will be accommodated after the add/drop week.

  15. Enforcing the scheduling policy is the responsibility of the Registrar. 

  16. The Registrar must submit to the VPAA a summary outlining a brief report on the scheduling status during the drop/add week. 

  17. The Registrar will do a final audit of course schedules before they are released to ensure there are no conflicts.

2. Maximum Class Size

Class size depends on the course level and topic. Generally, the maximum class size should conform to the following guidelines for undergraduate:

  1. English and Pre-English: 30

  2. Math, Pre-Math and quantitative courses: 35 

  3. GUCR specialization i.e. critical and creative, communication: 35 

  4. Business, Engineering and IT supporting courses and Core courses: 35 

  5. Other General Education courses: 35

    Table 3: list of labs

    Name/Number

    Max Occupancy

    Comm. Lab 211

    28

    Comp Lab 202

    23

    Comp Lab 204

    12

    Comp Lab 206

    18

    Comp Lab 211

    28

    E Comp Lab 208

    12

    Network Lab 202

    18

    Network Lab 204

    20

    Elec Eng. Lab 212

    10

    Network Lab 203

    20

    Physics Lab 201

    20

    Physics Lab 202

    30



  6. Lab courses: according to Lab size, please see table 3

  7.  Graduate courses: 25 

  8. PhD courses: 20

Note: An increase of class size within 20% of the maximum class is considered acceptable. Instances where this might be applied include, but are not limited to, when there is a short waiting list for a class or when there are two sections and the second section does not meet the minimum requirement of students to run. 

 

3. Registration Scheduling 

  1. Registration will commence online through the student portal and/or faculty portal as per the schedule in Table 3. 

    Table 3: Registration Schedule

    Semester/Term

    Online Registration and Faculty Advising

    Fall + T1 (August/September)

    Immediately after the Spring break

    Spring + T2 (January)

    One week after the Midterm Exams. Mid November

    Summer 1 and 2 (May and July)

    Immediately after the Spring break

    MBA Term 3

    MBA Term 4

    First week of March

    Last week of May

    LLM Term 3

    LLM Term 4

    First week of March

    Last week of May

          Note: Table is subject to academic calendar dates.

  2. Advisors should be available during the advising and registration period.

  3. Registration shall give priority to students as per the schedule listed in Table 4. This is to organize the traffic near the registration deadline.

Table 4: Registration Schedule During the Beginning of the Semester

Day

Students

CH Eligibility

Day – 1

(Freshman students) + New Students

0 to 30CH

Day – 2

(Senior students) + New Students

99 to 129 CH

Day – 3

(Junior students) + New Students

66 to 96 CH

Day – 4

(Sophomore students) + New Students

33 to 63 CH

Online registration will re-open to all levels during the add/drop period.