Registration FAQ

Please refer to the Registration Timeline for information about the dates of registration.

Engineering registration appointments are staggered throughout the registration period based on year level and cumulative average (or admissions average for new-to-program students). These appointments are centrally set, and we are unable to adjust registration appointments for students.

To view your registration appointment on Workday Student, select the Academics tab from the left-hand side menu. Under the Plan tab you can view your registration appointments. Please review Viewing your Registration Appointment page for more information.

Students will see two registration appointments, one for Winter term 1 and Winter term 2 as students register for these terms separately but at the same time.

Students are able to see the course schedule by viewing the UBC Course Schedule for basic information or via their Workday Student account.

Once you are logged in to your Workday Student account at myworkday.ubc.ca, click the “Academics” tab in the “Your Top Apps” menu on the right side of the page.

Once you have done this, click the “Registration & Courses” tab in the top menu. On the “Registration” menu to the very right, click the “Find Course Sections” link.

In the pop-up menu, pick the term you want to find course sections for. Select the academic term you are creating your schedule for. Remember for the winter session, you will need to create a term 1 and a term 2 schedule. Make sure you choose the Vancouver campus.

For example, if you are a student planning your schedule for the 2024/25 Winter Term 1 at the Vancouver Campus, select ‘2024-25 Winter Term 1 (UBC-V)’. Choose Undergraduate for the academic level.

Once the list of courses has loaded, you can use the search filters on the left to narrow your results. Click the box next to the filter you want to apply. Your search results will be automatically updated. 

Saved schedules are draft class timetables that you can create on Workday Student before you register to help you plan out your courses.

You can be prepared for registration by create multiple saved schedules containing individual course sections. Courses can fill up quickly during registration, and having multiple registration options can help you register successfully. You will need to create a separate saved schedule for Winter term 1 and Winter term 2.

Please refer to Creating a Saved Schedule and Viewing your Saved Schedule for more information on how to create and view a saved schedule in Workday Student.

If there are errors in your saved schedule, you will see a red or orange alert appear on the right-hand side of the page. This indicated registration issues, such as conflicts, and will prevent you from registering in your chosen courses. It is important to review your saved schedule for errors, below are the types of errors you may encounter when building your saved schedule.

Orange error alert:

• Course conflicts with another course in their Saved Schedule
• Student does not meet the eligibility requirements for the course or already received academic credit for a course section
• Missing a co-requisite course

Please review your saved schedules for errors prior to your registration period. For more information on alerts, please see Reviewing saved schedules alert. We recommend that you use the find course conflicts in your saved schedule before your registration appointment opens.

To make edits to your saved schedule see Editing your saved schedule for more information.

There are some common scenarios that create an error in your saved schedule that you may come across:

1. Your saved schedule will not identify any course conflict you may have with courses that you are already registered in. We recommend that you manually cross check your registration, so you aren’t prevented from registration in a course when your registration appointment opens.
2. If you are registering for a course in term 2, that has a prerequisite in term 1, an error will appear. This error is present to flag that you need to ensure you will be registering in the term 1 course first. When you register for your courses, the system will acknowledge that you have registered in the term 1 course and there will be no issue registering in the term 2 course. 
3. If you are registering for multiple versions of the same special topics course, you will not be able to include both versions in your saved schedule. However you will be able to register in both versions, when your registration appointment opens.

For other issues with saved scheduled, we recommend that you review the information on Troubleshooting your saved schedule.

You will only be able to register from your saved schedule once your registration appointment has opened. Please review the Registering in courses from a saved schedule tutorial page for help with registration in Workday Student.

Registering in two overlapping courses is called a Course Conflict. You will only be able to register yourself in one of the overlapping courses. To be registered in the other course, you must request a Course Conflict through EAS. You will be required to fill out a form and have it signed by the instructors of both courses before EAS is able to register you for the conflict. Most faculties and departments do not allow for course conflicts (Faculty of Commerce, Math Department)

Please note: First year students are not permitted to have course conflicts.

In Workday Student, you will be able to use the Swap function to change your course section if there are available seats in the course section you want, and you are eligible to register in it. The Swap function is only available to students during the add/drop period and can be found next to the registered course section under Current Classes tab in Workday Student. Please see the Swapping a course tutorial page for how to navigate this in Workday Student.

Do not drop your course and attempt to register in another section. If you drop a course, you will be unable to register into it again. You will need to register on a waitlist in this situation and are not guaranteed a seat in the course.

If the section you wish to swap into is blocked or you are unable to register in it, you should check the section comments for the course. These comments will often give information about how a department handles section registration. For non-engineering courses, you should also check the department’s website for information about registration. Many departments will have information about how they handle section switches (this may be a form, a person to email, or details about the department not allowing switches).

If it is an engineering course, you are an incoming First Year student, or you were unable to find information from the options above, you will need to request a section switch by contacting EAS. Please be aware the section switches are only granted for extenuating circumstances, and not all section switch requests will be accommodated.

Valid reasons for a section switch request:

• Varsity athletic commitments – You are on a UBC Varsity athletic team and your timetable conflicts with practice times (please include your Varsity sport when contacting EAS)
• Medical commitments – regularly scheduled medical commitments (appointments, etc.)
• Extenuating circumstances
• In rare circumstances, highly unbalanced timetables may be a valid reason for a section switch
  • Unbalanced timetable is defined as an uneven credit load between term 1 and term 2 (ie. 15 credits taken in term 1 and 22 credits taken in term 2)

Supporting documentation may be required when requesting a section switch.

Invalid reasons for a section switch request:

• Instructor preferences
• Employment commitments
• Wanting to be in the same section as a friend
• Time of day preferences

Generally, a waitlist is used when all the seats are full in a course. Please refer to the Checking a course waitlist status and capacity tutorial page for more information on what a waitlist is. If you have registered on a waitlist, you will then be moved into the course section as seats become available. Each department has its own priority guidelines for who will be moved off the waitlist first – usually having to do with specialization, year level, and registration date onto the waitlist. For this reason, it is difficult (if not impossible) to tell a student what “place” they are on a waitlist. 

For some waitlists, students might be required to take action. Students may be notified if a seat becomes available in the course and will have 24 hours to either accept or decline the seat in the course section. Please review the registering in a course from the waitlist tutorial for more information. Students will remain on the waitlist if they decline the seat unless they choose to remove themselves from the waitlist.

A waitlist does not guarantee a seat in a course. Seats in the course will only be given to students if the seat limit is increased, or a seat becomes available due to a student dropping the course. 

Not all courses will offer waitlists. If the course you are wishing to register for is closed and does not offer a waitlist, you will need to self-monitor the course and register when a seat becomes available. 

EAS only manages course waitlists for APSC, CHEM 154 and PHYS 157,158,159 and 170 only. Waitlist clearing for these courses usually begins after the registration period, in July.

For questions about waitlists for courses not listed above, please consult the course’s department website (i.e. the Math Department for MATH courses, the Journalism Department for WRDS 150B, etc.). Please note that other departments may use their waitlist differently from APSC courses.

In Workday Student, you will be able to add yourself to the waitlist of an individual course section or to your saved schedule. Please review the Adding yourself to the waitlist for an individual course section and Adding a course waitlist to your saved schedule tutorial pages for more information.

UBC has an official period where you can add or drop your registration for individuals courses. The deadline to do this will vary depending on the term and duration of your course, and are listed under the “Withdrawal Dates” on the UBC course schedule or via their Workday Student account in the Academics tab. These deadlines are set by the student registration system, and we expect you to add or drop your courses well in advance of the deadline date and time. During busy periods, the system is in high demand and needs time to process a request, so it may take longer than usual for the registration change to occur. We strongly recommend that you complete your registration change well in advance of the final deadline time to avoid any registration issues. We will be unable to change your registration if you have forgotten, or left your registration change to the last minute. 

If you are a first year and are trying to change your registration you may have received credit for, please follow the instructions under the “How do I drop courses I have transfer credit for?” section.

For all First Year registration issues, please contact EAS.

For upper year registration issues, please contact your program advisor.

For non-engineering course registration issues, please contact the overseeing department of that course (Math Department for MATH courses, Psychology department for PSYC, etc.).

An engineering timetable is a planned course schedule that contains most of your first-year courses in a set timetable. All first years will be registered in an engineering timetable before registration opens. It will include your Applied Science, Math, Chemistry and Physics courses. You may also be required to self-register for additional individual courses to complete your registration.

A temporary timetable is a first-year engineering schedule that has no meeting times or locations. We are continually working behind the scenes to create your timetable, and we will email to let you know when we have registered you. You are guaranteed an engineering timetable before you start in September.

You will be registered in an engineering timetable before registration opens. To self-register in additional courses, please review the Registering in courses from a saved schedule and Registering for individual course sections pages with tutorials for how to register in Workday Student.

As a high school student entering first-year Engineering, we will register you in the majority of the courses in the engineering first-year program. You will be unable to choose your course schedule or request specific instructors.

In addition to your first-year engineering schedule, you will also need to self-register in the remaining courses to complete your timetable. You will need to self-register in any section of WRDS 150B or an acceptable equivalent English/ Communication course, such as ENGL 100, 110, 111 or 112. You will also need to register in 3 credits of a Humanities and Social Science elective.

Creating an engineering timetable is complex, as we have to ensure the courses fit together, that they are sequenced correctly so you are eligible to take courses in term 2, which may have a term 1 prerequisite, and ensure all our first-year students can register in an engineering timetable.  

We are only able to accommodate section switch in exceptional circumstances, which are listed in the section switch request section on our website.

We recommend that you do not drop any of your core engineering courses, and choose a WRDS or H/SS course which fits the course schedule you have been allocated. If you drop a course, you will be unable to register for it again. Students will need to register on a waitlist in this situation.

You will be registered in the majority of your core engineering courses prior to your registration opening. This will help you choose a section of WRDS 150B or equivalent, and a Humanities and Social Science elective that will fit in your engineering timetable.

• Broadly speaking, a Humanities course is about the study of human culture – the history, art, literature, music, etc. that define groups of people.  Social Science is the study of society, with the main disciplines in social science being culture/social anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, and economics. 
• You can find the guidelines for H/SS and examples of approved courses chart on the Humanities and Social Science Elective page. Advanced credit eligibility is also listed in this chart.  
• A maximum of 3 credits in a language course can be used towards the humanities and social sciences requirement.

Please review the tutorials on Course Registration to help prepare for registration in Workday Student.

Most engineering students will choose to take an introductory 100-level Arts course for their Humanities/Social Science requirement. Common course examples would be PSYC 101 or 102, ECON 101 or 102, LING 100 or 101, etc. You should consider that upper level (300+) Arts courses often require heavy reading requirements and academic writing, which are rarely suitable for first year students.

You may also choose to do a 3-credit language course to fulfill this requirement.

If you are hoping to pursue a minor, you may also consider taking a course that can be used towards this.

Please refer to the Upper Year Registration page.

If the course for your program is full, please either register on the waitlist or contact your program advisor.

For upper year course planning, please contact your program advisor.

There are no standard timetables (STT) in Workday Student for you to register in. A STTM is visualizer tool that can help you create a conflict-free schedule for an easier registration. They will include the courses listed in your academic calendar with the exception of electives. Please see the UBC Course Schedule for STTMs specific to your program.

How you register in your courses depends on your program, and what courses you need to register in. We recommend that you refer to the registration guides or check lists provided by your program to guide your registration.

Visit Transfer Credits to learn more.

Please refer to the First Year Registration > How do I apply my AP, IB, or A-Level credits to the first year requirements? section for more information about advanced credits.

Please refer to the transfer credit page for more information about all transfer credits.

If you have transfer credits that will cover courses in your timetable, please see the “Dropping Courses” question for instructions on how to drop the courses you do not want to take.

If you have applied for transfer credits, and are still waiting for confirmation that they have been approved. We recommend that you register in the course the transfer credits cover and drop the course once they have been approved. For a tutorial on how to drop courses in Workday Student, please review Dropping a course.

The program requirements in your Academic Progress Report (APR) will be accurate, but if you have transfer credit it may not be applying to your record yet. We will be updating your APR over the coming months. 

If you are a PBME student, your APR will not show your BMEG courses in term 2, however you will be registered in a PBME timetable, and your APR will be updated to show how you meet the first-year requirements.