Exempted Courses Policy

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Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Policy on Exempting Students from Courses in the MSc SLP program

Normally, students in the MSc SLP program are required to take all of the courses offered in the program. However, students who feel that they have taken the equivalent of a particular course before entering the MSc SLP program may ask to be exempted from the MSc SLP course. If the exemption is granted, no credit would be given for the course, and, following Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR) policy, the department would petition FGSR for the student's program to be reduced by the number of course weights of the exempted course.

Requests for exemptions will be considered if:

  • The course taken previously was a 400-level course or higher (i.e., could be taken for credit by a graduate student);
  • Was taken within 3 years before entering the MSc SLP program;
  • The student attained a minimum grade of 2.7 on a 4-point scale, 6.5 on a 9-point scale; and
  • The request is made at least 4 weeks before the course is scheduled to begin.

The student will make the request directly to the instructor of the course in writing. The student will submit a course outline for the course taken previously. The instructor will examine the outline to determine if the course content is equivalent to the MSc SLP course content. If the instructor determines that the MSc SLP course content was not fully covered or that the content was not covered in sufficient depth, the request will be denied.

If the course is judged equivalent to the MSc SLP course, the instructor will provide the student with an examination to verify that the course content has been learned and retained by the student. The format and passing grade of the examination will be determined by the instructor and the exam will be given within the first week of class.