Academic calendar URL change

Publication date

Both the 2024-2025 Undergraduate Studies Academic Calendar and the Spring 2024 Graduate Studies Academic Calendar will be published on April 2, 2024.

New URLs

With the publication of the academic calendars from a new system comes new URLs.

  • Each academic calendar (undergraduate and graduate) will have a new URL.
  • Any links to either existing academic calendar on campus (websites, emails, documents, bookmarks, etc.) will need to be updated.
  • Similar to current state:
    • URLs to individual records (courses/plans) are not “friendly” but will continue to work year over year.
    • Links to courses or plans that have been retired/inactivated will no longer work.

What are the new URLs?

Updated March 19, 2024: The new URLs will be as follows:
  • Main landing page: https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-calendar/
  • Landing page directly to UG Calendar: https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-calendar/undergraduate-studies/catalog#
  • Landing page directly to Grad Calendar: https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-calendar/graduate-studies/catalog#

Preparing to update websites

WCMS 2.0 websites

Site manager can plan the work by running a body content search report using the following search terms:

  • ugradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca
  • ucalendar.uwaterloo.ca
  • uwaterloo.ca/graduate-studies-academic-calendar
  • uwaterloo.ca/gsac

WCMS 3.0 websites

The body content search report feature does not exist in WCMS 3.0; however, the project team is working with Information Systems & Technology to see if the newly purchased SiteImprove Tool can assist site leads. More details to come.

Recommended linking guidelines

  • See the Writing Style Guide's conventions for academic calendars [updated April 18, 2024].

  • If a direct link must be used, ensure the URL ends in one of the following ways, where “code” is normally a 9-10 alpha-numeric string (appears before a question mark when navigating to it):

    • Course: URL end: “/catalog#/courses/code”
      Example: AFM100: code = SjuWq4QY
    • Program or Plan: URL end: “/catalog#/programs/code”
      Example: Biology Minor: code = BJNr1J0Cs2
    • Regulation: URL end: “/catalog#/policies/code”
      Example: About Undergraduate Admissions: code = BkoG-HNVa
  • For undergraduate studies: We recommend linking to the main URL for the undergraduate academic calendar and letting the user search for the content using the tools available.
  • For graduate studies: Upon launch, all relevant winter 2024 Graduate Studies Academic Calendar links (URLs) will be redirected to the spring 2024 Calendar. Within the coming weeks, users are encouraged to replace the previous Calendar links with new links, using the linking guidelines above.