Effective date: January 10, 2024
There are situations in which it might be desirable to share undergraduate course offerings with other institutions. For example, if the University of Waterloo (UW) and another institution are both regularly offering a similar small-enrolment course, alternating the institution offering instruction while allowing the other institution’s students to register might be a more efficient use of resources. Such an arrangement requires an agreement between the institutions, to ensure that the interests of students, employees, and the institutions are protected.
The purpose this template is to assist UW or Affiliated and Federated Institutions of Waterloo (AFIW) departments that are interested in pursuing these agreements with other Ontario universities. Below, we describe the main components of these agreements and issues to be considered.
General framework
- The agreements are made between institutions, not departments or other units, and therefore must be signed by individuals who have the authority to bind their institutions, following Procedure 25. Legal & Immigration Services should be consulted for each use of this template.
- These agreements are made for specific courses, not for programs.
- Courses can be shared by more than two institutions and the template may be expanded to more than two institutional partners.
- These agreements are meant primarily for online course offerings. They might be appropriate for blended courses, in which one institution provides the online component and both partners provide local tutorials, for example. However, this requires that each tutorial leaders be supervised locally, and this should be included in the agreement. For shared courses in which students from one institution are joining online and students from another are joining in-person, care should be taken to ensure that neither group of students is disadvantaged, for example by having less access to the instructor. These agreements are not intended for purely in-person course offerings.
- In order to preserve equity between the institutional partners, these agreements should be used only when the expected number of students is roughly evenly divided between institutions.
- The agreements refer to the Host institution and the Home institution. For a given offering of the shared course, the Host institution provides the instruction. In most cases, the role of Host and Home institutions will alternate regularly, as specified in the agreement.
- All partner institutions must have similar courses listed in their academic calendars, which they agree are equivalent and meet the appropriate program or other learning outcomes for students in each institution.
- Both the Host and the Home institutions will schedule a shared course in the term in which it is to be offered. Students will be registered in the course at their own institutions. Students will be provided online access to lectures and other materials provided by the Host institution.
- On conclusion of the course, the course grades will be transmitted from the Host institution to the students’ Home institution(s).
Responsibilities of the Host institution
The Host institution will be responsible for the following:
- Provide and supervise a course instructor.
- Provide and supervise local Teaching Assistants if required (as specified in the agreement).
- Schedule the course for the appropriate term, delivery mode and time.
- Provide access to the course through the institution’s Learning Management System and other learning systems and provide technical support for students from the Home institution(s).
- Provide online course materials (e.g., course outline, lecture notes, readings, access to online materials, etc.) to the students from both institutions.
- Ensure that course materials are appropriately accessible, complying with applicable legislation.
- Provide students from all institutions a course outline or syllabus that clearly identifies the policies that are applicable to them regarding academic integrity, accessibility and academic accommodations, absences and illness, and grievances.
- Provide student grades to the Home institution(s) at the end of the term (securely, in appropriate format).
- Co-ordinate student enrolment and course scheduling with the Home institution(s).
- Work with the students’ Home (non-host) institution in the implementation of the student-related policies (e.g., absences related to illness, academic integrity, petitions and grievances, etc.).
- Provide accommodations to all students enrolled in the Course in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code.
Responsibilities of the Home institution
The Home institutions(s) will be responsible for the following:
- Assign a person responsible for the course offering (department chair or delegate). This person will be the local contact for the Home institution, and will be responsible for administering the course locally, including answering questions about enrolment, communicating with the instructor at the host institution, submitting grades, etc.
- Provide and supervise local Teaching Assistants, as required (and as specified in the agreement).
- Schedule the course for the appropriate term, delivery mode, and time.
- Provide a list of enrolled students to the Host institution in a timely manner so that they can be added to the host Learning Management System.
- Support local students who have questions regarding the course or enrolment.
- Submit student grades provided by the Host institution to the Registrar.
- Co-ordinate student registration and course scheduling with the Host institution.
- Communicate to Home institution students the policies that will apply to them.
- Collaborate with the Host institution in the implementation of student-related polices (e.g., absences related to illness, academic integrity, petitions and grievances, etc.) as necessary.
Application of policies and procedures related to instructors and students
The agreement will specify which institution’s policies apply to students and instructors. In general, policies will be applied as follows.
- Instructor issues (illness and human resources, term dates, holidays, complaints against an instructor, etc.) should be governed by the host institution's (the instructor's employer's) policies and collective agreements.
- Student issues (grade appeals, academic integrity issues, grievances, academic accommodations, ethical behaviour, absences related to illness, etc.) should follow the policies and procedures of the student's institution. Student course evaluations will be administered by the student's institution.
If a case arises that involves students from both Host and Home institution (e.g., an academic integrity case involving students at both institutions), or an instructor and a non-Host institution student, the Host and Home departments will consult with their faculty administration and will jointly determine an appropriate process.
Items to be considered and specified in the agreement
- What is the length of the agreement?
- What specific course(s) does it cover?
- What is the mechanism for rotation of Host universities?
- What happens if the designated Host university does not offer the course?
- Scheduling of the course(s)
- What is the delivery mode of the course (will the courses be scheduled as online only or blended)?
- Will there be in-person components/tutorials that need to be scheduled? Who at the Home institution(s) will supervise the tutorial leaders?
- What is the maximum number of students from each institution that can enrol in the course? What is the minimum for the course to be offered? What happens if one institution does not register its allotted number of students?
Procedure for initiating an agreement
University of Waterloo units that wish to initiate an agreement with another institution should confer with the potential partner unit and discuss this with their faculty deans. The following internal offices should be consulted before an agreement is finalized.
- Legal and Immigration Services (LIS)
- AccessAbility Services (AAS)
- Centre for Extended Learning (CEL)
- Institutional Analysis and Planning (IAP)
- Registrar’s Office (RO)
Once an agreement is drafted, using the template provided, it is the responsibility of the faculty dean or their delegate to approve a final agreement with the proposed partner institution. The final agreement is to be signed by the faculty dean and the chair of the unit offering the course(s). For courses offered by AFIW, agreements should be signed by the chair of the department offering the course, the AFIW VPAD and the dean (or delegate) of the UW faculty responsible for the course.