Requisites

Types of requisites

There are three different types of requisites that determine enrolment access to a course:

  1. Prerequisites: The requirement(s) that must be met in order to be eligible to enrol in a course. Note: Reserves are not the same thing as prerequisites: Reserves are used to slot students into class sections, prerequisites allow students in the course. Prerequisites may include:

    • passed course(s)

    • achieved a grade higher than passing in a specific course

    • achieved a certain average

    • registration in a specific program or plan

    • reached a certain academic level

    • completion of a specific milestone

  2. Corequisites: A course that must be taken at the same time, if it has not been taken in a prior term.

  3. Antirequisites: A condition preventing enrolment or credit in a course. The most common antirequisites are courses that have significant overlap.

See how to build course requisites in Kuali CM.

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About these form fields

  • Purpose: Provides the criteria for students to understand what is needed to enrol in to the course, or what conditions exist preventing their enrolment.
  • Do they appear in the academic calendar: Yes
  • Type of field: Rules
  • Constraints: See guidelines below for ordering requisites

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Guidance

  • It is recommended that retired courses and plans remain listed in requisites for five years post retirement, to allow a full cycle of students through the course. After five years, they can be removed editorially.
  • Specific topics of a course can be coded as requisites.
  • Some requisite criteria cannot be coded in Quest as an enrolment control, but will be listed in the Undergraduate Calendar; for example:
    • high school courses
    • audition required
    • placement test required
    • language fluency
    • knowledge or experience in something non-academic (e.g., Grade 8 level Royal Conservatory, music notation, first aid certification)
  • For cross-listed courses: requisites can be different for each offering.
  • Prerequisites:
    • 300-level and 400-level courses should have some type of prerequisite listed (even if it is just a minimum term level); based on their level, the courses should require some knowledge or university experience that 1A/1B students don't have, and a prerequisite is appropriate to ensure they don't enrol in the course.
    • Specific topics of a course can be coded.
  • Antirequisites:
    • Each individual course listed is an antirequisite (not a combination).
    • Courses do not need to list each other as antirequisites (allowing students to take both courses if taken in a particular order), but agreement/mutual listings is highly desirable.
    • Equivalent graduate-level courses should be listed as antirequisites of undergraduate courses only when there is a realistic possibility that undergraduate students would take the graduate-level course.
    • Antirequisites of former numbers will automatically be added to the course, for transparency and to prevent repeated enrolment.
    • Antirequisites of former cross-listed offerings that are retired, will automatically be added to the remaining cross-listed course(s), for transparency and to prevent repeated enrolment.

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Guidelines for building requisites in Kuali CM

  1. Some rules allow for the selection of courses in order to display the courses. These rules are reserved to list active University of Waterloo courses. Do not select courses in the following scenarios and instead use the Free Form text rule (with standard wording and formatting, see below):

    • To list graduate courses (linked graduate courses will produce an error in the published Undergraduate Studies Academic Calendar).
    • To list a retired course (once it is retired, if linked it will produce an error in the published academic calendar).
    • To list Wilfrid Laurier University courses (at this time, those part of the Courses database are for use in Plan requirements only).
  2. When using a rule that allows for the selection of courses, all courses must be listed in alpha-numeric order by Subject Code and number (e.g., ANTH100, CS100, ENGL210F; e.g., 1 of MATH117, MATH127, MATH137).
  3. When using a rule that allows for the selection of programs and plans, place the plans in alphabetical order (from what appears after the hyphen) based on the visible short-form CM code.
    • For those with multiple programs of the same name:
      • 3G > 4G > Honours
      • Certificate, Diploma, Minor, Option
  4.  When more than one course rule is needed, place the various rules, if applicable, in the following order:
    • List of courses that must be taken/not taken.
    • List of courses that must be within a choice (e.g., 1 of ..., 2 of..., 3 of..., etc).
    • Courses with a required grade (if a variety of grade percentages, place in descending order with the largest percentage first).
    • List of courses within a Free form text field.
  5. When more than one type of rule is needed, place the various rules in this order:
    • courses
    • cumulative plan averages
    • level
    • programs/plans of enrolment
    • milestones

Free Form Text rule formatting and standard wording

  • Use numbers to identify "# of".
  • Retired, Laurier, and graduate-level courses should be written with SUBJECT+NUMBER (no space between). For example "SI101R", "BUS111W".
  • Do not use punctuation at the end of a requisite.
  • Standard wording to use with Free Form Text rule:
    • Prerequisites:
      • Must have completed the following: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • Must have completed at least # of the following: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • Earned a minimum [name of major] average of #.0%
      • Enrolled in [list of programs/plans]
    • Corequisites:
      • Completed or concurrently enrolled in: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • Completed or concurrently enrolled in at least # of the following: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • The corequisite listed is only for students in [name of plan(s)]
    • Antirequisites:
      • If only retired courses: Not completed any of the following: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • If a combination of retired courses and Laurier courses: Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • If only Laurier courses: Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • If topics of active courses: Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • If topics of retired courses: Not completed any of the following: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • If graduate-level courses: Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in: [list of courses in alpha-numeric order]
      • If not open to all students in a faculty: Not open to students enrolled in Faculty of X programs

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