Confirming details for fall term courses and research

This message was originally sent to current graduate students by Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor.

• We are confirming detailed plans for fall term for every faculty.
• Most courses will happen online with select labs and other activities available in person.
• We anticipate being able to restart on-campus research activities throughout the summer.
• We are sharing plans on the COVID-19 Information website.

I know you may still have questions about what fall term will look like. With change happening so quickly, I want to share more detail about the coming months and the fall term so you can plan for September with confidence.

As of today, you can view details of every faculty’s plan for the fall term on our website.

While a lot of our courses will be available to you online, many of you will want to come to Waterloo in the fall. We want you to know that we are putting steps in place to keep you safe when you are on our campus including detailed physical distancing plans for classrooms, labs and other shared spaces.

We anticipate being able to restart on-campus research activities, including in-person research, throughout the summer, depending on the directives we receive from public health. We aim to offer as much on-campus research as is possible for fall 2020. You can expect more information on what access to labs and research spaces to be shared in the coming week.

We’ll also be making some places like libraries, study spaces and other spots on campus available so you can live and learn here in Waterloo. You can be sure that our academic and personal supports for graduate students such as the Writing and Communications Centre or Campus Wellness remain available to you both on campus and remotely.

In the meantime, you can explore your on-campus graduate student housing options. Columbia Lake Village offers an expanded graduate student and family housing community of two- and four-bedroom townhouses, right on campus. Our residences will be fully operational. Learn more about how we’re changing to create a safe space for you.

In short: if you want or need to be in Waterloo, we will be here to support you and we will have measures in place to keep you safe.

Here’s a brief summary of our course plans by faculty, but please check your faculty’s page for details of your own courses and research activities.

If your course is delivered online, it may have real-time activities like online seminars and tutorials. If these elements are part of your course, we have asked our instructors to make sure that no students in the class are disadvantaged if they are unable to participate in real time.

• Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
  • We will deliver all course-based programs including lectures, labs and tutorials fully online.
• Faculty of Arts
  • We will deliver all courses remotely.
  • Most research-based programs will deliver all courses remotely.
  • We will deliver in person elements of courses that require physical access to laboratories (computer or other), direct clinical training, or access to studio space.
• Faculty of Engineering
  • We will deliver all courses in the following school/departments fully online:
    • Architecture
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Electrical and Computer Engineering
    • Management Sciences
  • The School of Architecture will provide access to M.Arch students who need the Fabrication Lab to initiate, develop and complete their graduate research (pending public health directives).
  • The Departments of Chemical Engineering and Systems Design Engineering are offering a small number of core graduate courses in person.
  • The Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business is offering all its MBET graduate courses in person, and the BE graduate courses online. 
  • The Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering has an extensive list of courses offered in person.
  • Some supervisor-led, small courses such as reading courses may be delivered in person for research students.
• Faculty of Environment
  • We will deliver all graduate programming fully online.
• Faculty of Mathematics
  • We will deliver all courses fully online except:
    • Some 700-level courses in the Department of Applied Math will be offered in person.
    • Some courses in Combinatorics and Optimization, Computer Science, Computational Mathematics, and Statistics with online lectures will be supported by in person tutorials.
    • Research topic courses in the Department of Pure Math will happen in person.
  • We are planning optional in person components for some courses.
• Faculty of Science
  • We will deliver all courses online with the following exceptions:
    • The Department of Biology will deliver at least three 600 level courses in person.
    • The Department of Chemistry will deliver three 700 level courses in person.
    • The Department of Earth and Environmental will deliver three 600 level courses in person.
    • The Department of Physics and Astronomy will offer one 700 level course in-person.

You can also visit the schedule of classes for graduate students for detailed information.

We want to do everything we can to make sure you get the best experience of Waterloo no matter where you are studying. If you have any questions about your courses, please reach out to your graduate officer.