Majors, minors and specializations

Specific program requirements are outlined for each degree offered by our department in the online undergraduate calendar. Students must complete at least 20 units (normally 40 courses of 0.5 units each), of which 10.5 units must be REC courses (21 REC courses); students with program requirements prior to 2021 must complete 10.0 units (20 REC courses).

Note that some REC courses are cross-listed with other subjects. If a student completes a course as the cross-listed subject instead of the REC subject, it can still count as a REC course toward their degree requirements and will be included in the major average (MAV) calculation.

Full-time status is defined as 1.5 units, unless otherwise indicated by AccessAbility Services.  Part-time is defined as 1.0 units or less.

There are several interdisciplinary minors offered by many departments across campus available to students in honours programs and sometimes general programs. Consisting of eight to ten courses (as defined by the calendar requirements for each), they allow you to tailor your degree for a specific field of study in addition to your major. You can view the available minors grouped by area of interest on the UWaterloo Undergraduate Programs webpage.

The department offers the Event Management Minor and the Tourism Minor 

You may apply for one of these tailored programs by completing a Plan Modification Form from the registrar's office and submitting it to the Undergraduate Advisor in BMH 2201 or by email to rec-advising@uwaterloo.ca.

In addition, students may choose to pursue a "Double Degree". 

• Recreation and Sport Business and Therapeutic Recreation, Four-Year Honours (Co-op or Regular)
• You should contact your academic advisor early in your studies if you wish to pursue a double degree. This provides opportunities to monitor progress toward completion of the combined degree requirements and ensure key required courses are not missed in sequence.

Joint Honours plans combine the degree requirements of two honours programs from different departments into one degree. It's like completing two degrees in one. For more information, see approved Joint Honours plans for students in Recreation and Leisure Studies.

You may be placed in the general program at any time following your first year if you are not eligible to continue in the honours program. You may continue in the general program to graduation, or meet the requirements to be eligible to return to the honours program. For more information, see Recreation and Leisure Studies, Four-Year General (Regular only).

The practice of counting a course toward two different academic plans is known as "double-counting". There is no limit within Recreation and Leisure Studies as to the number of courses that may be double counted. However, if students are completing a second honours plan (eg. Minor or joint degree), the rules of the other department sometimes specify a limit to the number of double counted courses allowed to meet degree requirements.  This should be confirmed with the department offering the second plan.