Prescriptions for Papers

The following pages contain a brief introduction to the subjects and papers offered by the University. Subjects are set out in alphabetical order. A brief description may be given of the content of each paper as well as equivalents and restrictions, prerequisites and corequisites, required book information, and the internal assessment/examination ratio. Students also receive a paper outline when classes start, which provides more detail about the content, reading and assessment requirements for each paper.

In addition to the papers listed, departments may offer 800 and 900 level papers for MPhil and PhD students. Prospective students are advised to consult the Postgraduate Studies Office and the Chairperson of the Department concerned for more information.

In the prescriptions, each paper is identified by an alpha-numeric code.

A prerequisite must be passed before a student may enrol in the paper for which the prerequisite is specified. For example, FREN231 French Language Intermediate 1 is a prerequisite for FREN232 French Language Intermediate 2. Students may not enrol in FREN232 until they have passed FREN231. (A paper for which a Restricted Pass (RP) has been awarded will not be accepted as meeting the prerequisite requirements for any other paper unless the Dean of the Faculty/School in which the other paper is offered approves otherwise.)

A corequisite must be taken in association with the paper for which the corequisite is specified. For example ENEL324 Optoelectronics is a corequisite for ENEL382 High Speed Communications. You may enrol in ENEL382 only if either you have already passed ENEL324 or are concurrently enrolled in it.

Equivalent papers are in effect the same papers, one of which was taught in the past with a different paper code. For example ACCT331 Management Accounting is equivalent to ACCT311 Management Accounting. Students who have completed ACCT311 may not receive credit for ACCT331.

Restricted papers share a significant amount of common content. Students may therefore receive credit for only one of the papers listed. For example JAPA101 Basic Japanese: Part A is a restriction for JAPA231 Japanese for Beginners 2: Part A. Restricted papers may not be used to satisfy prerequisite or corequisite requirements.

The required books which may be listed under some of the prescriptions are a conservative list only. Additional required books may be prescribed during the academic year. Lists of recommended reading are usually included in the paper outline provided by the department concerned.

The internal assessment/examination ratio is provided for all papers. The ratio indicates how much of the paper is internally assessed and how much is formally examined. The ratio 1:0 means a paper is fully internally assessed, while the ratio 1:1 shows that the assessment for the paper is evenly weighted between internal assessment and an examination. Examinations are scheduled in a formal examination period. All A semester papers which are not fully internally assessed will be examined at mid-year unless otherwise specified. Tests that form part of the internal assessment requirements may be held outside normal lecture hours.

Teaching activities for all undergraduate papers are listed in the Timetable. Teaching activities, including lectures, tutorials, laboratories and workshops, are scheduled to last 50 minutes and begin on the hour until (and including) 12 noon, and at 10 minutes past the hour from 1:10 p.m. This allows a lunch break of 20 minutes from 12:50 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. for students with continuous teaching activity commitments. Normal teaching hours are between 8.00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m.

A semester is a period for which students enrol in papers, attend classes and submit assessment items. The University of Waikato has two standard semesters (A and B), which each comprise normally 17 or 18 weeks, and a Summer School (S), which is an intensive semester, comprising 7 or 8 weeks. The semester period includes teaching as well as any study weeks, and an examination period. The exact duration of semesters in a particular year is defined by week numbers in the Teaching and Assessment Periods.

Some papers have start and end dates which differ from the standard semesters set out above. Papers which extend across both the A and B semesters are annotated as Y papers. Papers which are taught in non-standard periods have a C, D, or E etc. suffix.

The period for which a student is eligible for loans and/or allowances, is calculated on the basis of the exact start and end weeks of papers. Students are advised of the start and end dates of their papers in the relevant paper outlines.