Course Enrolment Information

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General course information

What is the difference between enrolment and registration? Registration speaks to your status as a student; to register, you pay fees. Enrolment has to do with your courses; to enrol, you add courses.

The academic year is divided into three sessions. For clarification, while the University and SGS use the term “session”, this is often interchangeable with “term” or “semester”:

• Fall (F) session (September to December)
• Winter (W) session (January to April)
• Summer (S) session (May to August)

• Course codes

  Graduate courses have course codes consisting of:

  • a prefix associated with the academic unit or program (three letters);
  • a four-digit course number; and
  • a suffix associated with the course weight (alpha character) measured in full-course equivalencies (FCEs) and is indicated using a Y or H suffix:
    • Y (full course): 1.0 FCE, normally taken over two sessions
    • H (half course): 0.5 FCE, normally taken over one session

• Course loads

  Maximum course loads for FIFSW students are as follows:

  • Full-time studies: 2.5 credits (FCE) in each of the Fall and Winter sessions; and 1.0 credits (FCE) in the Summer session
  • Part-time studies (for MSW Advanced Standing only): 1.5 credits (FCE) in each of the Fall and Winter sessions; and 1.0 credits (FCE) in the Summer session

  Both enrolled and waitlisted courses count toward your course load.  For example, if you are a full-time student and are already enrolled into 4 half-credit courses in one session you may only have 1 half-credit course on the waitlist during the same session.

  Overload (taking more than the maximum course load) requests are approved only for students who need the extra course in order to complete program requirements within the same session. Please contact the Registrar’s Office for those requests.

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• Course delivery mode

  Since the Fall 2024 session, FIFSW completed our transition to our programs being fully in-person (with the exception of the MSW ITR field). Completing this transition is in line with the University’s priority to be the site of excellent in-person educational experiences.

  In-person programming reflects lessons learned from the experience of, by necessity, delivering online learning during the public health crisis. We are moving forward with a clearer understanding of the importance of in-person engagement for quality of student experience.

  The Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency Field of Study will retain its hybrid design, as it was created with an in-person/online mix that supports the components of the program that take place in communities across the country and the world.

• Fees and registration

  Because the course of study in many graduate units is program/student specific and often cannot be described in terms of a specific number of courses, and because graduate education more often than not results from the sum of experience encountered during the program, School of Graduate Studies fees are assessed on a program basis rather than on the number of courses taken.

  Except for the MSW AS summer start students, graduate program fees are assessed for the Fall and Winter sessions only. Students who were registered in the previous Fall and Winter sessions will not have to pay an additional Summer session fee while completing degree requirements.

  Program fees are assessed based upon your program, attendance status (part-time vs. full-time) and legal status rather than number of courses enrolled. Note for students who finish the degree program requirements in less time than the defined program length, regardless of registration option, will be subject to a balance of degree (BOD) fee. The balance of degree fee is the minimum degree fee minus program fees already paid by the student. The balance of degree fee is assessed and appear on your ACORN account just prior to convocation after your degree recommendation has been made to SGS. More information can be found on our Student Finances page, or through the SGS Calendar.

  You will see your status for the Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 sessions as “invited to register” INVIT.  Once you paid your Minimum Payment to Register Amount as stated on your invoice (available mid-July) or requested a deferral on ACORN, that will change to “registered” REG.

  You will be able to add/drop courses through ACORN while at INVIT status.

  Summer Fees and Registration Status

  Graduate degree students who paid fees for the previous Fall or Winter session do not pay fees for the Summer session. You read that right! For students who are continuing on to the summer session, you may enroll in courses without extra fees.

  Also, your enrolment status (eg. full-time vs part-time) is set by your program attendance status. That means you can indicate that you are in full-time attendance if you are taking at least 1 course. Only the Advanced Standing option has a part-time option. You can verify your status on the Enrol & Manage screen of ACORN.

  This also means that enrolment in summer courses makes you eligible for Summer OSAP (or other government funding). Again, you may indicate full-time attendance on your OSAP application if your ACORN program attendance status also indicates full-time and you are enrolled in at least 1 course. For students who received OSAP for the 2024-25 year, the Summer OSAP Extension application will be available in March 2025. More OSAP information can be found on the University of Toronto Registrar’s website.

2025-26 enrolment dates

All times are in EST time zone.

• Summer 2025 session

  Date	Time	Event	System
  March 3	12:00 PM	Course enrolment info session
  March 7		Summer courses addable to enrolment cart	ACORN
  March 7	8:30 AM	Enrolment Accommodation and November graduate form opens	MS Forms
  March 17	10:00 AM	Enrolment Accommodation and November graduate form closes	MS Forms
  March 18	8:30 AM	Course enrolment opens; Courtesy Period with FoS restrictions	ACORN
  April 1	1:00 PM	Courtesy Period ends, Field of Study restrictions lifted	ACORN
  April 21		Summer classes begin

• Fall 2025 & Winter 2026 sessions

  Students should enrol in courses for both Fall and Winter sessions at the same time. However, the add/drop deadlines will be different for each session.

  Date	Time	Event	System
  May 21	12:00 PM	Course enrolment info session
  June 3		Enrolment Accommodation and December finishers form opens	MS Forms
  June 9		Enrolment Accommodation and December finishers form closes	MS Forms
  June 11	8:30 AM	Fall & Winter course enrolment opens; Courtesy Period with FoS restrictions	ACORN
  July 8	1:00 PM	Courtesy Period ends, Field of Study restrictions lifted	ACORN
  Aug-19	9:00 AM	OOF/Extra/Overload/Audit open – Fall courses	SGS Add / Drop Course(s) (PDF)
  Sep-08		Fall classes begin
  Dec-09	9:00 AM	OOF/Extra/Overload/Audit open – Winter courses	SGS Add / Drop Course(s) (PDF)

Course enrolment process

Students enrol in all courses through ACORN on a first come first served basis beginning June/July for Fall and Winter courses, and mid-March for Summer courses. These dates will be posted below.

While FIFSW attempts to offer elective courses and spaces to accommodate students’ academic requirements, space for elective courses is limited. Should courses be full, you may add yourself to the waitlist, also on a first-come-first-served basis. Students will be notified if a course is cancelled because of low enrolment. For advice in selecting courses contact your faculty advisor or Registrar, however, it is important to note that course instructors are unable to make changes to waitlists.

Changes to course enrolments can be made until the Add/Drop deadlines if space is available in the course.

• ACORN course enrolment system

  While there may be differing processes to begin the course enrolment process, depending on the program, all students will use ACORN to view, and make any adjustments to course enrolments.

  New students at U of T must enable your JOINid and have a valid UTORid and password to access ACORN. The T-card office has created an online process to facilitate activating your UTORid.

  The How-To page under the Course Enrolment heading provides written and video instructions, and tips, notably:

  • Add a course to the enrolment cart
  • Enrol in a course form the enrolment cart
  • Enrol in a course from search
  • Drop a course
  • Enrol on a waitlist from search

  Students will receive emails from the Registrars’ Office prior to each course enrolment period with reminders and instructions.

• Accommodation requests for ACORN enrolment

  Course Enrolment Accommodation Request form will open March 7th at 8:30am.

  The ACORN course enrolment system was designed with an equality of access consideration. However, we recognize that this could be a barrier for students with disabilities. For students who may not be able to enrol into courses at the beginning of their respective enrolment opening times on ACORN for accessibility, medical or other reasons may request for consideration.  These requests are considered in a similar manner as an Academic Consideration, and must be done by the deadlines stated above.

  Note that all those with an academic accommodation may not necessarily need this process for course enrolment. It is specifically for those who are unable to enrol into courses through the normal process on ACORN.

  Approved reasons and required documentation

  Reason	Documentation
  Accessibility	Current (or from the immediately preceding session) accommodation letter from Accessibility Services (can be for a course)
  Medical	Verification of Illness form
  Other	Not required

  Non-approved reasons

  • Travel
  • Work
  • Practicum
  • Other academic activity
  • No internet access

  For non-approved reasons, a solution would be for students to ask another person to enrol them by proxy.

  Remember, you can add courses to your cart prior to the enrolment opening time so that you can enrol in them without searching for them again on enrolment day. Visit the ACORN how-to pages for instructions to:

  • Add a course to the enrolment cart
  • Enrol in a course form the enrolment cart

  Accommodations Process

  To request an accommodation student must complete and submit the Course Enrolment Accommodation Request form, including uploading required documentation. This is an MS Office form, and requires your utoronto sign-in to validate access within University of Toronto. The Registrar will review the request and email the decision prior to ACORN enrolment opening date.

  Refer to the dates posted in the Enrolment Dates above as deadlines for request submissions are firm.  Should student miss the submission deadline, students will still be able to enroll into courses on their own via ACORN.

• Courtesy period

  The first few weeks of each enrolment period is known as the Courtesy Period.  During this time enrolment into courses required for Fields of Study will be restricted for students in the respective Fields.

  Following this period, the restrictions will be removed to allow for all FIFSW to enrol, pending space.

  Students who require only one more session to complete their program requirements will also be given priority access to elective courses. These students will be identified by the Registrar’s Office prior to each enrolment period, and be invited to submit the Course Enrolment Accommodation Request form.

• Waitlists

  Much care and planning are taken when creating our course/section offerings to ensure the correct amount of spaces are available for students to meet degree requirements, however, this may mean that students may not always get their first choice.  If a course section is full, you can add yourself to a waitlist if it is available. ACORN will automatically enrol you in the course if a space becomes available and you are next on the list.

  Instructors are unable to change waitlist order. Any questions should be directed to the Registrar’s Office rather than the instructor.

  Things to consider:

  • ACORN will inform you of your place on the waitlist for your enrolment category (not necessarily on the whole waitlist) and how many spaces are allotted for that course. Some courses have multiple waitlists due to multiple enrolment categories (x spaces for this group of students and y spaces for this group of students). You would only see where you are on the waitlist that applies to your category.
  • Full-time students can waitlist a maximum of 1.0 FCE per session. Part-time students can waitlist a maximum of 0.5 FCE for Fall and Winter, and 1.0 FCE for the Summer session.
  • Waitlisted courses count toward your total course load registration for that session. If you no longer want to take a course, be sure to remove yourself from the waitlist.
  • If you re-add yourself to the same waitlisted course, you will be placed at the end of the list.
  • Some courses have multiple sections. Enrolling in one section will prevent you from waitlisting for a different lecture section for the same course. Doing so will remove you from the original section.
  • Spaces that open up from students dropping the course are available on ACORN on a first-come, first-served basis until the last day to enrol in courses. At this point, the waitlist will be removed from that course.
  • Your position on the wait list will change only if other students ahead of you become auto-enrolled or remove themselves from the waitlist. Therefore one student cannot normally move ahead of another student on the wait list, and you cannot “swap” sections with another student.

• Timetable conflicts

  After enrolling into courses, you can view your timetable through ACORN.  However, ACORN does not take into consideration any scheduling conflicts (e.g. it will not drop any course activities on your behalf). It remains the student’s responsibility to resolve any conflicts.  For sessions where you will be enrolled into Practicum courses, you must also consider working hours. FIFSW have days designated for classes and practicum. If taking courses outside of FIFSW, you will need to consider your practicum days, as those take precedent. You may consider enrolling in alternative courses or sections if available.

• SWK1999H EDI Workshop

  For MSW AS and 2YR students who require this course, it will be added to your ACORN by the Registrar’s Office. This is a non-credit course that does not count toward course loads.

• MSW practicum courses

  All practicum courses are loaded by the Registrar’s Office (in consultation with the Practicum Office) so that you do not need to enrol through ACORN.

  SWK4702Y is included in the course load when taken in the Fall and/or Winter sessions.  MSW AS part-time students should contact the Practicum Office 2-3 months before you intend to start your practicum.

  The courses will be added to students’ schedules by the Registrar’s Office prior to respective enrolment periods.   Therefore, students will NOT need to add these courses to ACORN:

  • SWK4701H Practicum I: first-year students of the two-year MSW program for Winter session of the first year.
  • SWK4702Y Practicum: students in the advanced standing MSW programs and students in the second year of the two-year MSW program for the Fall and Winter sessions.
  • SWK4516H ITR Practicum I:first-year students of the MSW ITR field for Winter session of the first year.
  • SWK4703 MSW-ITR Practicum III: Students have the option to enrol from September – April or January – August of their second year. This will be discussed with ITR Program Coordinator, and loaded in August for Fall placements, and November for Winter placements.

  Except for the Summer session, Practicum courses count toward the course load affecting course enrolments through ACORN. For example, full-time MSW AS and 2YR upper year students will be able to enrol into a maximum 4 half credit courses for each of Fall and Winter; SWK4701H taken in the Winter session continues on into May of that year and does not count toward the Summer session load.  All course loads are determined to allow for program completion following the SGS calendar Program Length.

• Audit, Overload, and Extra courses

  FIFSW students may enrol in an Audit, Overload, Extra course provided:

  • there is space available, no wait list exists
  • the course is at the graduate level.
  • during the electives phase of their program, typically starting in the summer after their first year.
  • the student is in good academic standing, without any incomplete or failed courses within their current degree.
  • permission is obtained from the program director, and instructor for auditing (refer to the process below)

  Given that graduate fees are assessed as a program fee rather than course fees, there are no additional fees for Audit, Overload, or Extra courses provided degree requirements have not yet been met. There are no additional tuition fees for audit, overload, and/or extra courses provided they are completed during, or prior to, the student’s final required session of study.

  Auditing

  FIFSW students may audit graduate classes with the instructor’s permission as not all courses are suitable for auditing. Auditing permits attendance at classes only. No work will be evaluated, and it will not be noted on the transcript. Students are eligible to audit a maximum of one elective course per session.

  Students are not able to take for credit any courses that they have previously audited and must attend a minimum of 70% of all classes.

  Overload

  There may be reasons when a student may wish to enrol into more courses than the standard course loads. If such additional courses are part of the degree requirements, they are known as “overload”. Students are permitted to overload a maximum of one course per session (take more than the regular course load per session) if all the provisions are met as outlined above.

  Overloading involves increased workload. It is important to manage your course load appropriately, especially during the Summer sessions.  Given the shortened time period of the Summer session, this would be equivalent to taking double the courses of a regular session (such as Fall or Winter).

  By enrolling in the Overload course, understand that you are doing so at your own risk and are fully aware that special considerations are not provided due to heavy workload. You will continue to be responsible for observing the academic deadlines for dropping courses.

  As per SGS policy, if an overload course accelerates the completion of your program requirements, you will be put forward for graduation immediately following the session in which those requirements have been met; registration in any further sessions will not be permitted.

  Consider the following implications of early program completion:

  • You will be unable to register and enrol into courses for any future sessions.  For example, if you finish all your degree requirements in the Summer session, you will be unable to take further courses in the following Fall session.
  • School of Graduate Studies program fees are assessed on a program basis rather than on the number of courses taken. The minimum degree fee is the academic fee associated with the program length for each graduate master’s program and represents the minimum amount of academic fees that every student, regardless of registration option or status, must pay upon completion of the program prior to graduation. Students who have not paid the minimum degree fee for their program will be required to pay the outstanding balance known as Balance of Degree Fee (BOD).  More information about these fees regulations can be found on the SGS Calendar.
  • OSAP and other student loans: future instalments and repayment dates will be affected as they are tied to your registration status.
  • Access to U of T and FIFSW resources: these will be adjusted to reflect your registration status.
  • Health insurance coverage: coverage will end for those without registration.
  • Study permits and visa: for international students there may be implications for these documents. Students should refer to CIE for guidance.

  Extra courses 

  If students wish to take courses in addition to the degree requirements, these courses are known as “extra”. During the electives phase of the program, students are permitted to take one extra course per degree (exceeding the number of elective courses required for their degree).

  Extra courses:

  • appear on a student’s academic record with a final course mark and are noted as “EXT”.
  • are subject to the same regulations as courses required for the degree (i.e. withdrawal deadlines, failure (FZ), etc.).
  • See section 6.2.6 Extra Courses Not Required for the Degree on the School of Graduate Studies (SGS).
  • do not count towards degree requirements nor are they included in GPA calculation.
  • cannot be converted to credit courses (or vice versa) towards the student’s degree after the Add/Drop period has passed for the current session. Similarly, retroactive attendance status (credit/extra) for previous sessions cannot be made.
  • may be transferred to other graduate degrees, pending approval.
  • FIFSW students may take one extra course per degree.

  Process to request Audit/Overload/Extra course 

  Course enrolment priority is given to students who require such degree in order to graduate within the SGS calendar Program Length.. Audit/Overload/Extra courses require approval of the Program Director (and the instructor for Auditing), and as such may not be enrolled using ACORN. Rather, they are requested following this process.

  1. Complete the SGS Add / Drop Course(s) (PDF) Although there is not a field available on the form, indicate at the bottom that the add request is an Audit, Overload, or Extra.
     • For audit request only: complete the SGS Course Audit Request form (PDF), with permission (signature) of the instructor. If the instructor is not able to sign the form, an approval email forwarded to registrar.fifsw@utoronto.ca is acceptable.
  2. Submit the form to the SSR, who will obtain the Program Director’s approval as Chair, there is no need for you to have this part of the form(s) signed.
  3. If approved, the SSR will forward to SGS for final approval and processing.

  Requests may be submitted at any time up to the deadline to add a course. However, all requests will be reviewed, in order of date received, only beginning the month before the relevant session.

• Reading and/or Research course

  Also known as an independent studies course, Reading and/or Research courses are typically taken within the Faculty. It may be possible to negotiate to take a graduate-level reading course elsewhere in the University of Toronto with the approvals of the Program Director, and the host department. If so, the reading course number will be assigned by the host department.

  This designation refers to a course which is intended to meet particular needs or interests unavailable in other graduate courses offered at the University. It may include either a student meeting individually with an instructor for independent study or can be offered as a special studies course on a specific topic not covered in other approved courses at the Faculty. We encourage student initiative in identifying the need for this type of course.

  Reading and Research courses are limited by faculty resources and time constraints of potential instructors. Students are requested to contact instructors directly. A reading course that is individually developed, with one or a few students within the Faculty should involve as much reading and written work as a regular course, and the frequency of meetings with the instructor should be consistent with other courses. The instructor must hold an appointment to the Graduate Faculty at Social Work. Course Instructors (including PhD students) and Sessional Instructors cannot supervise a directed reading course. A maximum of two 0.5 FCE courses can be accepted toward degree requirements.

  Students enrol by:

  1. Completing an SGS Request for Reading and/or Research Course form (PDF)
  2. Complete an SGS Add / Drop Course(s) (PDF) adding the Directed Reading course code on form:

  • MSW: SWK4801H Special Studies 1 or SWK4802H Special Studies 2
  • PhD: SWK6501H Special Studies 1 or SWK6502H Special Studies 2

  3. Include with the forms the following supporting materials:

  • Course description
  • Course objectives
  • Description of assignments
  • Course schedule
  • Reading list

  4. Submit the completed forms with instructor and Program Director signatures and supporting materials to the FIFSW Registrar before the SGS deadline to add courses in a session.

• Courses outside FIFSW

  Adding Graduate Courses Offered in Other U of T Departments

  Students are permitted to take elective courses in other graduate departments with the approval of your Program Director and with permission from the course instructor and host department.

  This process is also for PhD Students seeking to take an MSW course.

  1. Complete the SGS Add / Drop Course(s) (PDF) form.
  2. Obtain signatures on the form from the course instructor, and from the FIFSW Program Director.
  3. The completed form is submitted to host department for processing to your academic record after all signatures have been obtained.

  Note: Students who are graduating at the next convocation must inform the instructor from the outside department that a grade needs to be reported by the SGS deadline for graduating students. Refer to the SGS sessional dates.

  For students in other U of departments requesting to take FIFSW courses, please visit your home department for instructions.  Requests to take FIFSW course will be reviewed, in order of date received, only beginning two weeks after the final date of the Courtesy Enrolment Period of the relevant session.

  Adding Courses Offered in Other Ontario Universities

  The procedure for University of Toronto Graduate Students outlined by the School of Graduate Studies (SGS):

  1. Complete the Ontario Visiting Graduate Student Agreement form (OVGS). Submit the form with the syllabus from the host university to the Program Director for approval.

  2. SGS seeks approval from the host university.

  3. Notice (either approval or not) is given to SGS.

  4. If approved, SGS processes the enrolment and notifies the FIFSW/home department and the student.

• Add/Drop deadlines

  You can change courses through ACORN  until the Add and Drop deadlines if space is available in the course. These dates change annually and can be found on the SGS sessional dates page.

  Compressed/Modular Courses: Courses which have variations in timing have add and drop dates that can differ from the sessional dates, and are set on a course by course basis. For these courses the add/drop dates are individual and based on the following SGS principles:

  • Add deadline: no more than 15% of the course has been completed
  • Drop deadline: no more than 50% of the course has been completed

  E.g., for a 1-week (5 day) compressed course, the add date should be no later than the second day of classes and the drop deadline should be no later than the third day of classes.  If you cannot use ACORN to drop a compressed course, submit a course drop form.

  Dropping courses may have implications for your progress in the program.

  Should you require withdrawing from a course after the deadline date, see the Late Withdrawal After the Drop Date (LWD) section below.

  After the first week of classes of each session, MSW Two-Year students in the first year of study will remain in their current course sections.

  It is important that students attend the course and sections for which they are enrolled into on ACORN.  Attending alternate classes will affect your academic record.

• Late withdrawal after the drop date (LWD)

  The FIFSW with the School of Graduate Studies has a mechanism to assist students to remedy situations where personal or other circumstances mean they are irretrievably behind in a course. Students who have fallen behind with assignments in one or more of courses can contact their Program Director to discuss a Late Withdrawal After the Drop Date (LWD) from the course.

  Withdrawals approved under this procedure will be noted on the transcript with LWD. This course status will have no effect on the Grade Point Average (GPA) or other elements of the academic record.

  Students seeking to avail themselves of this remedy will be expected to work with their Program Director to analyze what led to their situation, to discuss what steps they can take to prevent it from happening again, and to learn from their experiences.

  Note that the option for Late Withdrawal is not available if an allegation of academic misconduct is under investigation. If LWD was previously granted in the course, it will be revoked and the percentage grade will stand as the course grade.