Courses

You may not enrol in W and Q courses without first meeting SFU’s English-language competency and literacy entrance requirements, as well as SFU’s quantitative and analytical skills entrance requirements. You can meet these requirements in a variety of ways before or after enrolling at SFU. See Literacy Requirements and Quantitative Requirements for more information.

SFU NOW courses are scheduled to allow you to complete all of your WQB (writing, quantitative, and breadth) requirements, which you need to complete a bachelor’s degree. We label these courses with the letters W, Q and B on the SFU NOW courses list.

If you are completing a Bachelor of Arts (BA) at SFU, you must meet the following W, Q and B requirements:

Writing Requirements (W)


Courses with a W designation are designed to help you learn course content through intensive writing assignments. These courses will improve your writing abilities and overall communication skills.

Writing-designated courses have the letter W next to the title and after the course description.

To graduate from SFU, you must complete the following:

• One lower-division* W course (at least three credit hours)
• One upper-division* W course (at least three credit hours)

*Lower-division courses are first- and second-year courses (levels 100 and 200). Upper-division courses are third- and fourth-year courses (levels 300 and 400).

If you are starting a degree at SFU, you must complete your first W course within the first three terms of your degree program.

If you are admitted to SFU with transfer credits and have completed a transferable W course, you may enrol in an upper-division W course right away. If not, you should register in a lower-division W course as soon as possible after admission.

Quantitative Requirements (Q)


Courses with a Q designation will help you to develop quantitative (numerical, geometric) and formal (deductive, probabilistic) reasoning. They also improve your skills in practical problem solving, critical evaluation, and analysis.

Q courses are identified by the word “Quantitative” just after the course description.

To graduate from SFU, you must complete the following:

• Two Q courses, lower- or upper-division* (at least six credit hours)

*Lower-division courses are first- and second-year courses (levels 100 and 200). Upper-division courses are third- and fourth-year courses (levels 300 and 400).

If you are starting a degree at SFU, you must complete your first Q course within the first three terms of your degree program.

If you are admitted to SFU with transfer credits and have completed a transferable Q course, you may enrol in a Q course at SFU right away. If not, you should register in a lower-division Q course as soon as possible after admission.

Breadth Requirements (B)

Courses with a B designation will expose you to concepts and ideas from a range of disciplines and perspectives, and give you an opportunity to examine and assess your values, beliefs, and commitments.

B courses are identified by the label B-Hum (Breadth-Humanities), B-Soc (Breadth–Social Sciences) or B-Sci (Breadth-Science) just after the course description.

To graduate from SFU, you must complete at least 24 credits of B courses:

• Two courses labelled as B-Hum (six credit hours)
• Two courses labelled as B-Sci (six credit hours)
• Two courses labelled as B-Soc (six credit hours)
• Two additional courses outside of your major program (six credit hours). These additional courses may or may not be designated as breadth, and in most cases will fulfill the particular faculty or program breadth requirements.

 Please note that Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts students must complete 12 additional breadth credit hours rather than the normal university regulation of six additional breadth credit hours.

If you try to enrol in a course but do not have the necessary prerequisites, the enrolment system will block your request. As an adult, however, you may feel that your work or life experience has prepared you for a course. Sometimes students are permitted to enrol in courses without meeting the formal prerequisites. If you are interested in an SFU NOW course or any other SFU course, but you lack the prerequisites, please contact us.

While the SFU NOW office cannot decide who is eligible to enrol in courses, we can liaise with or direct you to the departmental faculty and staff who make these decisions. SFU departments want to ensure that students enrol in courses appropriate for their interests and backgrounds.

Another option available to you, is a course challenge.  Course challenge is a method by which a student may obtain credit for course material learned elsewhere (i.e. outside Simon Fraser University). A maximum of 60 units may be obtained by the combined mechanism of course challenge and transfer credit.

SFU NOW students are also eligible to enrol in any SFU course—for example, online or distance education courses. Visit SFU’s schedule of classes for the most up-to-date information.

Log in to the Student Information System (SIS) with your computing ID and password.

Your enrolment appointment time will appear in the Enrolment Dates box on the right side of the screen, or under Enrolment in the Self Service menu on the left side of the screen.

Log into your SFU email (connect.sfu.ca) often and read your emails. Notices from your professors, classes, and the university administration are sent only to your SFU email address.

To enrol (Add a Class) using SIS, click on “Academics” in your Student Center or “Enrollment” in the Self Service menu on the left side of the screen.

You may add or delete classes until the end of the first week. After you’ve added or deleted classes, always check My Class Schedule to confirm the changes you’ve made.

You may drop classes after enrolling in them, but you should be aware of the potential academic and/or financial penalties. See SFU’s deadlines for information about penalties.

Before making selections in the enrolment system, you may wish to view SFU’s helpful video tutorials on the Student Tutorials page. Look for “Add Classes,” “Drop Classes,” and “Swap Classes.”

If you run into any difficulties, feel free to contact the SFU NOW office for assistance. Help and resources for enrolment are also on SFU’s Enrolling Help page, which includes a link to live help on enrolment through instant messaging.