Advising & Registration

Find details about advising and course registration to support your academic progress.


Arts Indigenous Student Advising (AISA)

If you are an Indigenous student in the Faculty Arts, Arts Indigenous Student Advising (AISA) is here to provide you with academic and cultural support.

Indigenous student advisors are available year-round to help with degree requirements, course planning, and finding your on-campus community.


Arts Academic Advising

Arts Academic Advising supports the academic success of the Faculty’s 14,000 undergraduate students.

From the point of admission, advising provides programs and services to help you make informed and thoughtful decisions about your academic path throughout your degree program.


Course registration

Major and minor requirements

Review your program’s requirements to help you prepare for course registration.

Waitlists

For the majority of Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS) courses, once a course is full, a waitlist will automatically be generated for those who wish to register for the course.
– Students will be moved from the waitlist into the main section of the course as seats open up, with priority given to FNIS and FNEL majors/minors who add themselves to the waitlist prior to August 1.
– If a seat becomes available in a course and a scheduling conflict is found, Workday will give the student 24 hours to drop the other course before moving onto the next student on the waitlist.
– If you drop the waitlist and re-register, you will be placed at the bottom of the list.
– Exceptions include FNEL 101 and FNEL 482, which require an application.

Waitlists for CIS courses will be in use until the first day of Term 1 (Imagine Day) or the first day of Term 2. On this date, the waitlists for CIS courses starting within the given term will close and all waitlisted students will be dropped. After this, students are responsible for monitoring their desired courses for open seats and registering themselves when spots become available.

Note: As FNIS and FNEL are small programs, we always prioritize required courses, but occasionally they may need to be offered every second year. If you are unable to register for a required course and are concerned about your academic progress or graduation timeline, please contact cis.advising@ubc.ca as soon as possible.


Graduate-level courses

Since FNEL and FNIS are undergraduate programs, the main sections of our courses are only for undergraduate students.

However, we may offer a limited number of seats in FNIS 501 or select FNEL courses to eligible graduate students.

Enrolling in a graduate-level course

If you are interested in taking our courses as a graduate student, please email cis.program@ubc.ca with the following information by June 20th, 2025 :

  • Reason you are interested in taking this course
  • How this course relates to your graduate research
  • Courses or work experience with Indigenous content
  • Your student number

Please note that taking a graduate-level course requires instructor approval and registration is not guaranteed. We’ll be in touch with you after your request has been reviewed.


Special topics and condensed courses

Special topics and language courses

FNIS and FNEL offer special topics and language courses on a rotating basis, depending on faculty availability.

Condensed courses

CIS occasionally offers condensed courses, which are intensive courses that pack a full curriculum into 1-to-3 weeks.

These courses are created to allow students with community, family, and work commitments to take credit courses while still maintaining their other responsibilities. You can find the course dates in Workday Student.

Note: The add/drop deadlines for these courses differ from the regular sessions.


Course delivery formats

Most courses within CIS are offered in-person. If there are any changes to the delivery format, we’ll notify students as soon as possible.

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