How to choose and register for electives?

Anastasiia Kinash, Ph.D., Head of the Department of Information Technologies and Innovations:

Elective courses are part of the student’s educational program, which, like required courses, is mandatory. Admission to the Bachelor’s (Master’s) Qualification Work defence and completion of the program is possible only upon successful completion of all elements of the program, including electives.

Elective courses are indicated in the student’s individual curriculum. If the student has already taken electives, they are listed in the table with the grade obtained (passing grades are highlighted in green, failed courses in red). The number of elective courses that the student still has to take is determined by the courses that have not yet been taken (“Elective discipline”) and electives that the student has not passed (as an example, in the Figure 1, these are Introduction to Programming and Principles of Entrepreneurship).

The peculiarity of elective courses is that the student himself/herself chooses which courses to take from the list provided by the dean’s office in each semester. The full list of electives is posted on the university website and is constantly updated:

• Bachelor’s
• Master’s

The list of available elective courses in the current semester is provided by the dean’s office in the instructions for course registration for each specialization separately for the year of study (the Figure 2 below shows the list of courses for the fourth year of study in the International Business specialization. The first three courses are required courses, the rest are a list of available elective courses).

From the list of electives, the student chooses courses based on his/her own preferences and interests. However, these courses must meet certain criteria:

• The optimal number of courses per semester that a student takes for the first time is 5. That is, if a student takes 3 required courses this semester (according to the Figure 2), then it is recommended to take 2 electives. Note! This is true only for courses that the student takes for the first time.
• The number of selected elective courses that will be included in the academic transcript cannot exceed the number of elective courses that the student has left to complete (in the Figure 3, there are six such courses (highlighted in yellow) – empty and not passed). The student can choose more courses from the list at his/her own request, but they will be considered as additional (they will not be included in the academic transcript and must be paid for additionally according to the contract).

• If the student successfully completed a specific elective course earlier, it is not possible to take it again to cover another elective. That is, if a student takes an already successfully completed elective course for the second time, then it will be considered a retake. A higher grade will be awarded for completing this course. To cover an elective course, the student must choose a course that he/she has not taken before or has taken but not passed.

• A student can choose a course only if he/she has previously completed all its prerequisites. The table of prerequisites for the current semester is provided in the course registration instructions.

For example, from the list of courses in Figure 2, a student cannot choose Information Assurance and Systems Security, because its prerequisite Introduction to Programming is not passed (Figure 1).

• Courses and groups have a limited number of places. As soon as the group is filled, information about it is updated in the list of courses. For example, registration for five courses from the list of electives in Figure 2 is already closed. Therefore, the student should choose courses for which registration is still open.

By following these instructions, selecting electives and adding them to course registration will be successful.