Glossary
Undergraduate Definitions
Antirequisite: A course which cannot be taken for credit before, after, or at the same time as the course which is listed.
Bachelor’s Degree: It is the first level of university degrees, for example, a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Business Administration or Bachelor of Science. It is also referred to as an undergraduate degree.
Breadth Requirements: Requirements to ensure that students are exposed to different disciplines within their degree. Please refer to “Degree Requirements”.
Corequisite: A course which is required to be taken concurrently with the course with which it is listed as Corequisite.
Cross-Listed Courses: Courses which may be credited towards more than one discipline. (e.g. ENGL 2206)
Cross-Coded Courses: Courses which may be listed under two different codes in two different disciplines. The courses in the two disciplines will be Antirequisites for one another. (e.g. ADMN 2606 and ECON 2126).
Credits: The academic weight assigned to a course.
Cumulative Averages: Cumulative averages are based on the calculation of all attempted and completed credits
Degree Framework: An identified set and sequence of courses, and/or units of study, research and practice within areas of disciplinary or interdisciplinary study, that must be completed in fulfillment of the requirements for the awarding of the degree.
Discipline: Refers to an area of study, or to the faculty who teach in that subject.
Electives: Courses taken outside of the program requirements, chosen by the student, and used to fulfill their overall degree requirements.
Honours Specialization: A program option comprised of 60 credits designated by a department/discipline. This option is only available in the Bachelor (Honours) degree.
Hours: The number of hours for a course, listed as the number of hours scheduled per week in the fall and/or winter terms. Three credit courses require a minimum of 36 hours in total and six-credit courses require a minimum of 72 hours in total.
Internship: An internship is an opportunity to integrate career related experience into an undergraduate education by participating in planned, supervised work.
Laboratory: The hours required in a course, typically in the sciences, for experimentation. This experimentation is normally held in a smaller “laboratory” setting and led by a professor or laboratory instructor.
Lecture: Typically the largest part of a course’s hours, usually led by a professor.
Major: A program option comprised of 36 credits designated by a department/discipline. This option is available in a Bachelor degree (Four-year) or a Bachelor degree (General). Majors are also available as part of a Double-Major option within a Bachelor (Honours) degree.
Mastery Course: A course that is entirely graded on the basis of a student’s grasp of a skill or skills. Students are graded on a pass/fail system and these courses are not counted when academic averages are computed for purposes of making academic standing decisions (e.g. CRJS 4346).
Minor: A Minor option is comprised of 18 credits by a department/discipline. A degree with a single Minor is not available.
Prerequisite: A course which is required to be successfully completed before the courses listed. This course ensures that students have the required background to complete the listed course successfully.
Program: A program refers to a specified grouping of courses within areas of disciplinary or interdisciplinary study (for example: Specialization in Biology) that must be completed as a partial requirement necessary to fulfill a degree.
Program Average: Program averages are based on the calculation of all attempted and completed credits used to fulfill program requirements.
Residency Requirements: Rules relating to the number and type of credits that must be taken with Nipissing to earn a Nipissing University degree.
Seminar: A course, or portion of a course, taught through small group discussion or instruction.
Service-Learning: An opportunity provided in a number of courses where students volunteer a set number of hours over the semester at a not-for-profit organization chosen to complement the course. Students use the skills and theory acquired in class, and apply that knowledge in a community-based setting.
Specialization: A program option comprised of 54 credits designated by a department/discipline. This option is only available in the Bachelor (Four-year) degree.
Studio: A studio session is a teaching period where students spend time in a learning environment that emphasizes student creative involvement with visual art media including, for instance, drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpting.
Tutorial: The small group discussion portion of a larger class, which may be led by a professor or by a tutorial assistant.
Undergraduate Degree: It is the first level of university degree otherwise known as a Bachelor’s degree (BA, BBA, BEd, BSc). The next level of university degrees are the graduate degrees which include the Master (MA, MBA, MEd, MSc) and the Doctoral degrees (PhD).
Upper Level Courses: Any level of course beyond the first year (1000) level.
For further details see “The Degree Framework” section.