Students may begin requesting Fall 2024 session Graduate Department of Public Health Science (GDPHS) courses on August 7, 2024. The Winter 2025 course enrolment period for GDPHS courses begins on November 6, 2024. Each graduate department has its own enrolment dates; check relevant websites for information.

All students should enrol in their courses on ACORN before classed begin.

  • ACORN allows students to search for courses by code or keyword.
  • Some courses may require instructor’s approval. Check enrolment details on the timetable.
  • Adding course(s) to your Enrolment Cart does not automatically enrol you in the course(s) at the opening of the enrolment period.  You must login to ACORN, on or after the start of the enrolment period, to manually “Enrol” in the courses from your cart.

The Introduction to Public Health Science (CHL5004H-for Master’s students) is required for all incoming students, except MHSc Bioethics. Students are automatically be enrolled in this required course.

Courses from Outside the Department

All course requests for courses outside PHS must be approved by your Program Director. An email to the Graduate Office confirming the Program Director’s permission is normally sufficient. Not all graduate departments allow students to enrol in courses via ACORN. If your attempt to add a course from a department outside of PHS is unsuccessful, check with the host department about procedures.  A listing of Graduate units with contact details is available here. It is likely that a signed Add/Drop form will need to be submitted. If your request was accepted in ACORN, you have obtained a space in the course and your request will be approved by the GDPHS and there is no need to contact the Graduate Office when your course enrolments are in the request status. Students should check ACORN regularly for the status of their course request.

Wait Lists

Some courses have waiting lists. If the department offering the course has opted to allow a wait list and either your enrolment category (i.e.; MPH-EPI) or the course itself is full, you can choose to join the wait list.  The system will inform you of your place on the wait list and how many spaces are allotted for your category.  If sufficient space is opened in your enrolment category, you will automatically be placed in the course. It is your responsibility to check ACORN for your enrolment status. One to five days (depending on the graduate unit) before the course enrolment deadline, all wait lists will be suspended and normal enrolment procedures will apply.

Checking Course Status

Students are responsible for knowing the status of their course requests at all times.  This information can be obtained via ACORN. The following are the possible statuses:

REQ:  Course requested. To be resolved/approved (by GDPHS) by the enrollment deadline.
INT:   Course requested pending approval by the host department/instructor.
APP:  Request approved. Student is enrolled in course.
REF:  Request denied. Student is not enrolled and may not make another request for this course via the web during this session.
CAN:  Course cancelled (student withdrew from course before deadline).
WAIT: No room in the meeting section. Student has been placed on a wait list based on their category, and will be enrolled automatically if space comes available.
DWAIT: Student has been removed from or has cancelled their place on the wait list.

Cancelling or Withdrawing from Courses

Students may drop individual courses up to the drop deadline date. Before doing this, however, students are advised to consult with their program director or supervisor. Please note that dropping all your courses does not constitute a withdrawal from your program. To do so, you must complete a Program Withdrawal form. Dropping courses prior to deadlines or withdrawing from a program without academic penalty does not guarantee a fee refund.  Information on fee refunds is outlined on the Student Accounts website. Dropping courses after the SGS course drop deadline is only permitted under certain circumstances (to be decided on a case-by-case basis). Students should continue attending the course until a late withdrawal request has been approved by SGS.