Procedure for Substituting a course for a required program course
- Complete the approval procedure and receive approval before taking the substitute course.
- If the course substituted is from another academic institution, obtain the complete up to date course description. To permit evaluation of CEAB accreditation unit equivalency you should provide details including the total number of lecture hours, lab hours, tutorial hours and the course marking scheme, including whether or not the course has a final supervised examination.
- Download a substitution or designation of substitution form from the Applied Science site and complete it.
- Obtain an approval signature (or email) for the substituted course from the instructor of the course you want to substitute, (note this is sometimes not required if the substitution is a commonly requested course at Queen's).
- Take the completed signed form(s), including full course descriptions, to J. Brown in the Mech Main Office where it will be presented to the UG Chair for approval. The application(s) are then forwarded to the Faculty Office for the attention of the Academic Progress Chair (APC) for final approval.
- You will receive an email decision letter from the APC's assistant in the Faculty Office.
Substitutions from Outside Queen's
Similar courses from another institution can be substituted for courses required as part of your program. This is done on a case by case basis. Among commonly approved substitutions are:
- Genuine HSS courses from other universities. These can often be taken by correspondence and / or during the summer to free up space to make up technical elective courses or have a lighter load in third and fourth year.
- "Standard" courses like Thermodynamics I or Solid Mechanics I at other accredited engineering schools are often very similar to Queen's courses and can be substituted by students with good academic standing. These can often be taken during the summer to catch up, thus avoiding possible scheduling problems.
- Required Queen's program course groupings can be approved as substitutions for other courses to make it possible to take an academic exchange year at another university without disrupting your program too much. Make every effort to organize the whole package all at once to make sure everything is covered. If your plans change while you are on exchange, get approval for the program changes ASAP (email the Queen's course instructor of the course you are requesting substitution for) and email J. Brown all the details as soon as possible.
- For universities with different programs,the course content and work required may not directly correlate with the number of lecture hours. This is particularly true for some universities outside North America where more individual effort is required and fewer lectures are given. In those cases you may be able to make the case for a substitution based on the fraction of a year the course is equivalent to. (e.g. This course is one of five equally weighted courses making up the third year of a four year engineering program at university X, therefore I request a substitution to cover 2 of the 12 courses required for third year at Queen's.)
- Be sure to include a cheque payable to Queen's University for the administration fee if the course is at another institution, or pay in person at the Faculty Office by debit or charge.
Substituting One Queen's Course for Another
Below are lists of some of the common substitutions that have been approved by the Academic Progress Chair in the past. This is not a guarantee that they will be approved in the future, or in your particular case, as course content changes and individual circumstances vary. Some reasons why a substitution may be refused are:
- The required course is not available for you take. A required course may be considered unavailable if it is not offered in the term you are requesting, is full, or doesn't fit into your schedule.
- You have not yet attempted the required course.
- You have been required to complete the course as a condition of admission or re-admission.
If a substitution is granted, you must still meet the totals of all the credit requirements for your core MECH program, in each of the approved courses. For example, where students have taken ELEC 221 in their previous program instead of ELEC 210 and received substitution approval, the additional (.5) credits will have to be made up elsewhere in the students program to meet their program requirements.
Meeting the CEAB accreditation units requirement is seldom a problem for technical elective courses, but may require some careful course selection with core courses. Only on limited occasions are the unit shortages waived.
Previously Granted Substitutions (Note that not all of these courses may still be offered) |
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| MECH Course | Substitute Course | Comments |
| APSC 142 | CISC 101 | APSC 142 must be repeated if student is taking in the term when this course is offered. If requesting CISC 101, students can only take in the term that APSC 142 is not offered. Important Note: for this substitution only, students use a Designation of Substitution, NOT a Substitution |
| CIVL 220 | CIVL 230 | |
| ELEC 210 | ELEC 221 | Student must make up missing credit difference |
| MTHE 225 | MTHE 232 or MTHE 237 | Student must make up missing credit difference if applicable |
| MTHE 272 | CIVL 293 | |
| MECH 215 | ENPH 251 and ENPH 351 | |
| MECH 228 | ENPH 225 | |
| MECH 230 | ENPH 274 | |
| MECH 270 | MECH 271 and labs only from MECH 270 | Students do not register in MECH 270 when making up lab portion, instead they bring to the attention of the lab coordinator that they are lab-only students |
| MTHE 367 | STAT 267 | |