Douglas set summer registration dates via priority registration policy
By Atiba Nelson, Staff Reporter
For students wanting to take classes and surrender their vacations, Douglas College has released important dates for summer registration.
According to the Douglas College Dates and Deadlines webpage, 2020 summer semester registration begins March 10 and ends on March 27—and will occur via college priority.
As most students are assigned a registration day, college priority may be an unfamiliar term.
Approved by the Douglas College Education Council, college priority refers to Douglas College’s Priority Registration (Open Enrollment) Policy, policy number E.AA01.18.
The purpose of the college priority or priority registration is to “value individual responsibility and prize excellence,” according to the policy’s purpose section on the Douglas College educational policy website.
Grade point averages (GPAs) are used to order all Douglas students for registration—with a few exceptions.
A student’s GPA for ranking in priority registration is calculated and assessed to be in one of three categories. One category is all graded Douglas College courses completed. Another category is secondary-school grades from English 12 (or an equivalent course), another grade 12 provincially-examined course, and Principles of Mathematics 11 (or an equivalent course). The third category is grades achieved in nine credits of BC post-secondary school coursework.
Douglas then constructs its registration procedures to give high GPA-earners from Douglas College or elsewhere priority, with returning students trumping new students within the same GPA category.
The priority registration policy does have several exceptions. Douglas allows for mature students who have never taken classes at a post-secondary level, as well as mature students who have superior achievement in their life experiences to obtain a better registration date. The policy does not define the term “superior achievement.” However, mature students desiring to take advantage of this allowance must apply for special consideration. Their application will then be judged by the Registrar’s Office in consultation with the program area.
Additionally, Douglas can grant special priority access “to students in designated groups for whom early registration is institutionally desirable,” according to ‘Section D,’ subsection 1 of the Priority Registration policy.
Students, regardless of registration priority group, have until May 3 to drop a summer semester course and receive a full refund, as classes for the 2020 summer semester begin on Monday May 4.
