The information below is specific to Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science students. Use this information to plan your degree, enrol in courses and manage your progress towards graduation.
If you need help after reviewing the academic planning information or if you have a question that is not covered here, there are several ways to connect with an academic advisor.
In the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science you must complete 120 credits of non-duplicative coursework. You can complete a major and a minor, a double major, or a major and two minors.
A MacEwan University Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science is 120 non-duplicative credits. If you take 15 credits per term (10 courses per year), it will take you 4 years to complete your degree. In Canada, the average time to complete a 120-credit degree is over 5 years. This is because many students work while in school. Your degree may take longer if you change your area of study.
Planning tools & resourcesA number of tools and resources are available to help you choose courses for your degree and stay on track towards graduation:
The academic calendar is not just a list of dates. It contains the official rules and regulations that govern what courses you need to take to graduate with a degree in your chosen discipline. A new calendar is published each year. You must use the academic calendar corresponding to the year you declare your major(s) and/or minor(s) or the year you are admitted to an Honours program.
Pay attention to these sections in particular as you plan the courses you will take to complete your degree:
You may also refer to the academic calendar for course descriptions and information on prerequisites or corequisites as you select and enrol in your courses.
The Academic Schedule is a list of all the important dates and deadlines for the academic year, including fee payments, exam periods, and course add/drop/withdraw deadlines. These dates are non-negotiable and missing them could have academic and/or financial consequences.
If you were admitted to your program or declared your major in Fall 2019 or later, you will have access to the Academic Program Progress Report (APPR) and the What if Report (WHIF) in myStudentSystem. The WHIF will allow you to see what would be required if you were to change your program or change your major/minor. The APPR shows you where you are at in your academic progression. You can access the APPR and the WHIF from the Academic Progress tile in your myStudentSystem.
The intention of the APPR is to help you track your progress towards degree completion. It identifies transferred, enrolled, and completed courses and matches them to program requirements. It also identifies outstanding program requirements.
While the APPR is a very useful tool, it is not advisable to rely solely on the APPR for planning purposes. It is an unofficial document and is best used in conjunction with the Academic Calendar and the applicable BA or BSc Overall Degree Planner.
Students entering the program with previous post-secondary credits, IB or AP courses, a MacEwan diploma or a previous degree should not rely on the APPR. Instead, follow the process outlined for additional planning assistance to request help from an academic advisor.
Learn the basics of reading and interpreting your APPR. In this video you will be shown the different sections of your report as well as what to look for when planning.
If you will be declaring your major/minor in the 2021/22 academic year or if you have previously declared in an earlier year, planning sheets are available in the Planning Sheets section of the Academic Planning page to help you keep track of the courses you have taken and still need to take to fulfill the breadth, major(s), minor(s) and option requirements of your degree. You will need:
Use the planning sheets for the year you declare your major and minor or the year you are accepted into an honours program.
After 2021/22, we will no longer be providing individual major and minor planning sheets, but we will continue to keep updated versions of the overall degree planner to help you organize and keep track of your degree progress.
If you will be declaring after 2021/22, you will use the Academic Calendar to determine which courses will be needed to fulfill the breadth, major(s), minor(s) and option requirements of your degree, but you can still use the overall degree planner to keep yourself on track and organized.
Academic planning sessionsGet a strong start to your academic career by registering for an online Academic Planning session. When you register for the online group session, you will learn how to:
Academic planning sessions are offered throughout the year for both new and returning students. If you are a new student starting either in the Fall or Winter term, attend a session before the beginning of your first term. Sessions for returning students are announced in the Arts & Science Newsletter.
Note: You must log in with your MacEwan University account to access the sign-up form. Logging into the MacEwan portal does not mean you are logged out of your personal google account. More Information.
If you are entering the program after completing IB, AP or other post-secondary courses, you may be able to use that credit to meet some degree requirements.
All transfer credit is assessed after you have accepted an offer of admission and paid your admission confirmation deposit. Evaluation of transfer credit can take several weeks. After your transcripts have been evaluated, a report of transfer credit assessment results is added to your account in myStudentSystem. See the Transfer Credit page for information on how to read your report.
If you have questions about how your transfer credit works towards specific degree requirements, contact Arts & Science Academic Advising after your transfer credit assessment results have been posted to your account in myStudentSystem.
Planning your degree after completing a diplomaIf you have an accredited diploma and have been accepted to the Bachelor of Arts (BA) or the Bachelor of Science (BSc), you may, after an approved assessment, be able to use your diploma in place of a minor, reducing the number of credits required for your degree from 120 to 102.
To qualify, you must:
Please note that regardless of the above points, not all external diplomas may qualify. The Faculty of Arts and Science Dean’s Office assessment decision will be final.
The following things need to happen before an academic advisor in the Faculty of Arts and Science can complete an assessment to confirm which of your diploma courses will be used and which courses you still need to take to complete your degree:
We cannot start your assessment until the above conditions are met. If you submit the form before meeting these conditions, you will be asked to resubmit when the conditions have been met.
If you choose to complete a minor, do not submit this form. If you wish to complete both a major and a minor, you will enter the BA or BSc program as a regular student and you must complete 120 credits. The 120 credits will include any applicable transfer credit or cross-faculty course recognition. If you are completing a minor, be mindful that a Faculty of Arts and Science minor is 18 senior-level credits (6 senior-level courses). If you do not already have the prerequisite junior-level course(s) for the minor, that will also mean an additional 1 to 2 courses, depending on your minor. As the maximum course load per term is 15 credits (5 courses), declaring a minor may extend your degree progression by one full academic term, and possibly longer, depending on course availability and scheduling.
Having completed a diploma does not mean that you will necessarily be able to complete your degree in two years or less. The time it will take to complete your degree, after being laddered in with a diploma, will be contingent on several factors, including:
Once you submit the Laddering Assessment Form you will have your previous course work assessed to determine how much previous credit will be used and what you will have left to complete toward the BA or BSc degree.
If you are a laddering student you do not have priority enrolment. All new students, including laddering students, start as first-year students and will have a corresponding enrolment date with limited or restricted access to senior-level courses reserved for declared majors. Year of Study is updated after the first completed term, at which time your enrolment appointment date will also be updated.
Declarations can only happen during the declaration time frame of September 1 to January 15 for competitive majors and minors or February 10 for regular, non-competitive majors and minors. Competitive major and minor applications may not be reviewed or approved until February 1.
Not all senior-level courses are offered every term. Some senior-level courses are offered only once a year, and some only every second year.
In addition to the above, other factors to consider include:
If you already hold an undergraduate degree from a recognized post-secondary institution, you may be eligible to earn another baccalaureate from MacEwan University.
Before proceeding with your subsequent baccalaureate at MacEwan, please be aware that:
While MacEwan may transfer up to 60 external credits towards the 120 credit MacEwan degree, that does not mean that all 60 credits will be transferred or that you will be able to complete your second degree at MacEwan in 2 years or less. The time it takes to complete your second degree at MacEwan will be contingent on a number of factors, including:
In addition to the above, other factors to consider include:
If you would like to complete another Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science, the following things need to happen before an advisor can complete an assessment to confirm which courses you need to take:
Please do not submit this form until your confirmation deposit has been paid and your transfer credit has been posted to your MacEwan student record (you can see the transfer credit on your myStudentSystem). We cannot complete the process without this information. If you submit the form without these two conditions, you will be asked to resubmit when the conditions have been met.
An Arts & Science academic advisor will email you at your mymacewan email address with a subsequent baccalaureate assessment. Please note that depending on the time of year and where we are in the academic cycle for that term, it can take anywhere from two to four weeks to complete your assessment.
If you apply as a subsequent baccalaureate student but do not intend to complete a degree at MacEwan (e.g., if you apply to a program to complete prerequisites for future schooling), the subsequent baccalaureate declaration request form must still be submitted; however, an academic advisor will not follow up with a subsequent baccalaureate assessment.
An Arts & Science academic advisor will email you at your my mymacewan email address with a subsequent baccalaureate program plan. Please note that depending on the time of year and where we are in the academic cycle for that term, it can take anywhere from two to four weeks to complete your program plan.
If you apply as a subsequent baccalaureate student but do not intend to complete a degree at MacEwan (e.g., if you apply to a program to complete prerequisites for future schooling), the subsequent baccalaureate declaration request form must still be submitted; however, an academic advisor will not follow up with a subsequent baccalaureate program plan.
Planning for a preprofessional programYou must always consult the website and/or calendar of the institution(s) you hope to attend. As well, you should familiarize yourself with the profession, including ethical issues, and gain relevant experience. There may be additional requirements, such as admission interviews.
We do not give advice about which courses to take for a particular program because students who plan to pursue a specific profession should apply to more than one program to increase chances of acceptance. Also, programs change admission requirements and applicant assessment procedures without informing external institutions.
It is your responsibility to obtain the most accurate, up-to-date information on your own behalf. Once you know which courses you require, we can usually assist you in determining which MacEwan courses meet those requirements (e.g., organic chemistry or biochemistry).
Transferability between Alberta institutions is tracked through the online TransferAlberta guide. In order to have MacEwan University courses assessed for transferability outside Alberta, please contact the receiving institution and be prepared to give them a copy of your course syllabus (we can help you with this if you have lost it).
Here is a partial list of professional programs whose prerequisites can be completed by arts and science students:
Chiropractic Medicine, Dental Hygiene, Dentistry, Education, Law, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Medicine, Optometry, Pharmacy, Registered Dietitian (nutrition programs), Veterinary Medicine
To find out which Canadian schools offer accredited programs in the profession of your choice, go to alis.alberta.ca and choose the occupational profile you want. In the full profile, there will be information on accreditation for all professions. Please contact the accreditation body for a list of all accredited programs in Canada. This information may not be easy to find, but it is worthwhile searching for it.
In addition, students can access graduate professional programs like occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech language pathology, as well as traditional academic graduate programs in their discipline of study.