Course requisites—the collective name for prerequisite, corequisite, and recommended courses—are used throughout the College's curriculum as a way of ensuring that students have the prerequisite knowledge and experience to be successful in a course and understand the type of knowledge a course will build upon.
Prerequisite, Corequisite, and Recommended Courses
Definitions
Course(s) or other requirement(s) that must be successfully completed prior to a student registering a course. It is assumed that students currently enrolled in a prerequisite course will successfully complete the course and, therefore, count toward satisfying the prerequisite for a subsequent semester. Units are encouraged to participate in post-enrollment requisite checking to verify all students have met prerequisites once grades are final for the current term.
Course(s) or other requirement(s) that must be completed either simultaneously or prior to the course in question. IMPORTANT: Corequisites cannot be enforced during the enrollment period; they require post-enrollment analysis by the unit. If simultaneous enrollment is essential, units should consider using Block Enrollment. In any case, we recommend using corequisites sparingly. Contact the College's Office of Undergraduate Curriculum, Policy, and Records for more information.
Course(s) or other requirement(s) that is recommended prior or simultaneous to enrollment in the course in question. It is purely for information, and nothing is enforced.
Prerequisite enforcement and PERC
Prerequisites must be listed in the College Bulletin. Prerequisites are translated to Enrollment Requirement Groups (ERGs), which enforce the prerequisites in the course registration system.
When enrolling for a subsequent semester, it is assumed that all courses in which a student is currently enrolled will be completed with a passing grade. These courses are therefore used to determine whether a prerequisite has been satisfied. Of course, students sometimes do not complete the course or earn the grade required to meet the prerequisite. This is where Post-Enrollment Requisite Checking (PERC) enters the picture.
Units do not need to use PERC to verify requisites, but they should develop an alternative process for doing so. All units are expected to enforce their requisites.
Propose changes to requisites
Requests to change requisites generally require a CARMIn eDoc.
Learn moreCorequisites reminder
Only prerequisites can be enforced. Corequisites have to be enforced manually (by the unit).
PERC (Post-Enrollment Requisite Checking) is a process that results in a production of a report indicating whether each student has satisfied the course prerequisites. The College generally runs the reports at the request of units and provides the report for action by the requesting unit.
It is recommended that the PERC process be run after grades for any prior term(s) are official. This means that PERC should usually be run once before Spring and Summer classes and twice (after Spring and Summer grades) for Fall classes.
PERC requests should be sent to Sam Eggleston at . Please submit requests at least two (2) business days in advance.
Once a unit has received a PERC report, the unit will be responsible for confirming the information and notifying students of next steps. The primary options are:
- Administrative action.
- Units execute this action via an Enrollment Request in CART through the Office of the Registrar.
- Units should take action prior to the start of the academic session of the class or within the first week to avoid students getting W grades on their transcript.
- Units must take extreme care when using this option. You want to avoid disenrolling students in error, as it waitlists may resolve once you create open seats and it may prove difficult to correct the mistake afterward.
- Units must notify students via their IU email that they are taking this action and provide a rationale for it. Students should be emailed individually or via bcc as to not create a FERPA violation.
- Student action.
- Units execute this action by contacting the student via their IU email or phone and requesting that the students disenroll (drop) themselves from the course. Students should be emailed individually or via bcc as to not create a FERPA violation.
- Units should take action prior to the start of the academic session of the class or within the first week to avoid students getting W grades on their transcript.
FAQs about requisites
"Permission/Consent of Department or Instructor" is an implied alternative for any prerequisite. Departments may override prerequisites for individual students with permissions.
So long as it is only a portion of the seats that are reserved, these are not considered prerequisites.
If it is a list defined by the College, yes. For example, a requisite can reference "Completion of the CASE Mathematical Modeling requirement" or "... CASE English Composition requirement." Generic subject codes (department codes) can also be used, but caution must be exercised due to unintended consequences. For example, a requisite of "Any MATH course" could work, but that means a course like MATH-M 014 Basic Algebra will satisfy the prerequisite. A requisite like "Any calculus course" would be problematic, as there is no defined calculus list.
Prerequisites are not stored in the University Course Catalog, only the Bulletin. You will need to copy and paste the current prerequisites in the "old" column of the form and either indicate "no change" or list any new prerequisites in the "new" column.
View courses in the Bulletin
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