In this section
MAIS Policies
Course Refunds
If a student withdraws from a course within the first month (early withdrawal), the record of registration will be deleted from his or her official transcript and the student will receive a refund of the course fees minus the course withdrawal processing fee (refer to fees). Course materials are not to be returned.
If a student withdraws from a course after the first month of the course, but before the last month of the original course contract period, the official record and transcript will show that the student withdrew without credit and without prejudice or academic penalty and will be recorded as a "W" (Withdrawal in good academic standing) on the transcript. A refund is not granted for withdrawals after 30 days of the start date.
If a student withdraws in the last month of the original course contract period the official records will be recorded as "WF" (Withdrawal/Failure), without academic penalty. If a student applies for an extension and then withdraws, a "WF" will also apply.
Students failing to formally withdraw prior to their course end date will automatically be assigned a system failure, and will be recorded as "F" (Failure), with academic penalty.
Course Withdrawals
Students must formally request to withdraw from a course; simply not completing the course requirements or not attending the class does not constitute withdrawal.
Students may withdraw from a course up until one month before the end of the original course contract period by submitting an MAIS Withdrawal Request Form. The date of withdrawal will be the postmark on the request, or if the notice is hand delivered or faxed, the University date stamp.
Course Extensions
In individualized study courses, students have the flexibility to determine their own timelines for completing it within their six-month contract period. Should students experience time problems, they may extend the course contract by submitting a completed MAIS Extension Request Form, along with the appropriate fees, to the MAIS Office. Individualized-study courses may be extended three times for a period of two months each. Contact the MAIS Program Administrator for more information on extensions.
No formal extensions are allowed for grouped study courses. For the grouped study courses, all course work should be completed during the semester periods. Minor extensions to these timelines may be possible if circumstances warrant. MAIS Office must be notified well in advance of course end date.
Study Plans/Change of Specialization
Upon completion of the two MAIS core courses (MAIS 601 and MAIS 602) and two elective courses, students are required to declare an area of specialization by submitting a study plan to the MAIS Office for approval by the MAIS Director and/or Associate Director.
For a list of Program Specializations, please go to Program Concentrations. To qualify as a specialization, students must complete a minimum of four courses within the program concentration, before commencing their integrated project.
Students wishing to complete two areas of specialization, may apply to the Director (in their Study Plan) for approval of a second stream if they (1) demonstrate plans to complete four courses in each stream; and (2) provide a rationale as to how they will integrate course work across both streams in the MAIS 701 final project.
If choosing the "Independent Track" you will be required to identify a strategy for developing your own plan of study. You will need to provide a rationale to support the weaving together of your proposed MAIS courses into a cohesive whole. That is, how will weaving the courses from across the MAIS curriculum help you to achieve your goal?
You may use the Sample Study Plan as a template.
Letter of Verification of Payment / Receipt
Athabasca University does provide what we call a "Letter of Verification" which is basically the same thing as a receipt or "proof of payment". You may request these from our Finance Department, the contact is Janet Kremer-Kerr, her e-mail address is: janetk@athabascau.ca
Simply send her an e-mail identifying what transactions you wish to be included on the letter (i.e. tuition for MAIS 6XX) along with your AU student ID number; Janet will e-mail the receipt to you.
Letter of Permission
Students enrolled in the MAIS program may take up to five graduate-level courses (15 credits) from other post-secondary educational institutions in fulfillment of the program requirements, provided such courses are applicable to the Athabasca University MAIS program. Students wishing to take courses from other institutions must obtain and submit
- a Letter of Permission Request Form,
- a written statement outlining their reasons for pursuing studies elsewhere and an explanation of the course(s) relevance to the MAIS program, and
- detailed course outlines and the appropriate Letter of Permission fees to the MAIS program office for review. If approved, the Office of the Registrar will issue a Letter of Permission.
To allow for mailing time, requests for a Letter of Permission should be made at least one month before the registration deadline at the institution where the student will be taking the course. Upon completion of the course, the student must submit an official transcript to the MAIS program administrator in order to obtain credit for the course.
Learning Contracts
MAIS Reading Courses are available to Program students who have successfully completed the two MAIS core courses (MAIS 601 and MAIS 602 provide a foundation for understanding and studying interdisciplinary practices), are at least half way through the program (i.e. have completed 15 credits of course work), and have demonstrated their ability to be self-directed learners. MAIS program students may take up to three reading courses as part of their plan of study. Please note that not all professors are able to offer reading courses each semester.
There are no course materials shipped to the student for MAIS reading courses or project courses, other than a 2 page course guide which talks a little about the learning contract. In this course guide it should indicate that MAIS 750/751/760 (and MAIS 701/702) does not include copies of the course readings. Students will negotiate with their professor the readings required for the course and will be responsible for acquiring these readings either by borrowing them from Athabasca University, or from a local university or community library, or by purchasing the texts at a bookstore.
For some of our Reading/Project Courses, we have arranged to have relevant materials, as identified by the professor, available in the AU library for loaning out to students. These materials are not automatically shipped to students, they must be requested by the student and returned to the AU Library after the loan period has come to an end. If they wish to purchase the materials, they may wish to check out amazon.com or some other retailer of books.
Students in our reading courses or project course(s) are required to arrange for a supervisor prior to registering for the course, and also to develop a learning contract with the course professor (to be submitted to the MAIS office with the course registration). Once the learning contract has been approved by the course professor, please submit an electronic copy of the contract to the MAIS Office; we will send it to the MAIS Program Director for approval.
To assist you with choosing a supervisor, please go to our Faculty website located at http://www.athabascau.ca/mais/faculty/ You will see the "Supervisory Interests" of the faculty. If you still cannot choose a supervisor, please e-mail the MAIS Office and we will forward your e-mail for assistance.
The Learning Contract is a letter of agreement between the professor and the student. The contract should provide the following information:
- a list of learning objectives -the subject/s to be studied
- the intended outcomes
- details about the resources and strategies: how your are going to learn about your subject where you will search for sources which points of view you will be developing
- list of the course readings to include key books, articles and other materials, and details of how you will access them.
- description of the role of the course professor
- plan for assessing the work undertaken
- timelines/dates for completion of each stage of the course work (i.e. Draft 1 will be completed on XXXX date and Draft 2 will be completed on XXXX date).
Details of the learning contract should be negotiated on the understanding that further amendment may be made. If there are amendments to the original learning contract, students must submit a copy of these amendment to the MAIS Office.
Students have to register in Reading Courses and Project courses just as they do for any other MAIS courses. The fee is the same as all our other formal courses (currently $1090 prior to September 1, 2007 and $1150 after September 1, 2007.). To register for the course, please submit the Alternate Course Registration Form located on the MAIS Website under forms. Also, in the comments box, please indicate who your instructor will be. We cannot process the course registration form until we have the learning contract approved.
- View example.
Transfer Credit
Transfer of credit is possible once you become a MAIS Program Student. All courses must be graduate level and not used towards another degree. If you have graduate level course credits that have never been applied toward any graduate degree program, we may be able to evaluate them for transfer credit purposes. Up to a maximum of 15 credits can be transferred into the MAIS Program. If approved, the number of courses required to obtain the total program credits (33) would be reduced.
Students receiving the maximum number of transfer credits (15) are restricted to the Independent Track route as they will not qualify for an area of specialization. Students wishing to pursue an area of specialization will be limited to 12 transfer credits in total.
Courses being considered for transfer credit must be from a fully accredited institution (i.e. members of Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, Canadian Association for Distance Education, Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, etc.).
To apply for transfer of credit, please submit the following documents with your program application:
- Official transcripts showing the successful completion of the courses to be transferred
- Transfer credit form and fee; the form is located on the MAIS website under forms.
- Course outlines for each course. The information in the detailed course outline should include the following:
- Course name, number, and year completed
- A statement of the course objectives
- A detailed outline for the course
- The number of weeks duration
- Hours per week of lecture (laboratory/tutorial/seminar/studio work)
- The method of evaluation and grading
- The title of the textbooks used (complete bibliography).
- Any other materials or reading lists that were used (complete bibliography)
- Content of assignments and assignment weighting
- Credential of instructor(s) (Required for Colleges only)
- Course title of prerequisite or co-requisite courses (if any)
- Credit value
Please note that, in some cases, we may require students to provide copies of exams and/or assignments.
The Program Director and/or the MAIS Committee would then review these documents and determine whether transfer credits will be permitted into our MAIS Program. If transfer credit is awarded, a study plan will be required outlining how you will integrate your previous coursework with your MAIS program goals.
Change of Address/Contact Information
To change your contact information with AU, please log into MyAU and update your student information at http://my.athabascau.ca/; the MAIS Office will receive an e-mail with your new information.
Note: It is the students responsibility to ensure your contact information is up-to-date. All updates Must be made via MyAU
If you have any questions, please contact the MAIS Office.
MAIS - Last Updated February 05, 2010, 14:49:32 MST/MDT
