Academic Information for 
Incoming Exchange Students

Academic Organization & Information

The study abroad staff will help you with most of your academic questions. But it is helpful to understand the following points:

• UNO has centralized enrollment, so it is fairly easy to enroll in courses in different academic areas of study (sometimes known as "Faculties" at European institutions). In fact, students are generally EXPECTED to enroll in classes in different departments in order NOT to be overwhelmed with studies in one discipline.
• Use of the words "course" and "class" are rather interchangeable, and typically refer to each individual class in which a student might enroll. To discuss a "course of study," we generally use the term "Major," as in, "What is your major?"
• UNO classes are organized according to Department and Number.
  • The Department is noted by a three- or four- letter abbreviation (i.e., MANG=Management, ENGL=English, etc.).
  • The level of study for each course is indicated by the number associated with the class. Therefore, all 1000-level courses are at the first-year level of study. All 2000-level courses are at the second-year level of study, and so on.
  • Example: ENGL 1157 is a first-year (freshman) level English composition course. MANG 4856 is a fourth-year (senior) level class.
• As classes progress to higher levels, there are usually "prerequisites" indicated in the course description. These are usually programmed into our online registration system.
• If you are a graduate student at your home university (5th year and above) and wish to take Master's or doctoral level courses (5000 or 6000), you must first be admitted as a graduate student (you must be able to show that you either have completed a bachelor's degree, or are studying at the master's level at your home institution). When discussing classes and your studies, you will have to communicate not only with the study abroad office, but also with the academic coordinator of your program of study and may be required to provide additional academic documentation in order to satisfy each program's requirements.
• Be sure that you select the correct level when applying for admission to UNO. Undergraduate students cannot take graduate classes (levels 5000 and 6000), and graduate students must take the majority of their classes at the graduate level. If you are not sure of your level, consult your local international coordinator, or email us before completing the UNO application for admission.
• The academic organization and culture can be quite different between institutions and countries.
  • Undergraduate students at UNO typically take from 4 (minimum) to 6 courses (maximum) in a given semester.
  • Graduate students typically take 3 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) courses in a given semester.
  • Students typically try to diversify their classes in order to have a balanced experience with studying.
  • The in-class requirements and demands of the classes during the semester can also be very different from European or Asian academic systems, and take some time to adjust to for our international students.
  • It's important that you and your academic advisor(s) at your home institution understand these differences.
  • It is not reasonable for you to be expected to take 7 or 8 classes per semester.

Finding Information on UNO classes:

• The Course Descriptions list available from the Registrar's Home Page is the master listing of all possible courses at UNO (also called the course catalog). It does NOT list course offerings specific to any semesters, nor does it show schedules, etc.
• Information on a specific semester's course offerings and schedule is typically available no earlier than the start of the pre-registration time periods for each semester. Pre-registration for the Fall semester usually starts in early April, and in early November for the Spring and Summer semesters. You cannot obtain this information prior to those time periods
• This information is available through the class search function in our registration system (Workday) - using your UNO Login (which you will set up after you obtain admission to UNO).
• You are able to search courses by subject, course name and number, or type of instruction. Be sure you are searching for classes offered in the correct semester.
• Through Workday class search, you may look for courses offered in previous semesters to get an idea of what may be offered for an upcoming semester. However, there is no guarantee that courses offered will be exactly the same from year to year.
• It is each student's responsibility to communicate with his/her home institution for course approval if credit at the home institution is required.

Pre-registering for Classes:

• Once you have your UNO login, you will be able to pre-register for classes (assuming it is during the pre-registration period for your semester of enrollment).
• If you have holds on your account (such as Advising or Immunization holds), email us at studyabroad@uno.edu to find out how to get them removed.
• If you do not pre-register for your classes prior to your arrival, you will likely have very limited choices of available courses if most of your desired classes are full. 
• None of your prior courses from your home university will be entered individually into our registration system (Workday), so when you try to enroll in a class that has prerequisites (see the course description), you may receive an error message. Send us a screen shot of the course and the error message and we can help get you enrolled (assuming you can show that you have taken the prerequisites).
• You may have mixed results in getting registered for all of your desired classes. Sometimes students have to communicate with our study abroad office and/or the professor offering the course... or sometimes students have to wait for a seat to open up in a class if it is full. This is something that all students must go through in order to get the best selection of courses for their semester, and sometimes it doesn't end up being perfect. But we try.