iSchool Academic Affairs maintains the following policy on courses with low-enrollment, in reference to special topics or non-core courses.
If a course runs three times, with an low enrollment, we will request from the instructor (or relevant faculty director):
A plan to increase recruitment of students into the course; or
A plan to revise the course to potentially entice more students into it.
If the instructor does not provide one of these documents (and work through them with the appropriate staff member), the course will be cancelled. The instructor can return to the discussion at any point in the future.
Please note that the definition of “underenrolled” or “low enrollment” varies by type of course:
For undergraduate courses, under-enrolled is defined as fewer than 15 people;
For masters courses, under-enrolled is defined as fewer than 8 people; and
For doctoral courses, under-enrolled is defined as fewer than 6 people.
These definitions are based on patterns of enrollment at each level.
Please note that we do not adjust faculty salaries or teaching commitments based on enrollment. We use the amount of TA support to scale workload in courses.