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Swapping, dropping, or withdrawing from a course

This tutorial applies to both undergraduate and graduate students on the Okanagan campus.

If you drop or swap a course before the add/drop deadline, your enrolment in the course will not appear on your academic record and you will also be eligible for a full tuition refund.

If you withdraw from a course after the add/drop deadline, you will receive a “W” standing on your academic record. Depending on your withdrawal date, you may be eligible for a partial refund.

Learn more about the course change dates and impacts to tuition refunds.

Please note:

If you drop a course, your seat will immediately become available to other students. You may not be able to add it again if you’re unable to register in a new course or section. If you want to register in a different course or a different section of the same course, you should swap your course section so you do not lose your seat.

On this page

View your registered courses

Go to your Academics App

  1. Log into your Workday account at myworkday.ubc.ca.
  2. Select “Student” in the navigation bar on the left.
  3. Select “Academics”.

Find the course you want to swap, drop, or withdraw from

  1. On the Workday homepage, click the “View My Saved Courses” button.
  2. On the “View my Courses” page, go to the “My Enrolled Courses” table.

How to swap a course or course section

You can choose to swap to a new course or a new section. If the course or section is full, you will remain registered in your current course until an available option is found or you cancel the process.

  1. View your registered courses.
  2. In the “Actions” column for the course, open the dropdown menu and select “Swap”.
  3. Select “New Course” or “New Section”.
  4. Depending on your selection:
    • New Course: In the “Course to Add” field, find a course by typing the course name (e.g., “Economics”) or course code (e.g., “ECON 102”).
    • New Section: Review the “Course Section for Swap” field to make sure the section you want to swap is correct.
  5. Click the “OK” button.
  6. Select the course section and/or activities you want to switch to by checking the box in the “Select” column on the left side of the table, and deselect the course or section you wish to swap out of.
  7. Click the “OK button”.
  8. If you are swapping to a new course:
    • Review the “Course to Drop Confirmation” table at the bottom and make sure you are swapping out of the correct course.
    • Check the “Confirm Swap” box and click the “OK” button.
  9. If the swap is successful, the next page will show “Successful Registrations” and a table of the course or course section you have switched to.

How to drop a course

  1. View your registered courses.
  2. In the “Actions” column for the course, open the dropdown menu and select “Drop”.
  3. Check the “Confirm” box.
  4. Click the “OK” button.

How to withdraw from a course

Before you withdraw from a course, make sure you understand the potential impacts.

  1. View your registered courses.
  2. In the “Actions” column for the course, open the dropdown menu and select “Withdraw”.
  3. Check the “Confirm Withdraw from Course” box.
  4. Click the “OK” button.

Confirm your withdrawal

  1. On the “View my Courses” page a popup notification with the heading “You have submitted” will appear at the top of the screen.
  2. Click “View Details” in the notification.
  3. Click the arrow icon on the left of “Detail and Processes” to expand the section information.
  4. If the “Overall Status” field says “Successfully Completed”, you have withdrawn from the course.

How to view previously dropped or withdrawn courses

  1. View your registered courses.
  2. Scroll down to the “My Dropped/Withdrawn Courses” section.
  3. Select the arrow icon on the left of “My Dropped/Withdrawn Courses” to expand the section information.
  4. Note: Dropped courses will have a “Registration Status” of “Unregistered”.

Additional resources

Other Course registration tutorials