Low enrollment courses are defined as courses having a total enrollment of fewer than 10 students. For purposes of calculating enrollment totals, each graduate student enrolled in a 500+ level course (or an equivalent combined undergraduate/graduate course) counts as two enrollments. Thus, for example, a graduate-only course with an enrollment of 5 individual graduate students will meet the threshold level of 10 for viability, provided that offering a course of that small size is also consistent with other relevant considerations (e.g., pedagogical, faculty workload, budgetary). In some instances, an entering graduate cohort of fewer than 5 students may dictate setting a threshold lower than 10 for a required entry-level course.

The Assistant Dean for Curriculum & Enrollment Services will contact each department or program in advance of the semester with a snapshot of courses that have not yet reached the ideal enrollment thresholds, for comment from the Chair/Director. The snapshot indicates the total combined enrollment for courses meeting with other components (whether in CAS, GRS, or another school or college).

Not all courses with low enrollments are undesirably or avoidably small.  The semester snapshots do not distinguish undesirably small courses from desirably small seminars or from potentially justifiable small (one-time) course enrollments, such as when students must take a particular course to graduate or when a brand-new faculty member or course is finding an audience.

Instead, the snapshot of information is intended to provide a starting point for conversations within departments and with the College about using instructional resources as wisely as possible. It may also be a useful tool for planning the department’s subsequent academic year schedule.

Lower than hoped for enrollments can occur for various reasons, including, among other examples:

  • A particular course is too specialized or has been offered too frequently;
  • The course is scheduled at a problematic time for its likely audience;
  • The course is added to the class schedule after the point when the schedule is first available for viewing and planning by students and advisors (late September for the following Spring semester or late February for the following Fall semester);
  • The aggregate number of offerings at a particular level (200-level, etc.) exceeds student demand;
  • The faculty member teaching the course is not yet known (listed as “TBA” or “Staff”), or is reputed not to be effective;
  • The number of majors or graduate students is limited but the course is a requirement for that particular cohort;
  • The course is part of a multi-year initiative to build offerings in a particular field.

    In many of these situations, a useful first question to ask is whether next academic year’s schedule has been arranged differently than the current year’s schedule to avoid repetition of undesirably small classes.  Once a department has examined the factors that may be contributing to smaller class size, please communicate your analysis and suggested course of action to the Assistant Dean for Curriculum & Enrollment Services (schedcas@bu.edu).

    Strategies for minimizing lower-enrollment courses

    The following general departmental initiatives may assist:

    • Publicize courses that are relatively new to the schedule on your department website and to likely audiences. Introductory courses that fulfill specific degree requirements could also be promoted during freshman advising periods over the summer.
    • Encourage graduate students to register in a timely manner.
    • Monitor actual enrollments closely. Using registration dates (available on the website of the University Registrar) department chairs or their delegates should pay particular attention to the state of enrollments at the point when the primary population of takers for the course has had a chance to register.
    • Alert Assistant for Curriculum & Enrollment Services Daryl Healea (dhealea@bu.edu) to any actions being considered or problems to which departments do not see a viable solution.  If a course is unlikely to end up enrolling the desired minimum number of students, the question of cancellation should be raised with Joseph Bizup, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs and Policies (casuap@bu.edu).
    • As an alternative to immediate cancellation, it is sometimes appropriate and possible for a small course to grow its enrollment via cross-listing in another department.
    • When possible and appropriate, a full-time faculty member whose course is under-enrolled should be reassigned to a course with higher enrollment.
    • Alternatively, a faculty member might teach an uncompensated overload course in one of the two or three subsequent semesters.
    • In some cases, if the faculty member is teaching another course that already has substantial enrollments, it may be a solution to split that course into two separate sections for that semester.
    • For faculty members (or programs) with consistently low enrollments, CAS Dean or the appropriate associate dean will initiate a more general discussion about future teaching assignments.