Choosing your courses
Before you enrol, you need to find out the courses you are required to take and the elective courses you can enrol in. You can contact us for course advice.
You must enrol in three or four courses (45 to 80 points) each trimester to be a full-time student. If you will be studying in New Zealand, you must be a full-time student to meet the requirements of your student visa.
Each degree or programme has courses that you must take, called required courses. Many programmes also have elective courses. These supplement the required courses and you can pick the courses that most interests you or will suit your career goals. You must enrol in all the required courses of your programme whereas you can pick which elective courses to enrol in that same programme.
Once you’ve decided which courses you’re interested in, you need to check the lecture times to make sure that you have no timetable clashes. Find out more about choosing your courses.
Undergraduate students
You can find your required courses on the requirements tab of your programme page. For elective courses, check our course finder. Please also refer to this page for planning your degree.
You can also email info@vuw.ac.nz for help with selecting courses. Include the following information in your email:
- your full name
- that you will be enrolling as an international student
- your programme and major as listed in your Offer of Place letter
- you can include a course plan, or a list of your selected courses, for review—our Course Advice team will help you make sure your plan is going to work for your degree.
Postgraduate students
You can find your required courses on the requirements tab of your programme page. For elective courses, check our course finder.
You can also contact your programme advisers or faculty for more detailed course advice. You can find their information on the apply and contact tab of your programme page.
International programme students
You must enrol in the courses that we have confirmed with you via email. There may also be some elective course options you can choose from.
For elective courses, check our course finder for available courses. If you have any questions about your course selection, contact your faculty or school.
Study Abroad and Exchange students
You should enrol online only in courses that have been pre-approved for you during your course approval process. Please refer to this page for more details about the requirements needed for Study Abroad and Exchange students.
If you have questions about the course approval process, contact us.