If you don’t find the answer to your questions below, please contact the KIN Undergraduate Advising Office at kin.advising@ubc.ca.
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Program Streams
On your official Bachelor's degree parchment, there is no stream specialization noted. It will state "Bachelor of Kinesiology - University of British Columbia". Stream specialization and, if applicable, your Minor, will show on your official transcript.
Application to any grad program can be achieved through any stream, as long as you meet necessary prerequisites for that program.
A stream is selected at the time of registration for second-year courses, and will be done through a student’s SSC account.
Once in the ‘Course Schedule’ area of the SSC, find ‘Browse’ in the top left-hand corner. Choose ‘Specialization’ from the drop down menu. Find ‘BKIN’ in the options, choose a desired stream, and then click ‘Add Spec.’ This cannot be done until a student’s individual registration time opens.
Students looking to switch streams after this point should get in touch with the KIN Advising Office.
Course Planning
Degree Navigator is not compatible with the KIN degree. Please contact the KIN Undergraduate Advising Office and request a Program/Grad Check to ensure that you are on the right track or ready to graduate. You can also easily submit a request online by filling out a Program Check Form.
We recommend that students be aware that the time around registration and the start of terms can have a high volume of inquiries, so it is best to request a Program Check well in advance of your registration date and time to ensure that you have a clear idea of your remaining credit requirements.
Program Check: A program check can be requested by a current student who is looking to have an update on which credits they have completed, and what types of credits need to be completed in order to meet their degree requirements. Students get in touch with the KIN Undergraduate Advising Office to provide their contact information, and will be emailed a scanned PDF copy of their updated program planning sheet for reference. It is recommended that this be done at least once a year.
Graduation Check: A graduation check can be requested by students looking to graduate in the current academic year. It is a program check done specifically to ensure that a student meets all requirements for graduation. A graduation check should only be requested once a timetable for the final year has been chosen.
Program Checks and Graduation Check can be requested online or in person at the Undergraduate Advising Office.
The Credit Exclusion List can be found on the Academic Calendar, and lists courses in which there is sufficient overlap that credit may be obtained for only one selection. Students will not be granted credit for taking a course that is listed on the Credit Exclusion List along with a course that they have already taken. For example, students who have credit for KIN 190/KIN 191 will not be granted credit for BIOL 153 or BIOL 155.
All students must have one of ENGL 112 or WRDS 150 completed by the end of their second year. Further promotion will not be granted without successful completion of this requirement.
*Applicable to KIN students who started with KIN 2018W or earlier following the KINH stream
The Kinesiology and Health Science stream requires that students take at least 12 credits of upper-level Science. These credits can be filled with any 300-400 level course offered for credit by the Faculty of Science. These courses are mainly offered by the departments of Physics, Math, Biology or Chemistry, but there are some exceptions.
Science Psychology: Any course offered by the department of Psychology that ends in the numbers 60 or higher qualifies as a Science course.
Students can browse courses offered by Earth and Ocean Sciences, Astronomy, CAPS, etc. to find courses that are offered for credit within the Faculty of Science.
If you are still unsure whether or not a course would qualify after closely looking at the course description and the information above, please contact the KIN Undergraduate Advising Office.
KIN students have the opportunity to acquire a minor from four different areas: Arts, Science, Commerce, or Nutritional Science. Applications for all minors are available from the KIN Advising Office located in Room 202 of War Memorial Gymnasium, or online (see: Arts | Science | Commerce | Nutritional Sciences). Specific requirements are outlined on the application forms.
Commerce and Nutritional Science Minor applications are due mid-May, and are ideally completed by students entering into their third year of KIN. *Contact advising if you are a student considering applying for these Minors at a different point in time.
Science and Arts Minor applications can be handed in at any point after entering third year, and before application for graduation.
All students pursuing their BKIN must obtain at least 120 credits, 60 of which must be completed at UBC. How these credits are divided varies depending on which stream a student has chosen. The requirements for each stream are detailed under the Stream Requirements page.
All additional degree requirements can be found on the Degree Requirements page.
A Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology at UBC can be completed in 4 years if a student takes 5 courses per term, over 4 consecutive winter sessions. If a student chooses to take more courses per term, or additional courses in the summer, they may be able to complete their degree in less time. If a student chooses to take fewer courses per year, they will extend their degree.
Once accepted into the program, Kinesiology students can proceed at their own pace. That being said, there are certain considerations students should be aware of when deciding their course load:
Duration of degree: Kinesiology is a four year degree, but could be extended if you take less than 5 courses per term. You must complete at least 120 appropriate credits to apply for graduation.
Year Promotion: Students must complete all their core Kin courses before they are eligible for promotion to the next year of academic standing. This will affect registration date, and the courses you will be eligible to take.
Housing: A student must be registered in a minimum of 18 credits for the academic year to be eligible for housing, 9 credits per term.
Scholarships: To be eligible for scholarships offered by the School of Kinesiology, students have to have been enrolled in a minimum of 27 credits during the previous year of academic study.
Student loans: If on student loans, students should inquire with their Enrolment Services Advisor (ESA) as to how many credits they need to be enrolled in to be eligible for funding.
Study Visa: Contact the International House for any questions regarding your Study Visa and its specific requirements.
A student planning to take time off should consult the KIN Undergraduate Advising Office to determine the best plan of action for their specific case. In general, a student may take one year off without any problem. If leaving for longer than one year, the student will have to contact advising to re-establish their eligibility as a UBC student, and receive a registration date and time. Returning students are typically not required to complete the admission process again.
International students looking to take time off from school should consult with the KIN Undergraduate Advising Office, as well as an International Student Advisor, to clarify how this may affect their current status and/or future permit applications.
Course Registration
Seats in all KIN courses are initially restricted to BKIN degree students when registration opens for the Summer and Winter sessions. Students from outside the BKIN program should waitlist for any course they hope to secure a seat in. BKIN students should also waitlist in the event that their preferred course becomes full. As seats become available, students are moved manually from the waitlist into the course by the Kinesiology Undergraduate Advising Office on a priority basis. In some cases, higher priority may be accorded to students in a certain year or specialization. Students are prioritized in the order of their timestamps, that is, according to the date and time that they went on the waitlist. In all cases, students must have the proper prerequisites for the course. Course instructors in the School of Kinesiology are not involved in the registration process. Please DO NOT contact instructors to assist with registration. After the first add/drop deadline, no further students will be admitted into KIN courses. Before then, our staff will move as many people from the waitlists into courses, as possible, sometimes on a daily basis in the days leading up to the add/drop deadline. PLEASE NOTE: If the waiting list is full, please check to see if seats open up as we will not be forcing students onto the waiting list. Keep in mind that our staff usually do not work at night; consequently, when it comes to the day of the add/drop deadline, the waitlists will be processed and purged earlier in the day (and not shortly before midnight).
If you are trying to switch your lab section for a course, you can:
(a) find someone in another lab who is willing to switch with you and both go to the KIN Advising Office to request for the switch to be made; or
(b) discuss your lab switch with the instructor for the course. Your switch must be approved by the instructor.
Students cannot be enrolled at two post-secondary institutions at the same time. Therefore, students have the option of taking courses from other institutions during the summer session when they are not registered in courses at UBC. Note that degree required courses cannot be taken at another institution. If planning on taking courses at another institution and transfer the credit to UBC, a student must fill out the ‘Request for Letter of Permission’ form and hand it in at the Kinesiology Undergraduate Advising Office. This form is available from the office, or can be found online here: Request for Letter of Permission
Students looking to register for distance education courses are required to contact the KIN Advising Office and request to have distance ed. credits opened. You can give us a call at 604.822.4512 or send us an e-mail at kin.advising@ubc.ca - please be sure to include your full name and student number. A student must be in good academic standing when requesting distance ed. credits. We generally do not open distance ed. credits for new to program students in their first academic year in KIN.
Credits that are specifically required for the student’s program, including all core KIN courses and 48 credits at the 300/400 level, must be taken with a percentage grade and cannot be taken with a Credit/D/Fail (Cr/D/F) standing. For advising purposes, Credit/D/Fail must be discussed and approved in writing by KIN Advising before selecting this option for a course. Students should make sure to check with the KIN Advising Office in their appointment about whether or not a course can be taken as Cr/D/F towards their program, and thoroughly read through the policies on the UBC Academic Calendar. A course selected as Cr/D/F standing cannot be changed to percentage grading after the deadline provided on the course description page.
Please refer to the Tuition Refunds page on the Student Services page. If you have further questions, please contact Enrolment Services.
Please refer to the Academic Calendar for more information on 'W' standing policies.