Part-time Studies Registration – International

BCIT is experiencing a dramatic increase in international student registrations in our Part-time Studies courses. While we welcome the diverse experiences and perspectives international students bring to our campus and classrooms, with that change comes both opportunity and challenges. We are hearing—from both students and instructors—that the lack of balance between domestic and international students impacts the student experience, particularly where English language proficiency in the classroom widely varies. In these cases, instructors struggle to meet the needs of all students, and student grades and satisfaction may be impacted during group work and other class interactions.

BCIT is committed to providing exceptional learning environments and communities, and part of that is ensuring we provide a balance of seats between domestic and international students. Reserving seats for domestic students allows us to address some of these challenges and ensure balanced learning experiences for all our students. This balance supports BCIT’s mandate to ensure a skills-ready workforce for the key sectors in BC’s economy and communities.

All Part-time Studies courses in the School of Business + Media and School of Computing and Academic Studies are subject to this registration process.

A portion of seats will be reserved for domestic students and the remaining seats available to all students. The number of seats reserved will vary from course to course because class sizes also vary. You will be able to view the number of remaining seats in the course catalog.

When registration opens at 9:00 am (PST) on February 24, a portion of seats will be available to all registrants, including international students. On March 10, any vacant seats will be released to all students. It should be noted, however, that in some cases, seats may simply be full. It is also possible that a student could drop a course at any time, creating an available seat.

Many of our Part-time Studies courses are in high demand. We recommend you choose one or more “back up” courses from your program prior to registration. You will want to have these alternatives ready if your first choice course is full.

If you are an international student and you are unable to register for a course after registration opens on February 24 but before any vacant seats are released, it may be because the remaining seats are being held for domestic students. On March 10, registration will open to all students and, provided the course still has seats available, you may try again.