Under extenuating circumstances, a student may request approval of a course substitution to comply with a required course in the relevant program of study. The course used as a substitute must have credit hours that are at least equal to the number of credit hours of the original course. The substitute course must have relevance to the curriculum and should also have relevance to the course for which the substitution is made. A course substitution may be granted upon review and recommendation of the director/department chair to the dean and in consultation with the Chief Academic Officer. Consideration of any substitution involving a required core course as stipulated in the curriculum standard must receive additional approval by the North Carolina Community College System Office staff. The course substitution form must be approved and submitted to the Registrar’s Office prior to the student registering for the substituted course. In rare instances, a course substitution may be requested at the time of graduation. In these situations, the course substitutions will be at the discretion of the Chief Academic Officer. The Registrar’s office will process the course substitutions at the time of the form submission.
If it becomes necessary to request a course substitution to comply with a prerequisite for a course in the student’s program of study, the student should follow the same process used to request a course substitution for a program requirement. The course substituted for the required prerequisite should have equivalent subject content to the required course. Substitutions must be approved before the student registers for the course for which the prerequisite substitution is being requested. Prerequisite substitutions are rare.