Course Units and Academic Matters
Enrolling onto academic course units
Course unit enrolments are administered through the University’s Course Unit Selection system in Campus Solutions/MyManchester. You will automatically be enrolled onto a Mandatory Health & Safety unit, and you will self-enrol onto some of your Optional units when course unit selection opens. Level 2 and 3 units open in early August annually, and Level 1 units in early September. The system will show the list of units you are eligible to self-enrol upon, checks your credit total, and flags timetable clashes.
As a Study Abroad/Exchange student, which course units can I enrol myself onto?
The course units which Inbound Study Abroad/Exchange students can take is determined by the nature of any agreement we have with their home university.
This means different students will see different course units available in their portal for enrolment.
However, there are some common principles which will apply to different categories of students. All students will see they are enrolled onto a mandatory Health & Safety unit, which you must complete in Canvas as soon as possible. Do not forget to do this, as we will not issue a Transcript for you at the end of your study if you do not complete this unit, and we will not send you any reminders to do so.
Check your offer letter to see which kind of programme you will be on:
- If your offer letter states “University-wide Exchange”, you are on a university-wide exchange programme.
- If your offer letter states “Study Abroad (Fee no-Exchange)”, you are on a Fee-Paying Study Abroad programme.
- If your offer letter states “Exchange [subject area]”, you are on a Subject-Specific Exchange.
- If your offer letter states “ERASMUS [French/German/Italian/Spanish & Portuguese], you are on a Modern Languages Exchange.
- If your offer letter states “Exchange Humanities”, you are on a Faculty of Humanities exchange
Here is guidance for each cohort of students:
University-Wide Exchange AND Fee-Paying Study Abroad students
- You can self-enrol onto any of the L1 and 2 units you see available in your portal.
- All Level 3 units require academic approval, and therefore you cannot self-enrol onto any units at Level 3 – instead, PIP staff will complete enrolment onto approved L3 units for you. If you wish to take a L3 unit, do the following:
-
- Email the relevant Visiting Student Officer (VSO) for that subject area to request permission to take the unit. Include your UoM ID number.
- If you receive approval from the VSO, ensure they have copied exchangestudy@manchester.ac.uk into their reply
- PIP staff will then attempt to enrol you onto the L3 unit on the basis of that email confirmation
- You do not need to contact the VSO for any Level 3 units you already submitted before 1 July via the online form you were sent in June. We have already sought academic approval for those on your behalf.
- If you find yourself unable to enrol onto a L1 or 2 unit because you receive a prompt indicating that ‘departmental consent’ is required, or you do not meet the pre-requisites, complete this form: https://forms.office.com/e/LHAVcwLXKg and PIP staff will attempt to enrol you onto it.
Subject-Specific Exchange students (EXCLUDING Business-specific and Modern Languages exchange students)
- You can self-enrol onto the Level 1 and 2 units you see in your portal;
- All Level 3 units require academic approval, and therefore you cannot self-enrol onto any units at Level 3 – instead, PIP staff will complete enrolments onto approved L3 units for you. If you wish to take a L3 unit, do the following:
-
- Email the relevant Visiting Student Officer (VSO) for that subject area to request permission to take the unit. Include your UoM ID number. Visiting Student Officer contact details are here:
- If you receive approval from the VSO, ensure they have copied exchangestudy@manchester.ac.uk into their reply (forward their reply to us if not)
- PIP staff will then attempt to enrol you onto the L3 unit on the basis of that email confirmation
- You do not need to contact the VSO for any Level 3 units you already submitted before 1 July via the online form you were sent in June. We have already sought academic approval for those on your behalf.
- You can take a maximum of one course unit from outside the subject area of the exchange. If this unit is at L1 or 2, you can self-enrol in your portal. If the unit is at L3, follow the process described above to seek approval initially.
- If you encounter a pop-up preventing you from enrolling onto an eligible unit, submit the details via this form and we will attempt to enrol you: https://forms.office.com/e/LHAVcwLXKg
Business School Specific Exchange students
Undergraduate Business
- You can enrol yourself onto the undergraduate Business course units in your portal at Levels 1, 2 and 3
- You can take a maximum of one course unit from outside the Business School. If this unit is at L1 or 2, you can self-enrol in your portal. If the unit is at L3, follow the process below to seek approval initially.
- If the non-BMAN unit is at Level 3, you must do the following:
- Email the Visiting Student Officer (VSO) for that subject area to request permission to take the unit;
- If you receive approval from the VSO, ensure they have copied exchangestudy@manchester.ac.uk into their reply, and PIP staff will then attempt to enrol you onto it on the basis of that email (forward the email to us if not)
- You do not need to contact the VSO for any Level 3 units you already submitted before 1 July via the online form you were sent in June. We have already sought academic approval for those on your behalf.
Postgraduate Business
- You can enrol yourself onto the postgraduate Business units you see in your portal.
- You cannot select any units outside of the Business School or the list you see in your portal.
- Postgraduate course unit enrolment opens on 1 September.
Modern Languages Exchange students
- You cannot self-enrol onto ANY course units at any level.
- You must liaise with your Manchester academic Erasmus Coordinator about the units available to you.
- You must liaise with School of Arts, Languages & Cultures (SALC) Administrators regarding enrolment onto those units. SALC Administrators will complete all enrolments for you.
Faculty of Humanities Exchange students
- You can self-enrol onto any of the L1 and 2 units you see available in your portal.
- All Level 3 units require academic approval, and therefore you cannot self-enrol onto any units at Level 3 – instead, PIP staff will complete approved L3 enrolments for you. If you wish to take a L3 unit, do the following:
-
- Email the relevant Visiting Student Officer (VSO) for that subject area to request permission to take the unit. Include your UoM ID number.
- If you receive approval from the VSO, ensure they have copied exchangestudy@manchester.ac.uk into their reply (forward to us if not)
- PIP staff will then attempt to enrol you onto the L3 unit on the basis of that email confirmation
- You do not need to contact the VSO for any Level 3 units you already submitted before 1 July via the online form you were sent in June. We have already sought academic approval for those on your behalf.
- The only units you can select outside the Faculty of Humanities are those with a course code beginning UCIL
- If you find yourself unable to enrol onto a L1 or L2 unit because you receive a prompt indicating that ‘departmental consent’ is required, or you do not meet the pre-requisites, complete this form: https://forms.office.com/e/LHAVcwLXKg and PIP staff will attempt to enrol you onto it.
ENROLMENT SYSTEM
Information on how you get started and navigate to the course unit enrolment system can be found here: https://www.studentsupport.manchester.ac.uk/study-support/course-unit-selection/
When to enrol
Different subject areas open their course units for enrolment on different dates. Here are the dates/times when enrolment opens for each subject area and you can therefore try to enrol yourself from this date. Once open, the system does not close until 9 October, so do not worry if you cannot log in as soon as enrolment opens:
|
Course Code prefix
|
Level
|
Date
|
Time
|
|
BIOL, PSYC, HSTM
|
2
(ie. FIRST number in the course code is 2)
|
Monday 3 August 2026
|
10:00am (UK time)
|
|
1
(ie. FIRST number in the course code is 1)
|
Tuesday 1 September 2026
|
10:00am (UK time)
|
|
CHEN, CHEM, COMP, MECH, AERO, CIVL, MATS, MATH, PHYS
|
2
(ie. FIRST number in the course code is 2)
|
Tuesday 4 August 2026
|
2:00pm (UK time)
|
|
1
(ie. FIRST number in the course code is 1)
|
Tuesday 1 September 2026
|
10:00am (UK time)
|
|
BMAN, CAHE, AHCP, CHIN, CRIM, DIGI, DRAM, ECON, EDUC, MCEL, MGDI, AMER, ENGL, LELA, LAWS, FREN, GEOG, GERM, HIST, HCRI, JAPA, UL--, MEST, MUSC, PHIL, PLAN, POLI, RELT, RUSS, SOAN, SOST, SOCY, SPLA, UCIL
|
2
(ie. FIRST number in the course code is 2)
|
Thursday 6 August 2026
|
10:00am
|
|
1
(ie. FIRST number in the course code is 1)
|
Tuesday 1 September 2026
|
10:00am (UK time)
|
Do NOT attempt to enrol yourself onto any units in advance of these dates, even if it appears that you can, because the enrolment may not save.
Please note that semester 1 courses (ending in 1) are only available in semester 1 and semester 2 courses (ending in 2) are only available in semester 2. Full year courses (ending in 0) can only be taken if you are applying for the full year.
Please note that occasionally Schools may need to remove you from a unit that you have enrolled upon. A key reason for this is that some units have a fixed number of places available, and degree students - for whom the unit is mandatory - need to take all the available slots. Schools would contact you to explain where this happens. You must select another unit in such a circumstance. There is no ability to petition/appeal to remain on the unit. We remind you that by accepting our offer of study, you confirmed that you were able to be flexible in the units you could take.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
Please check the trouble-shooting information below carefully before you contact us with queries, as your question may be answered here:
Error messages:
- Many students will see an error message when they try to enrol themselves onto some Level 1 or 2 units, indicating that ‘Departmental Consent’ or ‘Pre-Requisites’ are required. Where this happens, please submit the relevant details via this form: https://forms.office.com/e/LHAVcwLXKg. We will then attempt to enrol you onto the unit. If we cannot enrol you (because, for example, the unit is full), we will notify you of this so you can enrol onto an alternative unit. If we complete the enrolment, we will not confirm this separately by email because you will instead see the unit appear in your enrolments in your Student Centre .
Accessing the system:
- The system will run very slowly on the above opening dates because lots of students access it at the same time. Please don’t contact us to say you are struggling to access - keep trying and remember that, once open on the dates above, units don’t close until 9 October so even if you can’t enrol on the opening date, you can attempt enrolment over subsequent weeks. Similarly, do not contact us to say that you will be on holiday/working and so will be unable to complete enrolments on those dates – simply try at the first point you are able to afterwards.
Courseloads:
- All exchange students must enrol on 50-60 credits per semester. If you have too many or too few credits after the end of the add/drop period (9 October), our team will add/remove course units to ensure that you meet this requirement.
- You cannot be in two places at once, and so the system should prevent you from enrolling onto units with lectures which clash in the timetable. However, Schools may allocate you to small-seminar groups in the coming weeks which may create clashes. You will need to review your timetable in September and if you have a clash, you will need to go back into your enrolment system and drop one of the clashing units and pick a replacement. We have stressed previously that flexibility is a fundamental pre-requisite for you to participate in our programme.
- Course units fill up. You will be in exactly the same position as full-degree students in that some of the units you wanted to take are not showing as available because they are full. Pick another unit where this is the case. As students add and drop units between August and October, places may open up, at which point you may be able to enrol yourself.
- If you are studying with us for Semester 1 only (Sept-Jan), make sure you do not select any units which are Semester 2/Full Year.
- If you are on a subject-specific exchange, we will check your enrolment profile in early October. If you are on more than one course unit from outside the subject area of your exchange, we will drop you from ANY unit outside the subject area (you will not be able to choose which) and will enrol you onto ANY replacement unit in your subject area (you will not be able to choose which) in order to maintain the required semester creditload.
‘Planning’ vs ‘Enrolling’:
- ‘Planning’ a unit is not the same as ‘Enrolling’ on it. Make sure that you press the ‘Enrol’ button for all units you have planned, to process the enrolment. Using the ‘Plan’ function will allow you to view scheduling information for Level 3 units, but our office cannot see your ‘Planned’ units, so will not process any L3 enrolments on the basis of you selecting them as ‘planned’ in your portal.
