UNIVERSITY CATALOG: 2024-2025

Enrollment of Non-Matriculated Students in CSUN State-Supported and CSUN Self-Supported Special Session Courses

  1. Each CSU is authorized to enroll non-matriculated students in state-supported regular courses and in self-supported special session courses. At CSUN, self-supported special sessions are Winter Term and, when CSUN chooses to offer it via self-support funding, Summer Session.
  2. Non-matriculated students earning academic credits by enrolling through one of CSUN’s programs that are designed to serve non-matriculated students (currently Open University serving the broader community, Advancing Student Achievement Program (ASAP) serving CSUN formerly matriculated students, and Semester at CSUN serving international students) can apply up to 24 semester credit units to a degree program. The determination regarding which courses are applicable to a given degree is made at CSUN in the same way credits earned from other institutions are determined to be applicable (or not applicable) to a given degree program. CSUN considers the 24 semester credit unit maximum to be applicable to an undergraduate degree. CSUN permits up to 9 semester credit units of “B” or better coursework to be applied to a graduate degree. Non-matriculated students earning academic credits by enrolling through one of these programs may also transfer up to, but no more than, twenty-five percent of the units required for a credit-bearing certificate program, as outlined in the respective certificate program policies (see Policy on Certificates).
  3. Non-matriculated students can register in state-supported courses or self-supported special session courses after reasonable steps have been taken to provide full enrollment opportunity to eligible matriculated students. At CSUN, enrollment is only open to non-matriculated students when CSUN’s nonrestrictive registration period begins for Fall Semester, Spring Semester, and Summer Session. For Winter Term, registration is open to non-matriculated students one week after the registration opens for matriculated students given the compressed registration period for that term.
  4. Non-matriculated students can only register for a particular course on a space available basis.
  5. Non-matriculated students are expected to have fulfilled the required prerequisites a given course may have. A given college/department can determine whether or not particular courses are open to non-matriculated student enrollment. If a college/department designates a course as restricted and, therefore, not open to enrollment for non-matriculated students, that college/department may still allow specific non-matriculated students that they deem appropriate to enroll for the course in question by issuing a permission number that would allow the student register for that course.
  6. During the Fall Semester and Spring Semester, CSUN also requires that non-matriculated students obtain a permission number that would allow them to register for a given course. Permission numbers at CSUN can be given at the start of the nonrestrictive registration period or later if it is unclear at that point whether or not space will be available. All case decisions regarding granting or not granting permission numbers to a specific non-matriculated student should be made by the end of the second week of class.
  7. To avoid interfering with instruction and to support student success, if a decision about whether or not to give a student a permission number for a given course is not made before the course begins, the non-matriculated student in question should be treated like other enrolled students in the course in terms of being given access to course materials and Canvas (or other digital) course sites so they do not fall behind while waiting for the permission number decision.
  8. Permission numbers for a given course are issued either by the faculty member teaching that course or by the department chair in collaboration with the appropriate faculty member based on what a given department and the faculty it comprises have deemed appropriate for best managing the distinctive enrollment dynamics of that department. Deans and/or associate deans should review the approaches taken by each department in the college at least once every three years to ensure that best practices and changes at the CSU/CSUN levels are shared as appropriate.
  9. For students formerly matriculated at CSUN and now in the ASAP program, advising is and has been required before registration is allowed. CSUN disqualified students are referred to the associate dean in the college of their major who works closely with a designated member of that college’s advising staff to guide the student in question to the best path forward. Associate deans are able to make and administer readmission plans for specific students as well as to provide appropriate guidance when a student does not have a promising path forward in a given major.
  10. CSUN’s Tseng College is charged with the responsibility of working with others as warranted in CSU/CSUN to ensure CSUN is in compliance with CSU policy from the perspectives of student support services, marketing and communications, application and enrollment systems and services, record keeping, and financial management.