Registration Rules

Political Science and International Relations Department

Undergraduate Program Registration Rules

Credit Load

Minimum credits that can be taken is 15. A faculty board decision is needed to take credits below 15, except the student is graduating within the academic year.
Average credit that must be taken per semester is 17. Maximum credit that can be taken per semester is 25.
For 21 credits and above, students should have a GPA of over 2.00.
For 26 credits students should have a GPA of over 2.00 and their advisor’s approval.
To be able to take more than 26 credits, students should be able to graduate at the end of the semester and should have the approval of their advisor.
The failed courses have to be taken on the first semester that the course is offered. The only exception to this rule can be made for irregular, Double Major, and Transfer students.
The students with a GPA below 2.00 cannot take over the average 17 credits. They may repeat their courses with letter grades DC/DD in addition to repeated F courses. Besides these courses, they may take two new courses at most.
The required courses have to be taken on the semester indicated in the curriculum. The only exception to this rule can be made for irregular, Double Major, and Transfer students.

Pols 203 and 206

Under no circumstances these courses can be taken within the same semester.
No other courses from any department can substitute Pols 203 and Pols 206. This rule can be bended for transfer students during the process of transfer.

Foreign Students: Pols 102 und AD 131

Foreign students can take a departmental elective course instead of POLS 102.
Foreign students may take an elective course of their choice instead of AD 131 only during semesters when AD 131 is not offered in English.

Repeated Courses

The failed courses have to be taken on the first semester that the course is offered. In special cases, the Faculty Board can postpone the repeating of the course or may allow a withdrawal from the course with the consent of the advisor.
Students who have received an F grade from elective courses must repeat that course in the first semester it is offered or take an equivalent course with a notation of "R". In this case, the grade received in the new course replaces the F, but the F grade will appear in the student's academic record.
At most six of the courses with a DC or DD grade (only 1xx and 2xx coded courses) could be repeated. Only one such course can be repeated in a given semester, and the course should be repeated within the four semesters following DC or DD grade.
In case of repeated courses, regardless of the former grade, the later grade is applied.
Students are not allowed to take elective courses from 2 classes below or above.

Repetition of Elective Courses

The “unrestricted” or “area elective” courses that are graded F can be repeated by another “unrestricted” or “area elective” course. In order to be eligible for graduation, there should be no unrepeated F grade in student’s transcript.

Courses in Conflict

Students may have 2 conflicts (2 x 1 hour) on their schedule at most. Two hours of conflict with the same course is not allowed.

Elective Language Courses

Students that are graduated from a foreign language medium school or those who are advanced in a foreign language could only take 3xx or 4xx coded language courses. (For instance, a student graduated from a French medium school could only take 3xx or 4xx coded French courses, as the students coming from Turkic Republics could only take 3xx or 4xx coded Russian courses)
3xx coded language courses are counted as “unrestricted elective”, whereas 4xx coded language courses are counted as “complementary elective” or “unrestricted elective”.

Elective Courses

Departmental electives can be counted as ‘complementary’ or ‘unrestricted’ elective.
Complementary electives are courses from the following departments: History (HIST), Economics (EC), Management (AD), Sociology (SOC), Psychology (PSY), Philosophy (PHIL), and ATA.
“Unrestricted elective” courses can be taken from any department. Two 2-credit PA courses are counted as one elective course in total. Also, three 2-credit PA courses are counted as two elective courses in total.
The credits from PE courses do not count for graduation.

HSS Electives

Those students whose Proficiency Exam Grade is A or B are required to take HSS electives for two semesters, and they are not allowed to take Advanced English Courses. Courses that can count towards the HSS elective are announced by the university administration. The current list of HSS courses is found here: Please consult the registration (OBIKAS) website frontpage, announcements section, for possible updates on this list. The department of Political Science and International Relations especially recommends HIST 105/106, HUM 101/102, SCI 101/102 and all 1xx coded Philosophy courses as HSS courses to take for the department’s students.

Those students whose Proficiency Exam Grade is C may take Advanced English Courses for two semesters (AE101 and AE102).

On Probation Status

A student whose GPA is lower than 2.00 at the end of any semester, is "on probation." A student who is "on probation" is not allowed to carry extra credit hours. These students cannot be president, vice president or member of the board of administrators of any student club of BU.

Repeating (Underachieving) Status

28) Students who are admitted to any undergraduate program of the University have to maintain a GPA of 2.00 and above.

A student whose GPA is lower than 2.00 is considered an "underachieving" student if his/her SPA remains lower than 2.00 for two consecutive semesters.
The course load of an "underachieving" student cannot exceed the department’s average credit load. In addition to repeating the course in which he/she has received a grade of F, he/she can repeat a DD or DC course and/or take a maximum of 2 new courses, on condition that the total credits of these courses do not exceed the department's average semester credits.
Underachieving students can take up to 3 courses or 10 credits in the summer term. They can repeat the course for which they have received a grade of F, DD, or DC, and may take no more than 2 new courses.
The status of underachievement in the beginning of the fall semester is determined by taking into account the student's GPA at the end of the summer term. The student's summer term average is not taken into consideration in the calculation of the student's SPA, but is included in his/her GPA.
Students who have raised their GPA to over 2.00 by repeating courses can continue their education as regular students.

Graduation and pass exam:

Graduation

29)To be eligible for graduation from an undergraduate program and receive a diploma, a student must be registered and complete the undergraduate program with a minimum GPA of 2.00.

A student who has a GPA of 2.00 or above but has failed to meet graduation requirements because he/she has received a grade of F in no more than one course may be allowed by the related Executive Committee (with the approval of the course instructor) to take an examination or carry out an equivalent academic study, without having to repeat the course.