University Archives

About Course Outlines

Course outlines, also known as a syllabus, are documents that give students an outline on what to expect from a specific course.  Course outlines have evolved significantly over time and many include information on how a course is delivered, topics to be covered, required or recommended readings, assignment details, course policies, and other information related to the course.  The exact information contained in each outline varies from one outline to the next, with often significant variations over time, between faculties, and between individual course instructors.

The University of Calgary Archives is the final repository for all course outlines for all courses offered by the University of Calgary.  We currently have a collection of over 60,000 course outlines.  While the archives is the final repository, not all faculties and departments have yet transferred their course outlines to the archives.

Course Outlines Holdings

The University of Calgary Archives holds over 60,000 course outlines from a number of faculties and departments.  Our holdings currently span the years 1966-2023, but the years covered for different departments and faculties vary.  While we aim to have a complete collection, there are many gaps in our collection.  This is especially true for courses prior to the mid-1990s, courses delivered at locations other than UCalgary campuses in Calgary, courses taught in conjunction with another institution, reading or individual study courses, laboratory, co-op, or work experience courses, and upper level seminar courses (generally in the upper 600 range).  We also may not hold a course outlines for each individual section of a course.

Some of our collection has been digitized and can viewed on our Digital Collections website.  Note that due to copyright restrictions, these outlines cannot be downloaded directly.  To request copies, see the information on this guide.

The following is a table of the faculties and departments that have transferred, in whole or in part, their course outlines to the archives.  The years indicate our coverage for each faculty or department.

Last updated: October 2024

How to Request Course Outlines

The archives can provide copies of course outlines for personal use and private study.  To request course outlines, please email asc@ucalgary.libanswers.com and include the course code, course number, term, and year for each course outline you are requesting.  For example, NURS 287, Winter 2014.  Please also include the name of the course, if known.

If you are requesting outlines from a specific course section or from a specific instructor, include this information too.  If we cannot find the specific course outline you request, we will look for an outline from the same course from a close year.

Charges may apply for large requests.  

The archives can also send course outlines directly to an accrediting body.  To request this, email with the information above and also include the email of the accreditation body that the course outlines should be emailed to.

Additional Links

Not all course outlines have been transferred to the University Archives.  If the faculty or department is not listed in the table above, you will need to contact that faculty or department directly.  A list of faculty and department contacts can be found in the UCalgary Business Directory.

The UCalgary Calendar also contains short, 1-2 sentence descriptions of each course offered.  These descriptions may not be detailed enough for all purposes.  All of the UCalgary Calendars have been digitized and are available on our Digital Collections website.  As of 2016, UCalgary only publishes an online version of the calendar.  Archived digital versions of the UCalgary Calendar are available at this link.

Transferring Course Outlines to the Archives

Faculties and departments looking to transfer their course outlines to the archives can contact Curtis Frederick, University Records Archivist at curtis.frederick@ucalgary.ca.