Eligibility
You must be a current graduate student (Master’s or PhD) at the University of Toronto in order to register for GCAC courses. While our courses are free, the program itself is funded through the fees paid by graduate students.
This funding structure means that the following groups are ineligible to take GCAC courses:
- Non U of T students
- Undergraduate students
- Postdoctoral fellows
- International visiting graduate students
(see IVGS Study Abroad Agreement, Terms of the Study Abroad Agreement, Section D)
Please note: GCAC does not make any exceptions regarding course eligibility. We also do not allow auditors in our courses as space is limited and the courses are designed for dynamic interaction between students and instructors.
Those who are ineligible to take GCAC courses should consider attending our single-session workshops. GCAC workshops are open to the U of T community; anyone is welcome to attend and registration is not limited.
Postdoctoral fellows wishing to take English language courses should contact the Postdoctoral Office (sgs.postdoc@utoronto.ca or 416-946-5254) or the School of Continuing Studies (learn@utoronto.ca or 416-978-2400).
Course Information
If you need any help in choosing the course that is best suited to your needs, contact Dr. Jane Freeman:
- Email: jane.freeman@utoronto.ca
- Phone: 416-946-7314
We understand that you are busy with assignments and deadlines in your regular graduate program, and thus we keep homework to a minimum. That said, we cannot help you improve your writing / speaking unless we see your work. Wherever possible, we base “homework” assignments on the writing / speaking that you are currently completing in your department.
For example, in the Oral Presentation Skills course, you are invited to give a shortened version of a presentation that you will actually be giving in a course or at a conference. In the writing courses, instructors provide you with valuable individualized feedback based on the writing errors they see in the writing samples you submit: samples that may consist of sections of proposals, course papers, or thesis chapters that you are working on as part of your graduate study.
The different sections of the same course cover the same curriculum at the same level. The only significant difference will be the time at which the course is offered. While different instructors will naturally emphasize slightly different elements of the course, we strive to keep each course consistent across sections.
No, the non-credit courses you take at GCAC will not be included on your transcript. However, if you would like your supervisor to know that you are taking our courses, we would be happy to contact them.
No, you will not receive a grade for any of our courses, but you will receive detailed, constructive feedback on written and oral work.
Please contact your instructor by email and inform them of the reason for your absence before class. Please note that GCAC has a strict attendance policy. Students who accept a space in a course and miss more than one class will be blocked from registering in the following course session.
If you wish to drop a course or remove yourself from a waiting list, please log in to Folio and navigate to ‘My Dashboard’ > ‘Event Bookings’, then choose the course to modify.
If you wish to drop a course after it has started, please contact our office at sgs.gcacreg@utoronto.ca. Be aware that unless you inform your instructor, students who miss a class without a legitimate reason will be blocked from registering in the first session of the next term.
After successful registration, you will be added to the course’s Quercus page 1-2 business days before the first class. Here, the Zoom link (for online courses) or building/room location (for in-person courses) will be listed.
Please visit the campus map to find out exactly how to get to your in-person course.
The School of Graduate Studies has four Divisions:
- Division 1: Humanities
- Division 2: Social Sciences
- Division 3: Physical Sciences
- Division 4: Life Sciences
Workshops
Courses require more commitment and they provide more help than single-session workshops. During a three to six week course, your teacher will provide you with feedback on your written or oral assignments in order to help you to identify and address specific problems in your oral/written communication. All of our writing courses include opportunities for students to meet with the instructors one-on-one to discuss their writing samples.
Live workshops, on the other hand, provide only limited opportunity for individual feedback. Each 90-minute workshop focuses on a particular topic and some may be more discussion-based than others. Many students who register for courses also choose to attend specific workshops relevant to their needs.
On-demand workshops vary in topic and length, but can be viewed at any time to suit students’ schedules.
One-on-One Writing Appointments
Students are invited to bring pieces of academic writing at any stage. Instructors can help you to get your ideas into the form of an outline, to assess the effectiveness of your paper’s structure, to evaluate the clarity of your writing, or to identify and avoid stylistic and grammatical errors. The writing appointments are not a proofreading service. They are designed to help you to learn how to evaluate and improve your own writing.
No. GCAC is not a proofreading service. Our mandate is to teach students to improve their own writing and speaking. In our courses, workshops, and consulting appointments, students are taught to identify and address the problems in their writing. While we recognize that this process takes much longer than a quick copy edit, we also know that students are not well served by becoming dependent on our writing skills instead of developing their own.
Numerous online resources are available to assist you as you continue to improve your writing/speaking. Check the Additional Resources page on the GCAC website for lists of both on-campus and off-campus resources.