Number of fall courses holds steady

The university will offer roughly the same number of courses next semester as it did last fall, Registrar Polly Griffin said. The University offered only 706 courses last semester, compared to the 738 courses offered this spring.

Though it is “a little bit premature” to know the exact number of courses that will be offered for the fall 2010 semester, Griffin explained, it is likely that the number will be similar to last semester’s.

In the 2008-09 academic year, 715 fall courses and 767 spring courses were offered, according to the Office of the Registrar. In the 2007-08 academic year, 708 courses were offered in the fall semester and 754 were offered in the spring semester. Over the past three years, the difference between the number of fall courses and the number of spring courses has vared between 32 and 52, with spring courses outnumbering fall courses.

Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel said in an e-mail that she does not know why more courses are offered in the spring semester.

The number of distinct courses offered each semester differs from the number of total records indicated on the registrar’s website, which listed 1,157 as of Thursday evening. Griffin noted that this total number includes not only courses, but also course components such as labs and precepts.

Malkiel and Griffin added that there are currently no plans to change the quantity of courses offered in the future, noting that the number of students per class is now at a “steady state.” The Class of 2014 is the second to be admitted with a target size of 1,300 students.