Fewer new classes, less global travel in Fall 2026 course offerings

Wildlife documentary making in Kenya. Migration reporting in Germany. Learning Chinese history through video game development and world building. Fall 2026 classes were released on Thursday, March 26, ahead of course selection beginning on Wednesday, April 15. At time of publication, 1,438 total classes are available to be chosen for the upcoming semester, down from the 1,649 being offered in Fall 2025, according to the Course Registrar.

Total courses

The School of Public and International Affairs will be offering the most courses next semester, with 58 options, including cross-listed courses. This is closely followed by the economics and history departments at 57 and 55 options, respectively. This is consistent with previous years, as SPIA has consistently offered the most courses in Spring 2026 and Fall 2025. Even after the University’s class sizes have expanded over the last four years, the total number of course offerings this fall has not changed significantly since Fall 2023, which had 1,562 course offerings.

New courses

There are 127 new courses offered this fall across 67 subjects, a seven-course decrease compared to Fall 2025. African American Studies and English are the departments offering the most new courses this semester, with 13 per department, followed by comparative literature with 10 courses and history and politics, both with nine.

Courses by distribution requirement

Across all fall courses, Literature and the Arts (LA) is the distribution requirement with the largest number of courses offered, at 224 classes. This is followed by Social Analysis (SA) with 134 courses, making it the second most popular distribution, and Quantitative and Computational Reasoning (QCR) with 91 courses. This remains largely consistent with the trends across the courses offered in Spring 2026, although there were more Historical Analysis (HA) courses than QCR courses that semester than in the upcoming semester.

International Travel

For this upcoming fall semester, three courses offer international travel, a decrease from five in Spring 2026. These are ANT 455: Visible Evidence — Wildlife Films and Multispecies Documentary; JRN 449: International News — Migration Reporting; and FRE 217: Revisiting Paris. All three are returning courses: JRN 449 and ANT 455 were both offered last fall, and FRE 217 was last offered in Fall 2024. 

In JRN 449, students will travel to Berlin, to report from the field. In ANT 455, students have the opportunity to visit Kenya to create films about the scientific and conservation work happening at the Mpala Research Centre, while FRE 217 brings students to Paris, over fall break to better understand Parisian cultural identity.

FRE 388: Theater Making in the Age of Climate Change, will no longer bring students to France to understand how French and European plays are engaging in climate change initiatives, as it did last fall.

Enrollment limits

Among the six departments offering the most courses in Fall 2026, the average class size was found and compared across departments. Of these departments, English offers the smallest class sizes with a median of 15 spaces for students per class, followed by the history department with a median of 19 students per course. In contrast, of these departments, computer science is the one that offers the largest median class size, with 60 students per course. 

So, whether small classes, a trip to Kenya, or no classes on Fridays are on your agenda for next semester, this schedule will depend on course registration. Course selection for rising seniors is on Wednesday, April 15, followed by rising juniors on Thursday, April 16, and rising sophomores on April 17, all at 7:30 a.m. 

Christine Cai is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’

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