Petitioning Courses 

Courses taken abroad or at other colleges or universities in the U.S. must be petitioned. There are even a few UC San Diego courses that may need to be petitioned. Below is the form and instructions for the Student Petition process.

A Student Petition is basically a request to the Director of the Chinese Studies Program to review and approve a course that has not previously been reviewed or is not already approved as a Chinese Studies course by the UC San Diego Academic Senate.

You may meet with the Program Coordinator for assistance with this form but you should prepare all of your course materials so that they may be included with your petition.

• Upon returning from study abroad a student will need to petition each course for review and approval by the Director of the Chinese Studies Program. A student may also need to petition a UC San Diego course that is not pre-approved.
• Please provide any necessary materials from the course to demonstrate its relevance to Chinese Studies. The syllabus is most important, and you may also submit other course materials if desired, such as textbooks, notes, handouts, presentations, final paper, exams, etc. Please see FAQ tab more information. 

• Courses must be 4 or more quarter units.

• Unfortunately, we are unable to accept courses whose topic cover the Asian-American experience such as those offered by the Ethnic Department at UC San Diego. 

How to Complete a Student Petition:

1. Fill out the Student Petition form for each course
2. Complete the information at the top of the form
   • Reason for Request: To use __(write course & number)__ towards earning a B.A. / minor in Chinese Studies.
     (Select either B.A. or minor and write those words in your petition.)Use one of the following examples within the boxes on your form for your request:
     
     a) Use this example for a course taken at an university other than UC San Diego:
     
     • Request: To review and approve __(write course & number)__: __(write course's full title)__ from __(write school's name)__ as an upper-division language / non-language Chinese Studies elective.
       (Select either language or non-language and write in those words in your Student Petition.)
     • Reason for Request: To use __(write course & number)__ towards earning a B.A. / minor in Chinese Studies.
       (Select either B.A. or minor and write those words in your petition.)
     
     b) Use this example for a course taken at UC San Diego:
     
     • Request: To review and approve __(write course & number)__: __(write course's full title)__ as an upper-division language / non-language Chinese Studies elective.
       (Select either language or non-language and write in those words in your Student Petition.)                                   
3. Gather any necessary course materials, especially the course syllabus as supporting evidence to include with your student petition
4. Save your petition as a PDF file and name it as follows: 
           Name(LastFirst) PTTN Date (MMDDYYYY)
           Example: SmithJohnPTTN03252024
5. Email petition forms and supporting documents to chinesestudies@ucsd.edu.
6. Once the petitions have been reviewed by the Program Director, you will receive a VAC message with the results, and your Degree Audit will be updated accordingly.