Course Descriptions

Course descriptions are printed in the University’s catalogs and provide information about individual courses, such as titles, prerequisites, and brief statements about the course content. Official Publications can provide course descriptions to former and current students. Course descriptions are often required in these situations:

  • application to graduate school
  • application for teaching licensure outside of Texas
  • application for the examination required to practice law in patent cases (“patent bar”)
  • application for employment outside the United States

If the institution or agency will accept information published on the Web, you can get course descriptions from the online catalogs. The online archive begins with catalogs from 1994.

If online information will not be accepted, Official Publications can make photocopies of the necessary pages from the catalog that was in effect when the course was taken. We will also photocopy the inside front cover of the catalog. If needed, we can provide letters from the registrar certifying that the photocopies are official documents, stamp the letter with the University seal, and/or notarize the letter.

To provide course descriptions, we require the student’s name and daytime telephone number, his or her UTEID (if known), a mailing address or fax number, and a list of the course descriptions needed. For each course you must provide

  • the course field of study
  • the course number
  • the year and semester in which it was taken

For example, you might request English 316K taken in the spring of 1977, or Educational Psychology 381 taken in the fall of 1984.

If you don’t have this information, we suggest that you purchase a transcript or request an academic summary so you can see exactly which courses you took.

Official Publications does not provide course syllabi. If you need a syllabus, you should contact the department that taught the course. Consult the University’s “Offices A-Z” directory for department contact information.

To request course descriptions, please contact Official Publications.