Enrolment waitlisting: FAQs

To join a waitlist, the course or class must have waitlisting available and must be full. 

Most courses and some classes have waitlisting available. You can hover over the orange alert icons in your Enrolment Basket (for courses) or Class Registration page (for classes) on myUNSW to check if waitlisting is available. 

If waitlisting is not available for your course or class and is full, you can submit a Full Class Request.

By default, the waitlist will enrol students in the order they joined the waitlist. Students who joined first, will be enrolled first. However, UNSW reserves the right to adjust the waitlist order. 

Once a space in the course or class becomes available and you are at the top of the waitlist, you will be automatically enrolled. 
 
You will then receive an email to your UNSW student email to notify you of the change within an hour.

After joining a waitlist, you will need to monitor your UNSW student email notifications. 

Joining a waitlist does not guarantee that you will be enrolled. We recommend that you continue to search for alternative enrolment options in your program Handbook or contact The Nucleus: Student Hub for help in finding alternative courses. 

You must follow the maximum enrolment limit (normally 18 UOC per term) when joining any waitlist. If you are already enrolled in the maximum UOC, you can instead join a waitlist by choosing to swap into a full course from one of your enrolled courses.

You will remain enrolled in your current course until a place in the waitlisted course becomes available. If a space opens up, your enrolment will then be swapped without exceeding the maximum UOC for the term.

While you are on the waitlist, you can move up (closer to number 1 on the list) or down (to the bottom of the list). This happens when other students on the list are enrolled, leave the list, or if the list is sorted or prioritised. 

You can join multiple waitlists up to your maximum UOC (normally 18 UOC per term).

If you are enrolled in multiple courses and in a waitlist for your last course, you can still enrol in another course, however your waitlist will be put on hold until you swap into it from another course.

Waitlisting enrolment follows the same enrolment rules as standard Course Enrolment. Check the Waitlisting Rules section to see why you may not have been enrolled.

If you leave and rejoin a waitlist, you will be put to the bottom of the waitlist.

If you accidentally leave a waitlist, you will lose your position and will not be able to get that position back if you rejoin the list.  

You can see your position and status in the waitlist by hovering over the waitlisting information icon in your Enrolment Basket:

There are also a few different icons that you may see:

• The blue WAIT icon means that you are on the waitlist and processing as normal.
• The orange WAIT icon means that your position on the waitlist has been put on hold (paused) by a UNSW staff member. Contact The Nucleus: Student Hub to find out the details.
• The red WAIT icon means that the system has failed to enrol you when a space became available as it received an enrolment error. You should check your UNSW student email for an error notification or see the Enrolment Error by clicking on the information icon in your Enrolment Basket.

No, joining a waitlist does not guarantee that you will be enrolled in the course or class. You will only be enrolled if:

• You are at the top of the waitlist; AND
• Spaces become available; AND
• You meet the enrolment requirements for the course.

There may be some cases where your position on the waitlist can be changed. You should contact The Nucleus: Student Hub to discuss your situation. 

You do not need to submit a Full Class Request Form if you have already joined a waitlist.

You should only submit a Full Class Request Form under one or more the following circumstances:

• The course/class is full and Waitlisting is not available
• You are a student registered with Equitable Learning Services and require a specific course or class time
• The course is core to your program and not completing it in the upcoming term will delay your graduation or prevent you from meeting prerequisites.

Yes, you can register for another class time as a back-up whilst keeping your position in a waitlist for another class in the same course.