Timetabling

Known new and returning courses should be added to the requirements gathering system during the form 1 stage. Adding courses to the SharePoint system ensures that form 2 is distributed to the appropriate Course Lead/Convenor during the second stage of this process.  

New courses should only be added if they have or will be approved by your local Board of Studies.   Course leads for new or returning courses will be asked to indicate their preferred teaching pattern, size, and equipment details during the form 2 process. This will form a basis for conversations about the feasibility of timetabling options. 

New or returning courses will have their timetables built on CMIS as normal by local timetabling teams.  

For any new courses created after the closure of Form 1, Course Leads can contact their Local Timetabler to add this to the Form 2 list. Please note all new courses should be created and approved no later than 25th April to allow them to be included in the Room Allocation process.

We are facing a challenge across the University with course and class sizes being either overestimated or underestimated; both scenarios impact the effective use of the estate and result in a sizeable amount of change requests.

For undergraduate courses where there are two years of continuous enrolment data, this process is being implemented to estimate courses sizes to the sub-group level, and the number generated will be uploaded to CMIS prior to it opening on 10 March. 

For all new and returning courses the current process will continue: School Timetablers (in consultation with relevant others, such as RCMOs) will predict the numbers; for postgraduate courses and undergraduate courses with less than two years of continuous enrolment data, CMIS will record the actual enrolment figures for AY24/25.

Schools and Colleges should continue their good practices with supporting student with accessibility needs. This year the Test & Learn ambassadors will help facilitate this process between Disability Services and the Schools/ Colleges to ensure that a student’s entire planned timetable is captured and updated as early as possible.

Schools should liaise with continuing students regarding their course choices for AY 25/26 during the edit and prep period, ensure the appropriate courses and sub-groups are tagged in CMIS for accessible space, and liaise with SMTT on the details of the timetable and requirements.

For new students, Disability Services will provide information to the Colleges once it becomes available. Schools should then engage with students in the same way as described above for continuing students.

Timetabling Accessibility Requirements Process

• Co-ordinated by SMTT
• Direct liaison between SMTT and individual staff on requirements
• Dedicated email address:accessible-timetabling@glasgow.ac.uk

Key information

Provide lecturer details on events as early as possible.

Only events sized between 8 and 300 inclusive will be allocated a central room (with the exception of agreed activity in the James McCune Smith Learning Hub). Following a review of capacities, the largest central room on campus is now 300 (excluding the JMS Saltire). Therefore, and in line with the Teaching Planning Principles AY25/26, class sizes should not be set above 300. 

SMTT will be offering CMIS training sessions for School Timetablers, as in previous years.  Details of the sessions being offered and how to sign up will be shared later this month.

Requests for use of centrally-managed teaching space for non-teaching events can be submitted from beginning of August 2025. This is to ensure that teaching is prioritised and timetables are settled before non-teaching activity.

For locally-managed space, we encourage a ‘teaching first’ approach, but non-teaching events may be scheduled at the same time.