The Student Directed Seminars program provides upper-year undergraduate students (in third year or later) the opportunity to propose, coordinate, and lead their own 3-credit seminar class with a small group of peers on a topic not currently offered at UBC-Vancouver. Student Directed Seminars run from January to April in Winter Term 2.
Each seminar brings together a group of highly-motivated students to explore and investigate a topic through learning activities including group discussions, research papers, presentations, guest lectures, applied problem-solving, and Community Service Learning. Review the Program Guide (pdf) for more information.
If you’re a student from UBC Okanagan, please review the Okanagan Student Directed Seminars guide.
Get involved
Become a student coordinator
Student Directed Seminars are an expansion of the directed studies option offered by most departments and are a great way to enhance your own learning experience while gaining facilitation and leadership skills. You will also have the unique opportunity to work closely with a faculty member to develop the course proposal and syllabus.
Be a student participant
Student participants have a role in shaping many aspects of the course. From helping to edit the course syllabus and choose readings, to peer marking, facilitating learning activities, and leading individual classes, each student builds their own learning experience and contributes to the learning outcomes for their peers.
You must be a third or fourth-year undergraduate student to register in a Student Directed Seminar.
Registration for Student Directed Seminars will open in 2025W Term 1.
Past Student Directed Seminars
Check out previous Student Directed Seminars (pdf) that have been successfully facilitated at UBC from 1999 to 2025.
Advisory committee
The Student Directed Seminars Advisory Committee is made up of faculty members from various departments, staff from the Centre for Community Engaged Learning, the Alma Mater Society (AMS), and former Student Director Seminars Student Coordinators.
The committee reviews all course proposals thoroughly for academic rigor, quality of course plans, appropriate marking schemes and assignments, and the overall qualifications and suitability of the student coordinator(s).
2024/25 Advisory committee members
- Dr. José Rodriguez (he/him), 2023/24 SDS Program Chair, Associate Professor of Teaching (Chemistry)
- Jeff Miller (he/him), Senior Associate Director, Projects and Faculty Partnerships (CTLT)
- Dr. Sarika Bose (she/her), Lecturer (English)
- Emmett Mark (he/him), Student Coordinator 2020/21 (Integrated Arts)
- Kyle Nelson (he/him), Community Engaged Learning Officer (CCEL)
- Sheker Mammetgurban (she/her), Learning Initiatives Coordinator (CCEL)
- Alex Martin (he/him), Student Coordinator 2022/23 (Forestry)
- Dr. Santokh Singh (he/him), Professor of Teaching (Botany)
- Dr. Nesrine Basheer (she/her), Assistant Professor of Teaching (Asian Studies)
- Dr. Andrew Almas (he/him), Assistant Professor of Teaching (Urban Forestry)
- Artem Meshcherin (he/him), Student Coordinator 2023/24 (Philosophy)
Acknowledgement of support
Thank you to the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology and the Centre for Community Engaged Learning for supporting the program.
We are grateful for the support offered by the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology who offer their expertise and mentorship to student coordinators throughout the year, including:
- Brian Wilson
- Sunah Cho
- Jason Myers
- Manuel Dias
- Afsaneh Sharif
- Kyle Nelson
- Ainsley Camps
- Zoe Morris
- Will Engle
- Jeff Miller
If you have questions
Please contact Sheker Mammetgurban at student.seminars@ubc.ca.