Students at the University of Otago who fail papers compulsory for their courses will soon find their options more limited.
New rules will be introduced next year to ensure students can no longer enrol for papers when they have failed the prerequisite paper.
In a report to the university council on Tuesday, student administration manager David Cross said there were about 200 students in the second semester this year enrolled in papers for which they had failed the prerequisite paper in semester one.
Some may have been given permission by their department to carry on, but there was no formal recording process for that.
Many of the 200 would not have permission to carry on, which could result in the university receiving government funding for students enrolled in breach of its own programme regulations.
Mr Cross's recommendation, endorsed by the council, was to advise all students failing prerequisite papers that they had been removed from the following semester's paper.
Students would be forced to switch to another paper instead, re-enrol in the original paper, or discuss their options with their head of department.
In cases where approval was given for a student to carry on, an audit trail would be created which would solve the issue of the university possibly wrongly claiming government funding.