Updated on September 19, 2025.

We are pleased to offer Spanish language courses in-person only for the 2025-26 academic year.

If this is the first time that you are enrolling in a Spanish course at the University of Toronto: Welcome! We have made some changes in our language course sequence, so any student who begins Spanish studies in Fall 2024 onwards has to complete a mandatory placement test - even if they are true beginners in the language - to ensure that you are enrolling in the appropriate level course. If you fail to do so, you risk being removed from the course. Students on the waitlist should also complete the assessment to ensure they are on the waitlist for the correct course.

We have implemented this process to place each student in the course that we consider most appropriate. Please, keep in mind that it is the Department's decision - through our placement team - to place students in language courses according to your previous knowledge. You are to enrol in the assigned course. If you do not follow the recommendation, you will be removed from the course you selected at any point in the semester.

Students who consider that they have been placed in the wrong course are welcome to reach out for a conversation with their course instructor and our Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies. If you are found to be enrolled in a different, lower-level course from the one assigned by our unit without this previous conversation, you will be immediately removed from it.

The goal of the placement test is to assess your knowledge accurately. If you claim to know less than you actually do, you are not only committing an academic integrity offense but also disrupting the learning environment for others who do want to improve their skills. Misrepresenting your Spanish language abilities is a serious academic offense. See the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters:

“The University and its members have a responsibility to ensure that a climate that might encourage, or conditions that might enable, cheating, misrepresentation or unfairness not be tolerated. To this end all must acknowledge that seeking credit or other advantages by fraud or misrepresentation, or seeking to disadvantage others by disruptive behaviour is unacceptable, as is any dishonesty or unfairness in dealing with the work or record of a student.”

If it is discovered that you understated your proficiency, you will be reported to the Academic Integrity office and immediately removed from the course.

Students who have previously completed the language placement test and those who have completed the prerequisite language course in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at St. George do not need to retake this test.

Instructions for placement test

Updated on March 2, 2026.

For Summer 2026:

SPA101H1 is intended for students with no prior knowledge of Spanish. You are welcome to enrol in this course if you have never studied Spanish before (at UofT or elsewhere), have not lived or studied in a Spanish-speaking country for more than six months, and have not been exposed to Spanish through family or heritage.

Students who register for SPA101H1-F for the Summer 2026 session will be contacted by the third week of March with instructions to complete a mandatory placement questionnaire. The questionnare must be completed by April 30, 2026.

Please note that only students who are officially enrolled in the course will receive instructions to their utoronto email, as this Summer period is not open to the general student population. Students are responsible for checking their UofT email regularly and following the instructions provided. Failure to complete the placement questionnaire by the deadline may result in removal from the course.

If you have any questions about the placement process, please email Dr. Berenice Villagomez - Undergraduate Administrator - at undergradadmin.isplas@utoronto.ca

The placement period for Spanish language courses in the 2026-27 academic year will open in mid-June 2026.