Courses

Every Student attends one of the player's Campuses in order to enroll in one of the Courses on offer, with every Teacher qualified to offer instruction. New courses are unlocked as the player progresses through their career, with 17 available in the base game.

Classes
'Classes' are where the large part of the learning will be done on Campus. Each course has 2-3 classes scheduled over the course of the academic year and are mixed between theoretical (taking place in a Lecture Theatre) and applied (taking place in the associate equipped room.) Each course and year of student has their classes scheduled apart, staggering them across the year to avoid faculty conflicts and allowing students free time. Courses may require "subject-adjacent" classrooms for one or more classes throughout their duration. (Gastronomy requires a functioning Science Lab for a class in Year 2)

Students receive the bulk of their XP during this time and gain levels in their chosen field depending on their present 'Learning Rate'. 'Learning Rate' is governed by Student Mood, Staff Mood and the teacher's level of qualification in the subject. If either the teacher or the student are tired or have too low a bar in any of their needs, Learning Rates suffer, so it's general good practice to supply classrooms and Lecture Theatres that are Prestigious and Attractive enough to shore up the mood hit from unmet needs.

Classes are so much a component of course completion, some students may not even receive an assignment during a given school year, so it's important they can meet their needs before and between classes: Use Summer Vacation to let students in residence to completely recover their needs before starting next years classes.

As students receive percentage grades while participating in classes, part of the grade they receive is random, part of it is tied to mood, but for the most part, it is a general measure of what their understanding of the subject matter is vs. what it should be for the material presented: A student with a low level compared with their peers learns the same material slower and gets comparatively worse grades while in class. This is not the end of their academic career, however, since Students can be sent to Private Tuition to earn additional XP and levels as a means of "catching up" to their classmates before the next class.

Assignments
Assignments are outside of class tasks, which can give XP to the Students who complete them. Most of them require an item or room on campus. If it is not provided, the Students will fail the assignment, and they get the "Failed Assignment" feeling. Assignments are only a portion of the whole course, so if a student fails one during the year due to missing a station, they still have a good chance to do well. Send students who fail assignments to Private Tuition if their grade becomes a concern.

Course-Points-Icon.png Course Points (CP)
10 Course Points are awarded to a Campus each time its Level is raised. These points will not be rescinded if the Campus Level sinks again, nor will they be awarded again for re-reaching the same level. Course Points can be used to upgrade existing courses or add new ones for the next academic year.

Course Level
Each Course begins at Course Level 1. The cost of starting a course from scratch is equal to 10 for each year of the Course. For example, Knight School is a 3-Year Course, and thus will cost 30 to start. Raising the Course Level is different for Courses of different durations - please see the table below for details.

Raising the Course Level will confer two main benefits:
 * It will raise the level cap on how high Teachers can train their . At Course Level 1, the cap is 3; at Course Level 10, the cap is 10 (there is no upgrade for Course Levels 5 and 7).
 * The number of will also increase by 5 per level, allowing for the  to be raised for that Course. The player will also have the option to lower Student Intake, increasing the Learning Rate instead. See below for more details.

A Course can be upgraded at any time, although the number of applicants (and thus potential Student Intake) will not take effect until the commencement of the next Academic Year. If the Qualification Level cap for Teachers has been raised, this takes immediate effect, and training them to their new potential level can begin right away.

Challenge-Mode-Icon.png Challenge Mode
These Courses are specific to the Challenge Mode levels in which they appear, and cannot be run in Career or Sandbox Modes.