The Bookstore's goal is to ensure that your students have the resources they need to complete the course you are instructing.
To help us achieve that goal, we ask that you place textbook orders with your program associate 6-8 weeks before students require them. Earlier is always better! For courses beginning in January, please place orders in October, and for courses that begin in September, please place orders as early as June.
Most traditionally structured universities secure their September orders with publishers in April. At RRU, we are often ordering text for September start dates as late as August. The result is that our texts are back ordered and students become frustrated. To compete for stock, we need your texts orders sooner rather than later.
Also consider that your students pay for shipping. Prices range from $8.00 to $31.00 for Canadian destinations, and much higher for our students studying abroad. When students are here for residency, they would like the option of picking up texts for upcoming courses to save on costs. We can only have books available to sell if we have been informed in time.
But you can get books anywhere!
With several online retailers to choose from, many offering discounted prices and free shipping, why would students rely on Royal Roads to ship them textbooks?
The answer is that we provide wonderful customer service and we are super fast! If a student calls us from Vancouver at 2:30 pm on a Monday, they are often shocked to receive their order by noon on Tuesday. We have had countless students tell us that while companies like Amazon strung them along promising their order would ship soon, our bookstore was able to save the day by shipping their materials out moments after they spoke with us. And our students like to talk to someone who understand their needs and can help them with questions and concerns. We often end up answering everything from questions about the weather a student will encounter while they are here, to how Moodle works, or where their parents should stay when they come to visit. Of course, the main question is always "What texts do I need?" and the sooner we know, the more we can help.