I have read Database system concepts, 6th edition, Silberschatz. I\'m going to implement the university database system shown in chapter 2 on OS X
I came across the same issue as well. Not sure why this is working but it indeed works: Try add ENGINE INNODB after your create query.
mysql> create table course
-> (course_id varchar(7),
-> title varchar (50),
-> dept_name varchar(20),
-> credits numeric(2,0),
-> primary key(course_id),
-> foreign key (dept_name) references department) ENGINE INNODB;