Move to two 15-week 'semesters' rather than 3 terms?

[Shiveringinthecountry]

Hi all.

I've been told that many universities now run on a two 'semester' model rather than three terms. This is news to me. Is it true?

Both are true. It's two semesters, spread across three terms

My uni did that in the early 90s!

My ds's current uni seems to only teach for 2 terms a year.

Yes we definitely did in the 90s.

We (Russell Group, England)have two terms of teaching per year. Sadly there are 12 rather than 15 weeks of instruction.

Yes, certainly when my DC looked at uni choice, the majority of their selection were following the two semester model and it seems to be catching on. U of York recently 'semesterised' (their verb, not mine!), when I looked at their website.

Unis are not always clear about the model they follow. If you go to the course catalogue for each uni you are interested in, you can usually see if the uni is organised on a three term or two semester basis.

Yes, my university did this in the 90s. There are terms and semesters. Teaching and assessment is over 2 semesters, terms are also still a thing and fit into the semesters.

It doesn't mean Christmas and Easter holidays are being done away with but two periods of assessment, Christmas and Summer is very standard and has been for decades.

Both my dc's Scottish unis had 2 semesters each with 11 teaching weeks

I did this in the nineties.

Like Skule said, a lot of places have 2 semesters over 3 terms. The trend is to finish teaching by Easter and just do assessment after the Easter break.

I have a child at Manchester (semesters) and another at Durham (terms) - essentially there’s no difference and they both have Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays. Durham doesn’t have a reading week in the Michaelmas term but it seems to start later then other unis.

Wow, thanks everybody! This is amazing to me 😁

How does having three terms over two semesters work? I was assuming that semester and term were simply different words for the same thing.

Semester just means half a year, so unis that use semesters in the UK where we have a tradition of, and holidays built around, a 3 term model, just split the academic year into 2 with varying arrangements.

When I did my degree, semester 1 went from September to exams in early February, and then semester 2 started and continued until exams in mid-late June.

My son has teaching from September to December, exams first week back after Xmas, then teaching until end of March, exams after Easter break.

not all universities do this. My dC is at Lancaster and they still have three 10 week terms.

We have three terms (RG, England) but we in A&H and several other faculties only teach for two terms, September-December and January-March. The third term is for assessments, with only a revision week at the start with classes. The teaching term is 11 weeks: 10 weeks of teaching and 1 reading week.

Teaching in term 1, including reading week. Assessments around Christmas. Term 1 and semester 1 about the same timeframe.

Term 2 and semester started mid-Jan and ran to Easter. Term 3 then started but was still partway through semester 2 which continued to summer assessments.

That's how it was in my degree anyway. Modules ran in semester 1 or semester 2.

Semesters seem odd to me too! We had 3 10 week terms when I was at Uni. I really liked that!

We had 3 10 weeks terms and 2 semesters at the same time.

If you didn't have semesters did you have 3 sets of modules through the year with 3 assessment periods? Or just one set of modules ran throughout the whole year with just summer assessments?

If you didn't have semesters did you have 3 sets of modules through the year with 3 assessment periods? Or just one set of modules ran throughout the whole year with just summer assessments?

The latter, on our case (LSE, early-mid 80s).

and in my case (Lancaster in early 90s). Lectures and seminars finished in late May and there were then summer exams in June.

We have two semesters.

First semester late-September to late-January. Second semester late-January to early-June. Assessment periods in the last couple of weeks of each semester.

I graduated in 1995 and our uni ran 2 semesters at that time, still does now. 12 weeks, then exams, another 12 weeks, exams.

@DappledThings we started a different module in each term. It may have been different in other subjects though. I studied History.

We studied different things each term but everyone still had exams at the end of summer term.

Many countries have the two semester system so UK institutions are harmonising to smooth the arrangements for students wishing to study abroad for a semester.

My DD at Leicester has 2 semesters. The first runs from mid-September until mid-December; she frequently finishes the same day as my secondary school for Christmas. The second one is from early/mid January to Easter, one week less than my own school term. After Easter, she only has to be there for something strange like 4 weeks for exams, so has gone back early May and been finished by early June.

I might have got some of the dates a bit out, but hopefully you get the gist.