DD doesn't have a uni Term 3

[Globules]

Just that really.

She chose modules this year, her first year, that all completed in terms 1 & 2.

She has no lectures and no assignments, nothing, until October 2025.

£9250 academic fees, plus 39 week let fees.

Surely this can't be considered ok?!

Some places the contract is only for 10 months and the halls are used for conferences at other times.
But generally the contract is for the times they can't let it to someone else. Students can stay and work in the same job they do in term time. Landlords of private houses aren't going to let students off 3 months rent, are they?

Back in the day we used to pay half rent over the summer to private landlords as we weren’t living there.

But student housing then wasn’t subject to much in the way of controls. Ancient water geysers, little or no room heating and having a number of mouse traps in play were pretty common.

Really? Because when my kids were there much more recently they had 3 x 10 week terms

Back in the day (a few years before I went to uni) students in digs (private rentals) could claim housing benefit. They could also claim unemployment benefit during the summer.

Landlords of private houses aren't going to let students off 3 months rent, are they?

In a few select places they do - I believe St Andrews sometimes, and Edinburgh too. But that might have been stopped by changes in short term letting regulations.

No, of course private LLs will charge. I was asking about halls specifically.

What is the uni going to do with the halls the rest of the time then?

@1SillySossijYes, really. 1990-93.

3x9 week terms with the summer term an absolute doss.

5 week break at Christmas and 5 week break at Easter, finishing around 22nd June for summer and starting year around October 5th.

Dd3 will.be finished end of May she is in year 2

Her close friend has 2 more teaching sessions today and Monday then done bar exams. She is in year 3. Different universities

Work at a university. All students finished on site before Easter other than for exams. Masters students have 3 semesters but undergrad all have just too. Exam period is mid May for 2 weeks then done.

Presumably if they are empty they don’t need cleaning, or catering provision.

As I say, I don’t have DC at uni yet and my time in halls was long ago, so there may be something I’m missing.

DS has been told to expect those hours for engineering.

In my experience of working at a uni, and of being a student and the parent of a student this is normal.

They get you back after Easter but really you could just stay at home as any teaching has completed and it's a case of just handing in assignments or of taking exams.

This is across three different unis so not just experience of one. Post Easter nothing much happens in terms of teaching.

The down time in uni is supposed to be an spent reading around your specialist subject/ research etc. If she is still bored she can get a job.

You do have to consider when they started the year and how.many weeks they allocate for Christmas and Easter holidays to truly compare. Essex, as me mentioned before with 3 terms still, doesn't start teaching until into October and has 4 weeks at Christmas and Easter, but goes on teaching longer into the summer term. Some universities start in early or mid september and might have a short Christmas and Easter break, so it's more likely they would be finished teaching by the end of April. This year could be skewed by Easter weekend being very late.

Having said that, perhaps it is something parents need to be aware of else it understandably comes as a shock to find your son or daughter finished and able to come home by the end of March if they have no exams to sit.

It's also a shame because I remember the summer term being the best one. It's the only time the weather is warm enough to properly enjoy long days and sitting around outside with friends.

It's also a shame because I remember the summer term being the best one. It's the only time the weather is warm enough to properly enjoy long days and sitting around outside with friends.

This ⬆️

I remember chilling on the grass with friends, going to riverside pubs and actually enjoying the walk from campus into town.

I had this pop up on my feed today:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/23/the-man-who-proved-university-is-a-waste-of-money/#:~:text=In%202018%2C%20Paul%20Johnson%2C%20its,of%20their%20vice%2Dchancellors”.

He reached two main conclusions; that there is no graduate premium for nearly a third of graduates, and that graduate earnings are linked to academic ability as demonstrated by A level results. Obviously, as with any population study, there will be individual exceptions but it seems crazy that other analysis doesn’t control for an academic ability.

I do agree there needs to be much more investment into training at 18 years old and FE colleges. But there are risks there too - in Scotland FE train more hairdressers each year than there are hairdressers working in the industry.

Only one of our halls has catering and that's a cafeteria anyone can access, including construction staff, visitors etc. (obviously we have lots of visit days and open days when campus is quieter). Catering shuts down over Easter and Christmas and a few of the independent retailers on campus take a summer holiday in August.
Students are expected to clean their own flats. Just like they are in other rented accommodation.

You really don't seem to understand that the university doesn't cease to exist when you can't see it, do you? Do you have this problem with other aspects of your life? Hospitals don't need staff when you aren't there for an appointment? Shops disappear overnight?

I get a standard amount of AL and when I'm in the lab I need to be able to buy lunch, nip to the convenience store, use the swimming pool and the gym, get the admin staff to help me with setting up new courses, and applying for grants, I need the wifi and the library to be working, and yes, I have students who work with me as volunteer RAs who are physically on campus too. I also don't cease to exist when your DCs leave campus.

For those suggesting that all courses are online if they don't need lab time - do you think that History students should never be able to spend time in an archive or a library? How do you think those are funded and continue to exist? I'm in STEM but we have an important archive on campus that's visited by historians from all over the world. We have art studios and video making labs that fine arts students use. We have a concert hall and an art gallery. We regularly run schools visits and workshops for arts and sciences. Or are those all supposed to be online too now?

I would never go back to the days when we had students too anxious to turn on their cameras in online tutorials, and for labs I had to run them several times to get social distancing in.

You do seem incredible defensive. In terms of AL - as an academic I got a lot more leave than those in industry. But there is also a list of things here that it would be totally unreasonable to expect student tuition fees to pay for - your swimming and use of a gym, admin staff to help you apply for grants, maintenance of archives for visiting researchers, a concert hall and art gallery…

Didn’t get housing benefit but definitely signed on at home in my first summer (couldn’t for the second summer though as it was spent doing project work).

My DC did Chem Eng - definitely not those hours for his course.

Exactly. I first went to uni in the early 90s and all teaching / assessment was complete by May, hence the May Ball! It's hardly a new thing.

I now teach on a healthcare course and students don't submit their final assessments until July / August, but that's because they need to have 20 full weeks in placement as well as all their teaching.

Would that be the "May Balls" that happened in June @ShapedLikeAPastry:-)

They aren’t. The teaching day at my institution is 9am to 7pm. Early finish on Wednesdays.

UG teaching does carry on into the third term at some universities. I have four hours of labs today and two hours of tutorials.

ALL of these things are DIRECTLY of benefit to students.
Students are on campus during the summer. Students use the swimming pool (including during summer). You can't knock down the gym during the summer, and it's more expensive to close it than keep it open with year round members using it (none of whom would join if it wasn't open over the summer).

Students benefit from having a concert hall (which is also the graduation hall, BTW), an art gallery, archives. They use these directly. They benefit from us academics being active researchers, as otherwise what is the point of university?

I'm not quite sure what you think a university is. Let me help you: it's an institute of higher education in which students go to learn from researchers in their field, and go to learn how to do research. You may think it's a place where students are taught only those facts that will help them to pass their degree (sadly this attitude has rubbed off on many students) but it isn't.