Students home time schedule eg when can I book holidays!

[AlpineadventuresandCowbells]

DD should be starting uni this sept and I'm wondering whether they have half terms I assume they have no time for half term ? So Xmas ,Easter and main summer ? Is that correct ? I have tried to look at some of the unis she's looking at but I also thought I'd check here thank you

I find my son has loads of time off university. His couse starts in October and he gets a few weeks of Christmas and Easter. He usually finishes in June and back again in October!

You should check with her. Like as in ask her if she will be available.

Year 1 they will still want to go away with you. Year 2 they might come home for a few weeks. Year 3 no chance

My 2 post Uni dcs still come away with us for our summer holiday…one with partner. They get rather miffed when we go away without them!

Same here. Mine are 22 & 25 - we still have a family holiday each summer.

She won’t know yet.

It does rather depend on destination and if you are paying!

Times have changed....when I was a student, none of us ever went on holiday with our parents (most of us would rather have chopped off our right arm!). And I still think many young adults would rather do their own thing or, of course, might be working during vacations. The younger siblings just have to get used to it.

I went on holiday with my parents as a student, as did many of my friends at uni. I think most of us would have found it odd to be at home with family and siblings over the summer and for them to have all disappeared off on holiday without us. But then we didn’t have the money to be independently travelling all summer.

Difficult to say, my uni did semesters but we did have a Christmas and Easter break with a break between semesters. And quite a long summer holiday. But DP is studying medicine at Nottingham, their academic year is roughly the same as tax years, and they don't have a summer break (he's currently in the two week summer break that they get), they study for most of the year.

I guess it must just depend on preference. I was very happy to stay home as a teenager as I found it so cringe being with my parents, but I did go away with them while I was studying, I'd grown up a bit by then. I was at uni 96-99.

My university had 'reading week' at half term which was basically a week off, that was a full time degree course

Yes - the last holiday I had with my parents and younger brother was when I was 15 and I absolutely hated it. When I was home from university I spent my time being bored witless and finding ways to go away, visit friends, taken trips with university friends, etc.

Can't you find the term dates or semester dates on the university website?

If they have semesters, often they only have two weeks off at Christmas and two off at Easter and break up for summer in May. And Christmas and Easter they can be studying for exams.

The university will have the dates so just look on there? Also, your DC may well want to plan holidays with friends or impromptu trips so best to discuss this.

Yes, my breaks were spent working or travelling with friends, didn't do family holidays after that. Shame, would've been nice but, as you said, it wasn't usual. Too many exciting opportunities to put on a back pack, hitch, find your own adventures.

Much depends on your child’s degree. For many disciplines, the job market and degree of competition is now such that securing internships or summer or Easter placements even in first year is essential for future employment.

Also, the exam period published on the website isn't subject specific so it could be that your DC has an exam on the last day. DD also had other exams, not during the exam period. These also get "sprung" on the students mid term.

OMG OP, surely you can obtain this simple info from your child??? If she doesn't know then God help the both of you.

I'm guessing giving you list Bristol and bath that course/ uni isn't confirmed yet.

Wait until it's all confirmed and then they should get a break down of their specific timetable (so reading weeks, exam.weeks etc...). Also don't expect each year to be the same.

For example years ago in my final year there was no one course where a residential failed trip took place for a certain module and that trip was technically in the first nal week of the summer holidays.

May also be worth factoring that resits can sometimes be time tables for summer holidays.

Could your younger child take a friend?

The younger sibling needs to get used to it, the older one is now an adult. Your DC might not even come home for three years as working, studying, seeing friends.

all unis, and sometimes courses at the same uni, are different. Some you get reading weeks for study. The one month that should be free would be July but that’s a good time for the student to work or do their own thing.

I saw my DC a few weeks each summer, a couple of nights over xmas or new year different each year. That’s about it.