The structure of the academic year in the UK

In contrast to a calendar year, in most European countries an academic year begins with the start of autumn and ends the following spring. This is because it follows the medieval agricultural pattern of the year in northern Europe, in which July and August were when able-bodied young people were needed on the farms.

Describing and explaining the structure of the academic year in UK higher education is complicated by the fact that the key words used, particularly, for example, “semester” and “term”, are not always defined in the same way by different higher education institutions. As a consequence, they do not always carry precisely the same meaning. As with many elements of UK universities, there are differing practices that use confusingly similar terminology.

A semester. An academic year of approximately 30-32 weeks contains two semesters and three terms. A semester, which literally means “six months”, is usually used to describe two periods of academic-related activity in a year. Semesters are actually about four months long and are referred to as Semester 1 and Semester 2.

A term is generally understood to be a largely continuous period of teaching-related activities. Usually there are three terms in a year – for example autumn, spring and summer. Each term is about three months long and separated by holidays. A term may or may not include a period of assessment. Terms, along with holidays and examination periods, exist within the structure of the semesters. That is a characteristic structure of the academic year in UK higher education.

However, over the last 15 years, a considerable amount of time and effort has been spent on attempting to determine the best way to deliver higher education curricula. As a result, individual institutions often have their own methods for organising the structure of their academic year.

Diversity and variations to the structure of the academic year. Learning and teaching is delivered within semesters through “modules”, “units” or “courses” which are often assessed at the end of the semester. In some universities semesters are essentially continuous and separated by vacations, just like terms. Occasionally, a third semester is introduced in the summer period. Where three semesters are of equal length they may be referred to as trimesters.

Many universities run 10-week autumn, spring and summer terms, though some use different names or a specific semester system, with the new semester beginning halfway through the second term. Other universities run terms which are uneven in length, with the autumn term usually the longest.

Even within individual institutions, practice can vary from year to year to accommodate factors such as the changing date of Easter. Some universities also have a “reading week” in which no teaching takes place. At other universities reading weeks are not uniform and may be in different weeks in different faculties, departments, modules or even seminar groups. Some reading weeks only cover seminars whilst lectures continue; others stop both for the week.

An exception to most practices. An exception to the many variations in the structure of the academic year is the Open University.

Most of its undergraduate courses do not coincide with the structure of the academic year used by universities in Britain and elsewhere. Instead, they largely coincide with the calendar year – In other words, they typically start in February, with examinations in the autumn.

7. Students’ finance

The first step in drawing up a budget for student life is working out how much higher education will cost. One will need to consider tuition fees, accommodation and living costs.

Tuition fees

Tuition fees help pay for the costs of running a university or college – salaries for teaching staff, maintaining the buildings and so on. For example, the maximum tuition fees one could be charged for 2008/2009 was £3,145.

There’s a student finance package available to help with the costs of higher education. The main sources of help for full-time students are:

· Student loans and grants from the government;

· bursaries from universities and colleges.

If one takes out a Student Loan from the government, he/she won’t have to start paying it back until he/she left the course and is earning more than £15,000 a year. Any help that one gets through a grant or bursary doesn’t have to be repaid at all.