Many universities and colleges operate on 2 semesters, rather than 3 separate terms.

We pay students at 3 points throughout their academic year, so we still need to maintain the 3 terms in our systems.

If you use semesters, you must create term dates that reflect your students’ study pattern as closely as possible. You could use any holiday periods in the second semester as a natural break for your terms.

You must make sure that your term start dates reflect when your students are in study. This will make sure your students get paid at the right time.

Example 1

Semester 1 begins: Monday 11 September 2023

Semester 1 ends: Friday 19 January 2024

Winter break: Monday 18 December 2023 to Monday 1 January 2024

Semester 2 begins: Monday 22 January 2024

Semester 2 ends: Friday 31 May 2024

Easter break: Monday 1 April 2024 to Friday 12 April 2024

You could split these using holiday periods as breaks between terms:

Term 1 - 11 September 2023 to 15 December 2023

Term 2 - 2 January 2024 to 29 March 2024

Term 3 - 15 April 2023 to 2 June 2023

Example 2

Semester 1 begins: Tuesday 2 January 2024

Semester 1 ends: Friday 10 May 2024

Easter break: Monday 1 April 2024 to Friday 12 April 2024

Semester 2 begins: Monday 13 May 2024

Semester 2 ends: Friday 27 September 2024

Summer break: Monday 1 July to Friday 12 July

You could split these using holiday periods as breaks between terms:

Term 1 - 2 January 2024 to 29 March 2024

Term 2 - 15 April 2024 to 28 June 2024

Term 3 - 15 July 2024 to 27 September 2024