Semesters or terms?

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 16 September 2024

Semester 1 ends: Friday 17 January 2025

Winter break: Monday 23 December 2024 to Monday 6 January 2025

Semester 2 begins: Monday 20 January 2025

Semester 2 ends: Friday 6 June 2025

Easter break: Monday 14 April 2025 to Friday 25 April 2025

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

Term 1 - 16 September 2024 to 20 December 2024

Term 2 - 6 January 2025 to 11 April 2025

Term 3 - 28 April 2025 to 6 June 2025

Example 2

Semester 1 begins: Monday 6 January 2025

Semester 1 ends: Friday 16 May 2025

Easter break: Monday 14 April 2025 to Friday 25 April 2025

Semester 2 begins: Monday 19 May 2025

Semester 2 ends: Friday 3 October 2025

Summer break: Monday 30 June 2025 to Friday 11 July 2025

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

Term 1 - 6 January 2025 to 11 April 2025

Term 2 - 28 April 2025 to 27 June 2025

Term 3 - 14 July 2025 to 3 October 2025