Academic Calendar

2024/2025 Academic Year

From 2024/25 the university teaching year is moving to a semester structure.  Read more on semesterisation and the changes we have made to improve course delivery from September with the Portfolio Review Project.

The following dates outline the new semester structure for September 2024/25 onwards, see more detail by week.  Please see below exceptions to the calendar for Postgraduate students.

* campus services may be operating different opening times, please check the student app for the latest news.

Exceptions for postgraduate students

Students on full-time postgraduate taught courses starting in either September or February do not have a Summer vacation period. Therefore, your teaching commences from the start of semester 2 and continues until your official course end date, as per your certificate of enrolment. Postgraduate students may have teaching,  assessment activities and/or a dissertation project taking place during the summer and are therefore considered to be in semester-time* throughout this period. 

* For Student visa holders. By ’semester-time’ (the Home Office refers to this as ‘term-time’ as part of your Student visa conditions), we mean the official semester periods when you are expected to be on campus engaging with your programme. For all students, this is semester 1 and semester 2. For Postgraduate taught students this also includes the summer period from the end of semester 2 until your official course end date as stated on your certificate of enrolment.

Research students on full-time postgraduate research courses are required to be in continuous attendance. Annual leave must be requested and authorised in line with the PGR Holiday Request process.

If you hold a Student visa to study in the UK, you are expected to be in the UK and attending all on campus activities during each Semester. All study must be undertaken inside the UK, this includes online exams, and working on/submitting assessments and dissertations.

Week 6 of each semester is sometimes referred to as 'Reading Week', please check with your academic school if this is the case for your programme. You are still considered to be in semester-time during this week 

Some programmes have start and end dates outside of the standard Academic Calendar. Details of these will be included in your programme-specific information.

International students who require further clarification and guidance around their specific vacation periods can access: 

• Your visa and working in the UK
• Travelling and your UK visa