In Northern Hemisphere countries, this means that the academic year lasts from August, September, or October to May, June, or July.
In Brazil, due to the Law of Directives and Bases of Brazilian Education, the academic year must have 200 days, both at schools and at universities.
Schools also take breaks/holidays: Universities and colleges in Belgium use the semester system, dividing the academic year in two equal parts of fourteen weeks of courses.
In the People's Republic of China, elementary, middle and high schools from the public education have two semesters, the first from September to January, and the second from February or March, depending on the date of Chinese New Year, to July.
There is not necessarily any break between those two parts, but pupils get a semi-year school report (it only displays their current level and is not relevant for promotion).
The Sommersemester (SoSe or SS) consequently usually goes from 1 April until 30 September with lectures starting some time after Easter and lasting 12 weeks.
For universities and other tertiary institutions the academic year usually runs from September or October to April or May, sometimes with an extra summer term roughly from May to July.
Kindergartens often operate a semester (two-term) system, divided by the lengthy (e.g. two-week) break for Chinese New Year, typically in early February.
The first semester runs from September 1 until the middle of January and is divided by the fall vacation, which is around All Saints' Day and lasts for a week.
After the mid-year holidays, which lasts for two weeks, the second semester begins in mid-June and ends in mid-November, with a one-week mid-term break in September.
After the mid-year holidays, which lasts for two weeks, the second semester begins in mid-June and ends in mid-November, with a one-week mid-term break.
In the case of universities, normally the school year starts in the last week of July and is divided in trimesters or semesters.
The start of term two may be delayed if Anzac Day (25 April) falls on the Monday or Tuesday directly following the Easter break.
In Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and some areas of Balochistan, where heavy snow paralyzes life in the winter, the schools close for two months and there are two weeks of summer vacation.
However, private schools had a slightly shorter academic calendar either starting in the second (or third week) of June or ending earlier in March.
The student will need to successfully complete clearance requirements and in a few cases, maintain a certain overall mark in order to progress with her university studies in the next semester.
In AY 2015–2016, San Beda University and St. Scholastica's College Manila started their calendar in early July 2015 and ended in mid- to late April 2016.
Most universities start their courses on October 1 (at some institutions late September), and the first semester (commonly referred to as the "winter term") ends in January.
The first one (autumn semester) runs from September 1 to January 24/25 (21 weeks, including a 3- to 5-week winter exams session at the end) followed by a two-week holiday.
The training year in Institute of Technical Education is made up of two terms, commencing January and April respectively, depending on the month of intake.
[24] The Department of Basic Education proposed a five-week-long school break in June–July 2010 for the -hosted in South Africa-to avoid pupil and teacher absenteeism and a chaotic transport system.
Until 2015, schools followed a three-term system with a break at the end of each term plus a brief fall break interrupting the 2nd, similar to Japan:[citation needed] From 2015 onwards, the calendar was changed to a more quasi-Western styled one with two semesters (although some schools retain the trimester model), having the year to end in early January rather than in February.
For the most part, teachers rotate and the students stay in their classroom except for certain classes such as Physical Education, Music and Science labs.
The English law courts terms and legal training pupillage divided the year into four terms, partly to create a predictable work schedule, but also to make allowances for harsh travel conditions and delays caused by adverse weather at a time when all English law students and many litigants had to travel to London for training or legal advice at one of the Inns of Court.
Before the mechanisation of agriculture and when more of the population lived in the rural countryside, the long summer school holiday in Britain arose in the 19th century as a result of the education authorities abandoning the battle to keep children at school through haymaking (around the start of August) and wheat harvest (around the end of August), when every available pair of hands was needed on the land.
The academic year originated in the pre-industrial era when all non-disabled young people were expected to work through the period of July and August.
[citation needed] For the purposes of education, the remainder of the year was arranged into three terms accommodating the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter.
[31] Even a House of Commons Education Select Committee recommended in 1999 that schools switch to a five-term academic year, abolishing the long summer holidays.
[54] Because Union's calendar makes use of just three of four quarters, the three academic terms are generally (and somewhat misleadingly to outsiders) dubbed "trimesters", which they literally are since they each span three months, December, July and August being off.
Academic years consist of a number of terms lasting roughly four weeks each, during which a full semester's amount of work is completed in one and only one class.