While the case for a further harmonisation of academic calendars in Europe is clear, there is very limited change made.
The organisation of academic calendars across Europe may seem like an administrative matter. However, when it comes to European cooperation in higher education, a better understanding and potential alignment of the academic calendars is very relevant. This applies especially to the feasibility of learning mobility for students and staff. The organisation of learning mobility is dependent on the start and end dates of academic terms, including possibly separate exam periods and holidays. Incompatible academic calendars between sending and hosting higher education institutions (HEI) might make learning mobility impossible or require a specific agreement between the institutions. The European Commission (EC) pursues the ambition to boost learning mobility in different formats, for example, through the European University alliances (see SwissCore article). In order to reach the EC’s goal of 50% student mobility in alliances, the alignment of academic calendars of the participating HEIs is an essential factor for the success of the alliances.
A new Eurydice report gives an overview of the different academic calendars for 37 European countries (39 education systems due to Belgium’s federalism), including data from Switzerland. The report looks at the start and end dates of terms, the number of terms, and who has the competence for setting the dates. All these factors vary between the countries and show the diversity in calendar organisation across Europe.
When it comes to the start of the academic year, the Nordic countries and Switzerland are the earliest with August. However, in Switzerland, teaching only starts weeks into the academic year in mid-September. A majority of European countries officially start the academic year in September, including for example the Benelux countries, France, Greece or Ireland. Lastly, 13 education systems start in October, mostly in Central and Eastern European countries, including Germany, Poland and Italy. The reasons for these differences are cultural but also geographical / seasonal. Over the last years, the starting points of the academic years have remained stable; only Slovenia and Serbia have moved them from September to October. Most education systems (24) leave the decision of when to start the academic year up to the HEIs in line with institutional autonomy. In the other (15) systems, the public authorities set the dates. There is no clear geographical pattern on which countries choose which model. Further, there is also no correlation between the timing of the academic calendar and the competence distribution. Finally, there is one major commonality across Europe: In almost all education systems, the academic year is divided into two main terms (semesters). Belgium and Slovakia are the exception with three terms.
While there is a clear case that a further alignment or harmonisation of academic calendars throughout Europe would be beneficial to facilitate learning mobility and international cooperation in education and research, such as with the European University Initiative, the system remains stable with little change being made. The geographical difference in seasons across the continent, as well as the culturally determined holiday periods, are strong factors for diversity in this regard.