Semester lengths at top U.S. and Canadian Universities

The University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Science has decided to shorten its semesters. Starting 2009-10, U of T will offer the fewest days of instruction among the top North American universities (tied with one).

Some of us are shocked and concerned by this move. A shorter semester may weaken our undergraduate programmes. It may make the university less attractive to prospective students who seek quality education rather than just a degree. It may hurt the international reputation of the university. On a personal level, this move makes the university less attractive to me (Y.K.) both as an employee and as the parent of prospective students.

See here for the explanation provided by the university. See here for a (tentative) alternative schedule that we would like to propose to the university.

I am collecting responses from students, prospective students, and international colleagues, in hope that enough pressure may encourage the Faculty of Arts and Science to re-consider its decision. Please write to me with any input that you might have.

More details

The "top 100" list of the Times Higher Education Ranking contains 42 North American universities: 37 from the U.S. and five from Canada. Below, I rank these universities according to the number of days of instruction per year and according to the first day of classes. The data is for 2008-09. A third list contains more information. If you want to use this data, please re-check it and tell me if you find a mistake.

Days of instruction per year

Universities sorted according to the first day of classes

The University of Toronto can achieve its goals without removing days of instruction if it starts a week earlier. Starting a week earlier would not be exceptional in comparison to other top universities.

Georgia Institute of Technology: Aug.18
Case Western Reserve University: Aug.25
University of Pittsburgh: Aug.25
University of Illinois: Aug.25
Rice University: Aug.25
Duke: Aug.25
Purdue University: Aug.25
Carnegie Mellon: August 25
University of Virginia: Aug.26
Berkeley: Aug.27
Washington University in St Louis: Aug.27
University of Texas at Austin: Aug.27
Cornell: Aug.28
Emory University: Aug.28
Columbia University: Sep.2
University of Montreal: Sep.2
University of Minnesota: Sep.2
University of Michigan: Sep.2
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Sep.2
McGill University: Sep.2
NYU: Sep.2
Boston University: Sep.2
University of British Columbia : Sep.2
University of Alberta: Sep.3
Yale: Sep.3
Brown University: Sep.3
U.Penn: Sep.3
MIT: Sep.3
Johns Hopkins: Sep.4
University of Toronto: Sep.8
Princeton: Sep.11
Harvard: Sep.15
Stanford University: Sep.22
UCLA: Sep.22
Northwestern: Sep.23
Dartmouth College: Sep.24
University of Washington: Sep.24
University of California, San Diego: Sep.25
University of California, Davis: Sep.25
University of California, Santa Barbara: Sep.25
Caltech: Sep.29
U.Chicago: Sep.29

More information.

Alternative proposal for U of T:

The university of Toronto removed four days of instruction from the first term in order to add a 2-day break in November and a 2-day study period before the December exams. See here. It removed an additional four days of instruction from the second term in order to make the semesters equal. (Another goal of the university is to end the second term exams by the end of April, but this can be done without removing days of instruction.)

In five out of seven years, Labour Day falls between Sept.1st and Sept.5th. In these years, if classes would start on the week of Labour Day instead of the week after Labour Day, then the university could add the desired breaks without removing days of instruction.

In two out of seven years, Labour Day falls on Sept.6th or 7th. In these years, the November break would need to be reduced or eliminated. But, if classes would start on the day after Labour Day, we could keep the two-day study period before the December exams and finish exams by Dec.21st without removing days of instruction.