An academic quarter refers to the division of an academic year into four parts, which commonly are not all exactly three months or thirteen weeks long due to breaks between terms.

Historical context

The modern academic quarter calendar can be traced to the historic English law court / legal training pupillage four term system: This quarter system was adopted by the oldest universities in the English-speaking world (Oxford, founded circa 1096, and Cambridge, founded circa 1209). Over time, Cambridge dropped Trinity Term and renamed Hilary Term to Lent Term, and Oxford also dropped the original Trinity Term and renamed Easter Term as Trinity Term, thus establishing the three-term academic "quarter" year widely found in countries with a lineage to England or the United Kingdom. Charterhouse, an English independent school, still refers to its three academic terms as "quarters".

United States

Background and trends

In the United States, quarters typically comprise 10 weeks of class instruction, although they have historically ranged from eight to 13 weeks.Kemp Malone, '' 'Semester' '', American Speech, Dec. 1946, p. 264
/ref> Academic quarters first came into existence as such when William Rainey Harper organized the University of Chicago on behalf of John D. Rockefeller in 1891. Harper decided to keep the school in session year-round and divide it into four terms instead of the then-traditional two. Of the four traditional academic calendars (semester, quarter, trimester, and 4-1-4), the semester calendar is used the most widely, at over 60% of U.S. higher learning institutions, with fewer than 20% using the quarter system.''Report of the 1998-99'' ad hoc ''Calendar Committee'', Northeastern University, July 30, 1999
/ref> This number has stayed fairly constant since 1930, when 75% of U.S. institutions surveyed indicated they used a semester plan, with 22% on the quarter system. During the 1960s, a number of U.S. state university systems made a switch from a semester to quarter system, typically in an attempt to accommodate the large number of post-war "baby boom" students who had reached college age (sometimes called the "Tidal Wave I enrollment boom"). A prominent example of this trend was the University of California system.''Debate: Semesters or Quarters'', UCLA Faculty Senate Voice, Apr. 2003 (iss. 3)
Since then, UC Berkeley switched back to semesters in 1983, the new UC Merced branch opened with the semester system, and some UC professional schools have switched back to semesters at various points. In 2020, UC San Diego considered a switch to the semester system as well. At various points since the 1960s, committees have been established and official discussions have taken place within the UC system to discuss a systemwide switch back to the semester system.Chris Ziegler, ''Faculty Considers Switch from Quarter to Semester'', (University of California, Santa Barbara) Daily Nexus, Jan. 29, 1990 (reprinted Jan. 29, 2007)
In recent years, a number of higher education institutions have considered or approved a switch to a semester system. The University System of Ohio, which includes

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

, Ohio University, and the University of Cincinnati, converted to the semester system in 2012 to better align with other public and private institutions in the state, among other reasons. Individual schools have also switched, like Georgia Tech in 1999. Rochester Institute of Technology converted to semesters in Fall 2013, although the decision was highly controversial, overriding a student vote to remain with quarters. Other institutions and systems that have switched include California State University, Los Angeles, Auburn University, the University of Minnesota system, the Utah State system, and Northeastern University. Southern Oregon University was required to study a switch to the semester system as part of state legislation on a possible merger with the University of Oregon.

Arguments

Concerns over the quarter system include faculty dislike of the brevity of the term, the loss of faculty research and collaboration time, the end of the spring quarter overrunning the start date of many established summer internships which also leads to shorter internship periods, difficulties in recovering from illness-linked absence, and the heavy administrative workload. A quarter system calendar also may put schools at a disadvantage in competing for prospective students, who wish to keep in-step with friends, and offer more opportunities for students to "disconnect from school." It can be difficult to transfer credits between semester institutions and quarter institutions, even when they are in the same state. Quarter systems do allow students to enroll in a richer variety of courses and school-coordinated internships and may encourage students to take on double majors, minors, concentrations, and the like. A quarter system can maximize the use of college facilities in a time of enrollment growth, as it allows for four regular periods of academic instruction. Also, quarters allow for faculty to engage in terms with a relatively light course load of teaching and greater opportunities for short sabbaticals.

American universities on quarter system

American institutions of higher learning on the quarter system include seven of the ten

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

campuses and all but one of the public universities in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and Washington each.Poe, Mariya. "Semester vs Quarter System Explained & Full List of Colleges," College Transitions, Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
Retrieved March 9, 2024. * Antioch College * California Institute of Technology * California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo * Capella University * Central Washington University * Dartmouth College * DePaul University * Drexel University * Eastern Oregon University * Eastern Washington University * Evergreen State College * Loma Linda University * Louisiana Tech University *

Milwaukee School of Engineering The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) is a private university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1903, the university has a primary focus on undergraduate engineering education with additional programs in business, mathem ...

* New England Institute of Technology *

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

Oregon Institute of Technology The Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech) is a public college in Oregon with a residential campus in Klamath Falls, Oregon, an urban campus in Wilsonville, Oregon, and additional locations in Salem, Oregon, Salem and Seattle. Almost all s ...

* Oregon State University * Pacific Union College * Portland State University * Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology * Santa Clara University * Savannah College of Art and Design * Seattle University * Seattle Pacific University * Southern Oregon University *

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

* University of California, Davis *

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

* University of California, Riverside * University of California, San Diego *

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

* University of California, Santa Cruz * University of Chicago * University of Denver * University of Oregon * University of Washington * University of Washington Tacoma * Walla Walla University * Western Oregon University * Western Washington University

References