For reasons unknown (slow news week), Critic Te Ārohi has decided that semester lengths are such a hot topic that they deserve two weeks of coverage. Naturally, they handed me a full page and said, “500 words, please.” Because apparently I’m the only student who knows how any of this works, and the only one getting paid to care. If nothing else, may this article serve as excellent kindling.
So, why does Otago get just a single week off in the middle of each semester? Why are we the university equivalent of the forgotten eldest daughter after her dad remarries and starts a new family? (Not speaking from personal experience, my parents are lovely.) It’s all thanks to our decision to move to 18-point papers. That change meant we needed more time to teach and assess content, and the Clocktower basically said, “Sure, why not,” and extended the semesters – at the cost of our precious mid-semester breaks.
We’ve got to start and end the academic year at roughly the same time every year because our semesters are sandwiched between two lots of Summer School. There simply aren’t enough weeks in the year to have long mid-semester breaks, keep the big mid-year break, and run summer school. Try picking that fight.
Was this change quietly shuffled through the University Senate? If you didn’t exercise your rights as an OUSA member and come sit in on Exec meetings, then yeah you definitely didn’t know this was happening. I first saw it in August 2024, then again in September at the Advisory Committee on Student Advising (yes, that’s a real name). It finally landed in Senate in October. So while it might have felt like this change came out of nowhere, you can bet your bottom dollar that I was in all the meetings. I argued that longer mid-sem breaks + shorter semesters = less student misery, while everyone wondered why they let me on the committee.
The big fat ugly root of the problem? StudyLink. If you’re out of study for more than three weeks, your Student Loan or Allowance can get cut. Our current mid-year break goes over that 21-day limit. Before you clutch your pearls, Otago has made special arrangements with Studylink to ensure that we aren’t affected.
Now, could Senate fix all this? Technically, yes. But that’s not where decisions are born. ACoSA (that student advisory committee with the absurdly long name) makes recommendations to Senate, who then recommend things to the University Council. The Council makes the final call. But the actual solution – the thing that fixed the Studylink problem – came from a staff member who just genuinely wanted students to have a better experience. If I had a dollar for every time someone in the Clocktower had our backs… well, I’d be able to pay extra for oat milk in my coffee.
Maybe you read this article thinking it’d save you money on toilet paper. Or maybe you’re a closet fan of UoO bureaucracy. Either way – come find me. Let’s talk semester dates. It’s riveting stuff. So fun. So slay.
Stella Lynch
Academic Rep