Students May Need To Think Ahead To 2013
Unitec is currently discussing the arrangement of the 2013 Unitec Academic Calendar. Since 2006, Unitec has aligned its holidays with the schedule of the primary school holidays. The reason for this being: students that are parents are able to stay home with their children rather than pay for childcare. This massive scheduling decision is currently based around the large parent-student demographic at Unitec.
Accordingly, if Unitec were to follow these same scheduling patterns, in 2013, the mid –year break would extend from its usual 3 weeks into 4 weeks. This may sound like good news, meaning an extra long holiday, but there are many factors to be considered. One of the most important regarding student allowances. Studylink currently grants student allowance for breaks of up to three weeks in length. If a four week holiday were passed for 2013, students receiving allowance would have to arrange a move to the student hardship for the last week of holiday. Unemployment hardship requires a one week stand down period, which can lead to an administrative nightmare.
There are a few options to be considered. First, being that Unitec continues to directly align itself with the holiday schedule of the primary schools. This decision would be in consideration of the students with children. Otherwise, the children would have an extra week of holiday while their parents returned back to class. Unitec could also choose to follow the primary school holiday schedule as closely as possible, with some concessions such as keeping the mid-year break to three weeks, in order to preserve academic integrity.
Another option is to disregard the primary school schedule and plan Unitec holidays based on academic need. The existing schedule allows for a sixteen weeks in semester 2, six of those falling after the mid-semester break. Of those six weeks, two are allotted for study, and one for exams. This leaves only three weeks of teaching and learning for the second half of semester 2, which has become troublesome for students in the past. The end of semester 2 is where a large amount of the work load falls. Trying to condense such a heavy work load into three weeks time is causing a considerable amount of student and staff stress.
The last consideration to the academic schedule is the end of the year. Unitec has consistently finished term about two weeks after other Universities. This year, the last day of exams falls on December 2nd. University of Auckland finishes on November 14, and AUT on November 11. The concern has been raised that by having a delayed start and finish to the academic year, Unitec students are at a disadvantage when competing for summer jobs. If a 4 week mid year break were to occur, the conclusion of the school year would only be held back further.
If you have any questions or feedback concerning the arrangement of the academic calendar, please contact Gemma Skipper at USUEducation@Unitec.ac.nz.