The academic year at Swedish universities usually consists of two semesters, each lasting 20 weeks. The autumn semester runs from the beginning of September to mid-January, and the spring semester runs from mid-January until the beginning of June. There is usually a two-week break in teaching at Christmas.

Please note that the Chritmas break may vary between the departments and it is therefore important that you contact the international coordinator at the department for detailed information. June, July and August are summer holiday months in Sweden. Courses and study programmes may start either in the autumn or in the spring semester.

The semester

A semester lasts for 20 weeks, and each semester is divided into four periods of five weeks. The autumn semester includes periods one to four, and the spring semester includes periods five to eight. The number of credits per course may vary from 7.5–30 higher education credits. You usually take one course of 7.5 credits in each period, (consecutive scheduling). In some cases, courses of 7.5 credits run simultaneously over two periods (parallel scheduling) but are studied on a part-time basis. At the end of the five-or-ten-week period there is some form of examination, after which you begin the next course.