The problem with short semester breaks

One of the biggest downsides of the structure of academic calendars of Bangladesh's private universities stems from its trimester system. While it's great to be able to tackle 3 semesters every year, the short semester breaks (and shorter breaks during major holidays) are hardly a worthy trade off. 

Semester breaks are more than just an opportunity to catch up on much needed sleep after gruelling through semesters that are often too brief to cover the actual load of the coursework to begin with. Let's not forget the stress of finals week. Semester breaks could provide the opportunity to both students and faculty to participate in and benefit from activities that are usually impossible while semesters are in session. 

The average duration of a semester break is between 2-4 weeks, with the higher range being pretty rare. The last time I got a month off was probably 3 years ago. Two weeks is enough to catch up on sleep but that's pretty much the most I can make out of it. Given that registration for courses, application for scholarships and similar formalities need to be carried out during these breaks, a week is knocked off from the break by default. Ultimately, it's little more than a study break before a new semester starts. The problem here is that this leaves little room to recharge and return energized to tackle the rigours of a new, often tougher semester. Somewhere down the line, this begins to take a toll, which is often remedied by students rushing to finish early just to be able to get out of the cycle. 

Another opportunity cost comes in terms of developing skills. In order to be able to gain any work experience, students here are forced to juggle part-time jobs or internships along with class and exam schedules. Summer internships or jobs aren't a thing because summer breaks are non-existent for university goers. Similarly, if a student is studying a major which leads towards research work in the future, it's almost impossible to be able to completely immerse in it while juggling the stress of academic work.If it were possible to have proper semester breaks, students would benefit from having some job experience or be able to focus on developing skills outside of their academic requirements.  Needless to say, the opportunity costs stack up for most students. Ultimately, this impacts personal growth. Many students graduate with little to no experience in their relevant fields and universities often don't provide a buffer either. Not only are they left to navigate the cut throat competition of the job market alone, they are also not provided with the skills needed to network, grow or scope out alternate paths. 

The University Grants Commission has laid forth initiatives to make the semester system uniform across the country. Whether this will remedy these problems remains to be seen but let's hope that it has a positive impact on university life. 

Nooha Sabanta Maula is an Anthropology major whose anthropologising has made her confused about life. Send her your thoughts to noohamaula@gmail.com