Academic year
The academic year runs from September 1 until August 31, and is divided into two semesters. What UCR calls the Fall semester tends to start at the end of August, and runs for 17 weeks. Fifteen weeks of class, one week of break and one class-free week. You’ll then have winter break until the end of January when the Spring semester starts. The Spring semester again runs for 17 weeks with 15 weeks of class, a break week and a class-free week. Students can choose to take a four week intensive course in June/July. This means that your summer break either starts in May or around the start of July.
You have to complete 30 credits per semester. This means that in general, you will take four courses in each semester. However, in the Spring semester, you have an alternative because of the availability of June/July courses. Rather than doing four courses from January – May, you can opt to do only three in that timeframe and one June/July course.
Teaching and assessment
In general, each course meets twice a week for two hours. Some courses may meet only once a week for four hours instead. In class, you might encounter a variety of teaching methods, such as problem-based learning, student-led presentations and group work. To facilitate that, our classes are capped at 55 students though on average you’ll find 26 students in a course.
For each course, you can expect to do nine hours of work outside of class per week. This could be homework exercises, reading, preparing a presentation, working on your research, or doing a group project among many other options. Not only will you have a variety of assignments in class, but you will also experience a diversity in assessment methods. No graded element can be more than 30% of your grade, so you’ll compile your final grade throughout the semester with continuous assessment.