5 ms·

In Finland the universities (and I believe in many other European universities have/had this as well) there was "academic quarter" which meant that if something

by buzer 1y ago

In Finland the universities (and I believe in many other European universities have/had this as well) there was "academic quarter" which meant that if something was scheduled for 10am it would actually start at 10:15am. IIRC if they used precise time (10:00) then it would actually start at that time. I've heard it dates back to when people didn't have easy access to precise time. It would allow students to hear the hourly bells and walk to the class.

reddalo 1y ago
I confirm, we have it in Italian universities (it's called "quarto d'ora accademico" in Italian).
BurningFrog 1y ago
Same thing in Sweden in the 1980s
- spookie 1y ago
  Still is! Thankfully
- kzrdude 1y ago
  Still is, standard lecture is scheduled for example for 10-12. It starts at 10.15, pause 11.00-11.15, continues until 12.00. So it's neatly split in two 45 minute halves.
  - skribb 1y ago
    This has also been extended to evening events (dinners, balls, parties) in student towns. There “dk” stands for double quarter, so for example 18dk means that an event starts at 18:30, but you may show up from 18:00. And the time between 18:00-18:30 is used for mingling. It’s a good convention.
Msurrow 1y ago
Same in Denmark. Actually often needed to get from one auditorium across campus to another auditorium
cyberax 1y ago
A bit different in Russia and Ukraine, there's a notion of "academic hour" which is 45 minutes. Same idea though.
- grishka 1y ago
  Yes except classes in schools usually start at X:00 and breaks between them are X:45 - (X+1):00. The first class is usually at 9:00.
Groxx 1y ago
It also allows you to have "1 hour" classes that are at 10am and 11am, and you aren't forced to leave early or arrive late. A 5m gap isn't enough for huge numbers of classes in many campuses.
- volemo 1y ago
  How much can you actually do in 1 hour that’s 45 minutes long? All my classes were 1.5 hours long. Yet professors still regularly chose to introduce new material on days with back-to-back classes, leaving standalone classes for practice or “less important” topics.
  - Groxx 1y ago
    >How much can you actually do in 1 hour that’s 45 minutes long? Almost exactly as much as one that's 55 (or 60) minutes long but many people are late to. But yes, "1 hour" is fairly short for any deep topic progress. I vastly prefer classes that are 2 or 3, it gives time to have questions and not be in a blind rush.
  - iforgotpassword 1y ago
    We usually had 2 hour classes starting ct, some of them with another 10 minute break.
scotty79 1y ago
In Poland "academic quarter" has a sense that if the teacher didn't show up and it's 15 minues past, the students can leave. They still need to show up for the class at 00 every time and are scolded to varying degree if they showed up after the teacher started which they do right after they arrive.
- ipdashc 1y ago
  ... so the old American high school "if the teacher is 15 minutes late, we're legally allowed to leave" meme has some roots in reality? Huh.
  - scotty79 1y ago
    I guess it was the same in Poland and in America. It was never formally announced. Just sort of unwritten cultural norm.
  - Mountain_Skies 1y ago
    Never heard of that in high school but my university's student handbook explicitly stated that if the professor did not show up within ten minutes of the scheduled start time, the class was officially cancelled for that day. I only remember that happening once, maybe twice, during my academic career. A few times they cancelled a class ahead of time but no-shows were extremely rare.
- immibis 1y ago
  At my university in New Zealand they didn't take attendance for lectures. You attended the lectures so you could learn stuff so you could pass the exams. It's surprising that isn't considered normal. (There's some nuance to that statement as science courses tende to have labs - I don't remember why first-year physics was a requirement for software engineering, but it was - mathematics courses tended to have weekly assignments, and at least one software course had a very unusual style of putting us in a room one whole day per week for a semester to work on group projects.)
  - djoldman 1y ago
almostnormal 1y ago
Times are given as "c.t.", cum tempore.
brummm 1y ago
Same in Germany. Times are usually assumed to be ct (cum tempore) and start XY:15. When something starts sharp, it's specified as st (sine tempore).
ketzo 1y ago
This thread is absolutely fascinating — American, never heard of this practice (esp ct/st), and desperately want it in my life now!
- brudgers 1y ago
  For the most part, American Universities were established after railroad time tables were a thing…and in the US Latin and the other liberal arts were never the primary curriculum at most US universities, so cum tempore might as well be Latin.
- EasyMark 1y ago
  Yep I even had one professor who locked the door at the start of class. You either had to pound on the door to get in or accept defeat. Most people just walked away unless it was an exam day
- er4hn 1y ago
  UC Berkeley had this as well, at least as of the class of 2010. I think it was called "berkeley time" or something along those lines.
ajsnigrutin 1y ago
Same in slovenia, in technical colleges at least. For some lectures it was great, you really needed those 15 minutes to get coffee, go to the bathroom, etc., but for some late afternoon stuff, you just wanted to shorten the last three breaks to 5 minutes and leave half an hour early.
EasyMark 1y ago
so did things end at 11:15am as I imagine a lot of times there was something to be done in the next hour of 11AM?
- codethief 1y ago
  At the universities I've been to classes were almost always 1½ hours, so until 11:45am.
- Delk 1y ago
  Generally, a single-slot class was 45 minutes. So a slot at "10 AM" would have started at 10:15 AM and ended at 11:00 AM. Most lectures were allocated double slots, though, for example from 10 to 12. In that case the actual official lecture time would have been either 10:15 to 11:00, followed by a quarter hour break, and another 45 minutes from 11:15 to 12:00. Alternatively -- and probably more commonly -- there was no break, and the lecture was 1.5 hours from 10:15 to 11:45.

by buzer 1y ago

reddalo 1y ago

I confirm, we have it in Italian universities (it's called "quarto d'ora accademico" in Italian).

BurningFrog 1y ago

Same thing in Sweden in the 1980s

spookie 1y ago
Still is! Thankfully
kzrdude 1y ago
Still is, standard lecture is scheduled for example for 10-12. It starts at 10.15, pause 11.00-11.15, continues until 12.00. So it's neatly split in two 45 minute halves.
- skribb 1y ago
  This has also been extended to evening events (dinners, balls, parties) in student towns. There “dk” stands for double quarter, so for example 18dk means that an event starts at 18:30, but you may show up from 18:00. And the time between 18:00-18:30 is used for mingling. It’s a good convention.

Msurrow 1y ago

Same in Denmark. Actually often needed to get from one auditorium across campus to another auditorium

cyberax 1y ago

A bit different in Russia and Ukraine, there's a notion of "academic hour" which is 45 minutes. Same idea though.

grishka 1y ago
Yes except classes in schools usually start at X:00 and breaks between them are X:45 - (X+1):00. The first class is usually at 9:00.

Groxx 1y ago

It also allows you to have "1 hour" classes that are at 10am and 11am, and you aren't forced to leave early or arrive late. A 5m gap isn't enough for huge numbers of classes in many campuses.

volemo 1y ago
How much can you actually do in 1 hour that’s 45 minutes long? All my classes were 1.5 hours long. Yet professors still regularly chose to introduce new material on days with back-to-back classes, leaving standalone classes for practice or “less important” topics.
- Groxx 1y ago
  >How much can you actually do in 1 hour that’s 45 minutes long? Almost exactly as much as one that's 55 (or 60) minutes long but many people are late to. But yes, "1 hour" is fairly short for any deep topic progress. I vastly prefer classes that are 2 or 3, it gives time to have questions and not be in a blind rush.
- iforgotpassword 1y ago
  We usually had 2 hour classes starting ct, some of them with another 10 minute break.

scotty79 1y ago

In Poland "academic quarter" has a sense that if the teacher didn't show up and it's 15 minues past, the students can leave. They still need to show up for the class at 00 every time and are scolded to varying degree if they showed up after the teacher started which they do right after they arrive.

ipdashc 1y ago
... so the old American high school "if the teacher is 15 minutes late, we're legally allowed to leave" meme has some roots in reality? Huh.
- scotty79 1y ago
  I guess it was the same in Poland and in America. It was never formally announced. Just sort of unwritten cultural norm.
- Mountain_Skies 1y ago
  Never heard of that in high school but my university's student handbook explicitly stated that if the professor did not show up within ten minutes of the scheduled start time, the class was officially cancelled for that day. I only remember that happening once, maybe twice, during my academic career. A few times they cancelled a class ahead of time but no-shows were extremely rare.
immibis 1y ago
At my university in New Zealand they didn't take attendance for lectures. You attended the lectures so you could learn stuff so you could pass the exams. It's surprising that isn't considered normal. (There's some nuance to that statement as science courses tende to have labs - I don't remember why first-year physics was a requirement for software engineering, but it was - mathematics courses tended to have weekly assignments, and at least one software course had a very unusual style of putting us in a room one whole day per week for a semester to work on group projects.)
- djoldman 1y ago

almostnormal 1y ago

Times are given as "c.t.", cum tempore.

brummm 1y ago

Same in Germany. Times are usually assumed to be ct (cum tempore) and start XY:15. When something starts sharp, it's specified as st (sine tempore).

ketzo 1y ago

This thread is absolutely fascinating — American, never heard of this practice (esp ct/st), and desperately want it in my life now!

brudgers 1y ago
For the most part, American Universities were established after railroad time tables were a thing…and in the US Latin and the other liberal arts were never the primary curriculum at most US universities, so cum tempore might as well be Latin.
EasyMark 1y ago
Yep I even had one professor who locked the door at the start of class. You either had to pound on the door to get in or accept defeat. Most people just walked away unless it was an exam day
er4hn 1y ago
UC Berkeley had this as well, at least as of the class of 2010. I think it was called "berkeley time" or something along those lines.

ajsnigrutin 1y ago

Same in slovenia, in technical colleges at least. For some lectures it was great, you really needed those 15 minutes to get coffee, go to the bathroom, etc., but for some late afternoon stuff, you just wanted to shorten the last three breaks to 5 minutes and leave half an hour early.

EasyMark 1y ago

so did things end at 11:15am as I imagine a lot of times there was something to be done in the next hour of 11AM?

codethief 1y ago
At the universities I've been to classes were almost always 1½ hours, so until 11:45am.
Delk 1y ago
Generally, a single-slot class was 45 minutes. So a slot at "10 AM" would have started at 10:15 AM and ended at 11:00 AM. Most lectures were allocated double slots, though, for example from 10 to 12. In that case the actual official lecture time would have been either 10:15 to 11:00, followed by a quarter hour break, and another 45 minutes from 11:15 to 12:00. Alternatively -- and probably more commonly -- there was no break, and the lecture was 1.5 hours from 10:15 to 11:45.