Michaelmas term Michaelmas term Michaelmas term is the first academic term of the academic year in a number of English-speaking universities and schools in the northern hemisphere, especially in the United Kingdom. Michaelmas term derives its name from the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, which falls on 29 September. The term runs from September or October to Christmas. The term is also the name of the first of four terms into which the legal year is divided by the Courts of England and Wales and the Courts of Northern Ireland. While the name is not used in the legal systems
Academic term universities have special names for the three terms, e.g. Michaelmas, Hilary, Trinity (Oxford) or Michaelmas, Epiphany, Easter (Durham). Special term names (i.e. not first, second, third; autumn, spring, summer; or other obvious names) in use include: Exceptions to the ordinary structure of the academic year include the University of Buckingham, where undergraduate courses do not coincide with the academic year used by universities in Britain and elsewhere. Instead, they largely coincide with the calendar year—they typically start in January or February, with examinations in autumn. There are a number of different systems used in the US: The word quadmester or