UITES' REACTIONS TO THE NEW ACADEMIC CALENDAR

By Queen Adekunle

The University of Ibadan released its new calendar on the 3rd of November, 2025. Due to the effect of the strike called off by the ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES (ASUU), which went on for a week and a half. The new calendar has nullified some people’s Christmas and New Year plans.

According to the original school calendar, the school is supposed to be out of session on the 14th of December 2025, but when the two weeks were added, the school will be out of session on the 31st of December 2025. This news brought different reactions from students, Glory a student of psychology at the University of Ibadan said, “ I feel good about it because I can’t imagine writing Ges exams next week, it’s too close and the bad side of the new academic plan is that I will have to sacrifice my Christmas and New Year for it”. Another student, Rachel, said, “I was pissed at first about the calendar, because I will be spending Christmas in Ibadan again after making plans with the old calendar, and now all my plans are ruined. But later, after thinking about it, I am relieved, because we are yet to finish most of my department course outline, and this extension just gave us time to cover it”.

Students think and wonder how this will happen; students from the faculties where exams start two weeks after the Ges exam accepted their fate, the likes of the faculty of art, the social sciences, science, economics, management sciences and veterinary medicine. While students from other faculties who borrow from these faculties are having it hard, because they would have finished their faculty exams, only to wait behind for weeks for their borrowed course exam.

A student from Education said, “ I feel so displeased about the whole thing, because I borrowed from the faculty of art, and their exams will be after my faculty exam. In my faculty I write my exams the week after the Ges exam; my faculty exam will be on the first two days of the exam week, my departmental exam will be done the following week, then I will have to wait an extra week because of my borrowed course, from the CLA department, Faculty of Art. This new calendar is just a whole lot. I have a program I normally attend on the 26th of December but now I can’t do that this year because of the calendar and CLA department”.

Most student will be spending their Christmas in school or exam hall, getting exam question paper and answers, writing exams and calculating in the exam hall instead of spending the festival with their family, and having a good time at home. Hopefully, the celebration the students will miss during Christmas will be recovered during the New Year celebration.