16th Oct 2024 9:13AMUntil about 1992, the University operated with three 9-week terms quaintly named Lent, Trinity and Michaelmas. The University had vacations in May and August and several departments took their students on excursions. In most cases these were very popular. Animals and plants were doing something interesting in those two months and it was possible to sleep under canvas with fellow students. Most, if not all, of the other Australian universities operated with two semesters and the University finally followed suit. There were two main reasons for the change. Tho old holidays did not coincide with school holidays and women, who were still the ones primarily responsible for childcare, found it difficult to manage both their professional and family duties. The change was an important equal opportunity measure. The Dawkins reforms of 1990 forced the University to change its long-entrenched procedures to fit in with the HECs schemes and to facilitate transfers from other tertiary institutions. Excursions were then a thing of the past. Nobody was keen on camping in mid-winter.