Planning of teaching and exams at Aarhus University follows a shared annual cycle and common guidelines.
Teaching activities at Aarhus University can be planned Monday-Thursday at 8-18 and Friday at 8-16.
The lesson starts 15 minutes past the hour – ie. that the academic quarter is used throughout the university. In this way, there is time to move between teaching rooms and -activities.
Annual rules and guidelines are effective from and including 2023 and are adopted in 2022 by the steering group for the implementation of a common planning system at AU.
The annual cycle enables students to be informed about timetables and exam dates at least one week before the registration deadline.
Dates for planning the fall semester
Room sharing:
Publication of timetable and exam dates (latest): 24 April
Registration period: 1.-5. May
Dates for planning the spring semester
Room sharing:
Publication of timetable and exam dates (latest): 24 October
Registration period: 1.-5. November
Room sharing
Sharing of rooms takes place in two rounds:
Aarhus University uses curriculum-based planning.
Curriculum-based planning means that teaching activities are planned before the students register.
The aim of curriculum-based planning is:
The curriculum-based planning is carried out based on:
Curriculum-based planning is not dependent on registered student enrolments and can therefore be planned with a longer time horizon than enrolment-based planning.
This means that timetables and exam plans can be prepared and published in good time, so that other activities can be planned outside the teaching and exam times.
The student gets a better basis for managing his/her course of study and thus better opportunities for achieving the desired progress, just as the teacher gets the opportunity to plan research activities etc. so that they do not coincide with teaching activities.
At the start of the timetabling period, the timetabling department obtains information from the academic environment regarding possible limitations for timetabling the teaching. The individual faculty themselves determine the method, communication channels and practice for this.
The teaching planning takes the following constraints into account:
Restrictions in relation to the student's course:
Student groups with limited time/availability, e.g. postgraduate and further education students
Academic constraints:
Need for special rooms
Days/hours between activities
Order of teaching activities (within a week or throughout the semester)
Full days (must either be taken off or booked for professional reasons)
Possible dependencies in relation to other courses in the same semester
In addition, the department or faculty management can decide on restrictions regarding the availability of lecturers.
An essential prerequisite for the curriculum-based planning to work and provide stable and predictable timetables is, on the one hand, that the number of changes to the timetables is minimized, and that, on the other hand, there is sufficient flexibility to handle changes that are unavoidable such as changes due to illness and resignation.
The sharing of rooms is carried out according to common rules:
Planning of teaching:
a) The head of education – in practice the study administrative unit at the faculty's administration center – is responsible for planning the teaching
b) The planning takes place in close dialogue with the institutes and the course managers.
c) In case of doubt regarding handling of schedule changes and restrictions, the decision is made by the head of the faculty's planning department in dialogue with the responsible academic leader for the program in question.
d) In matters of principle, the vice-dean for education and the head of education are involved.
Room sharing:
Planning of teaching and exams is handled by the faculties' study administrative units.
Contact: