“I believe I am right in saying that, from next September onwards, all Irish universities will have academic years divided into semesters, with Trinity College Dublin the last institution to adopt this format. I might just add in passing that, at least if you’re a pedant like me, you can only have two ’semesters’ per year, the term having a Latin origin and meaning six months – although of course since nobody’s semester covers six months of teaching, maybe we are all using the wrong term. However, the idea of a ‘third semester’ that is sometimes mooted, it seems to me, is an absurd concept linguistically; and whether it has much pedagogical value is also highly debatable …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 4 January]