Semester

An academic year is made up of

• a winter semester (WS) = usually from 1 October to 31 March
• and a summer semester (SS or SuSe) = usually from 1 April until 30 September

The word “semester” is often used both for the subject-related semester and the
university semester.

• Subject-related semester (Fachsemester): Term for all semesters that have been studied in a particular subject.
• University semester (Hochschulsemester): Term for all semesters that a student has studied in total regardless of the subject (that is, semesters for which they have been enrolled at a university).