Shifting into Semesters

A significant shift is occurring at Milwaukee School of Engineering—the university is transitioning from a quarterbased academic calendar to a semester model in fall 2023. MSOE will offer a fall semester and a spring semester, and each will be 16 weeks long (15 week of instruction and one week for final exams).

The change was first brought forward as an idea during MSOE’s strategic planning process in 2017. After lengthy discussion, the strategic planning committee (comprised of a cross-section of MSOE faculty, staff, students, alumni and Regents) agreed to evaluate MSOE’s quarter-based academic calendar model as part of the university’s final plan. A task force was then convened to carry out this task, which also included evaluating additional models, to ensure that the chosen model would help students be successful in meeting their academic and professional goals while meeting the needs of MSOE’s employers, corporate partners and alumni.

Following a year of researching all aspects of several academic calendar models, and soliciting input from MSOE stakeholders through meetings, surveys and interviews, the task force recommended that MSOE change to a semester-based model based on their overall assessment that the strength of MSOE’s educational model operates independently of the calendar model. This recommendation was approved by MSOE’s Leadership Team and is supported by the Board of Regents.

Research showed that MSOE is part of a shrinking group of institutions that follow a quarter-based academic calendar. In the 1980s, about 25% of top-tier institutions were on a quarter system. By 2019, that number dropped to fewer than 10%.

The transition to semesters will further support student success, persistence and retention in a number of ways. Students will have greater opportunity to digest what they are learning and dive deeper into the course content. There will be more opportunity for high-impact educational practices and experiential learning. And when it comes to clinical experiences, internships, co-ops and industry-sponsored projects, the semester model better aligns with our industry partners’ needs—which will give students richer real-world experiences.

The semester model will offer greater access to student exchange and study abroad opportunities with most international universities following a traditional semester model. It also allows for a smoother transition and transfer of credits to MSOE for transfer students.

“I am so proud of and thankful for our faculty,” said Dr. John Walz, president. “They have spent countless hours preparing for this transition and reimagining the curricula. They have ensured that application-oriented, experiential learning remains the hallmark of an MSOE education.”

The new curricula will not compromise time to degree and students will not miss out on any learning opportunities—all subject matter has been incorporated into the new system.

Students enrolled at MSOE who are not graduating before fall 2023 will have an individualized transition plan that includes their time on the quarter calendar and remaining time on the semester calendar. To assist with the creation of these plans, Drs. Chris Taylor and Jim Lembke developed a sophisticated software platform called “Semester Transition Advising Tool” (STAT) with software engineering students Christian Doughty, Thy Le, Bilal Syed and Michael Zabrowski. Academic advisors simply upload each student’s course history and the system generates a table to show the student’s progress toward their degree and maps out which courses they need to meet graduation requirements in the semester system. The team also created how-to documentation and video tutorials on the software.

Throughout Fall Quarter 2022, academic advisors developed and evaluated these transition plans and reviewed them with students.

Changing over to semesters involved more than rewriting the curriculum. Faculty and academic staff spent the 2020–21 academic year developing a new structure to guide the transition. This included writing guiding principles, rules for curriculum development, common courses, the academic calendar, general education framework, common learning outcomes, weekly schedule structure, common assessment tools, integrative learning guidelines, and academic policies.

Focus then transitioned to curriculum and 2021–22 was deemed the “Year of Curriculum.” Faculty worked on more than 1,000 courses and nearly 30 degree programs (and this does not include specializations, study abroad versions or articulation agreements within those programs).

Additionally, 17 minors, 11 certificates, and transition courses and transition plans for each program were approved by MSOE’s Council for Academic Planning and Executive Educational Council.