In Taiwan's universities, one semester is about 19 weeks.
Compared to France's colleges' 11 weeks or even UC's 10 weeks, it's terribly long.
The incredibly long semester is proposed and designed by the government (I guess the Ministry of Education?).
The officials believe that students learn more with longer school time, but the reality is just, if not the opposite, not as they expect to be.
I had the opportunity to be exchanged to UCLA for a quarter which only lasted for 10 weeks. I loved it!
Due to the short span, instructors and students all keep interested in the courses throughout the whole quarter, thus always willing to absorb knowledge and obtain skills. Besides, since there's no much time to be wasted, the classes are more intense and efficient. I think very positively of the quarter system or not-so-long semester system.
I did see the problem of short quarters/semesters. Some subjects are better learned with longer training, for example, foreign languages. To pick up a new language or improve the proficiency, a certain period of time is required. Intensity does not necessarily work in this case.
But 19 weeks! That is way too much for most students and some professors to stay passionate about learning and teaching... An in-between length, maybe 13-14 weeks, should be adopted ASAP.
I am now in the 13th weeks, still 6 weeks to go.
image: http://keep-calm-and.tumblr.com/post/23771548502
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