Academic Years

An Academic Year is the top-level time boundary used to organise all teaching, assessment, enrolment, and reporting activity for a given year of study. Academic terms, intakes, and enrolments all sit within an academic year. Typically an academic year spans twelve months, though the exact dates are configurable to match your institution's calendar.

How Academic Years Work

You can create academic years ahead of time and configure them fully — including terms and intakes — before they become active. Only one academic year can be Active at a time. Activating a new year does not automatically close the previous one; you manage the status of each year independently.

One year can be marked as the Default year. The default year is pre-selected in pickers and filters across the system to reduce repetitive filtering when staff are working on the current period.

Scenario: In November, an administrator creates the 2026/2027 academic year with a start date of 1 February 2026, adds its terms, and configures intakes — all while the current 2025/2026 year is still active. When February arrives, they activate the new year and it becomes the active calendar context across the system.

Academic Year Statuses

Note: Closed and Archived academic years cannot be edited or deleted.

Create an Academic Year

To navigate to Academic Years, go to Academic → Years.

1. Click New Academic Year.
2. Enter the Name of the year (e.g., 2025/2026 or Academic Year 2026).
3. Set the Start Date — the first day of the academic year.
4. Set the End Date — the last day of the academic year.
5. Set the Status to Draft (recommended) or Active if you are setting up the current year retroactively.
6. Optionally check Set as Default Year to make this the pre-selected year in system-wide pickers and filters.
7. Optionally add Notes.
8. Click Save.

Edit an Academic Year

1. Go to Academic → Years.
2. Find the year and select Edit from its action menu.
3. Update the relevant fields.
4. Click Save.

Note: Academic years with a status of Closed or Archived cannot be edited.

Activate an Academic Year

Activating an academic year makes it the current calendar context across the system.

1. Go to Academic → Years.
2. Open the action menu for the year you want to activate and select Activate.
3. Confirm the action.

Important: Activating a year does not automatically close the previous active year. If you need to close the old year, do so separately after activating the new one. Only users with the academic.years.activate permission can perform this action.

Delete an Academic Year

An academic year can be deleted only if it is in Draft status and has no terms or intakes attached to it.

1. Go to Academic → Years.
2. Open the action menu and select Delete.
3. Confirm the deletion.

Permissions

Next: Academic Terms