Checking the draft timetable

When checking the draft timetable, please work your way through and check the following items:

1. Modules
2. Programmes
3. Staff availability
4. Rooms
5. Semester 2 week changes
6. Palmer G10 & HBS G11 fixed timetable
7. Palmer G10 & HBS G11 overflow/paired rooms
8. Bank holidays
9. PAL sessions

Modules

• Are the number of groups correct?
• Have the correct staff been allocated to all the sessions?
• Have the activities been scheduled for all weeks requested?
• Are the lengths of sessions correct?
• Have class tests been scheduled in large enough rooms, e.g. to allow double spacing?
• Are revision sessions included where needed? 

Please check that any changes which are requested do not have a knock-on impact on other modules/pathways/programmes. Often what looks like a simple change can affect an academic colleague in another area due to the overlap of modules on programme pathways.

Programmes

We have already imported student choices for Parts 2, 3, and 4, so these checks are predominantly for Part 1 and Master’s programmes:

• Can you spot any clashes between compulsory modules?
• Do the modules fit together to create a coherent timetable at programme level?
• Have programme introductions and module briefings been included for all relevant areas?

Staff availability

The timetable has been created using the staff availability information submitted by your Head of School. The timetable should also have accommodated research days for staff, where your Head of School indicated that this was required, but we ask that you check these particularly carefully.

• Have staff on part-time contracts, or those with flexible working arrangements, had their requirements accommodated?
• Have staff, whose Head of School has indicated that they should have a research day, had their research day accommodated?
• Do staff have time for a lunch break?

Rooms

A full list of teaching spaces and their maximum capacities is available on the Timetabling and Room Booking website. Where possible, we have allocated flat rooms if they had been requested.

Please ensure that the right type of rooms have been allocated e.g. flat room or PC lab.

If a specialist/departmentally owned space is required, please ensure that this has been allocated.

Semester 2 week changes

The academic year structure has been amended for 2026/7 onwards, and as a result, the 2025/6 Semester 2 timetable weeks do not map over e.g. Week 24 is no longer the first week of teaching in Semester 2. Therefore, please ensure your timetable has mapped over to the new week structure as expected. For reference, the full calendar can be found here.

Palmer G10 & HBS G11 fixed timetable

For 2026/7 the timetable for Palmer G10 and HBS G11 is fixed and cannot be changed.

If you find that you have forgotten to plan activities which will need these rooms, please let us know at the earliest opportunity.  We will work with you to consider how we can support you to deliver these activities in other spaces.

Palmer G10 & HBS G11 overflow/paired rooms

In 2025/6, a space use pilot was implemented in Palmer G10 and HBS G11 to provide a nearby overflow or paired room. Overflow/paired rooms have again been used in the 2026/7 timetable for these rooms as well as the Edith Morley Van Emden lecture theatre and the Agriculture Madejski lecture theatre. Staff due to teach on sessions with an overflow/paired room will be contacted with detailed guidance in advance of each semester.

Bank holidays

We haven’t yet redistributed all teaching impacted by Bank Holidays within the teaching period, which fall on Friday 26th March 2027 (Semester 2, week 8, Timetabling Week 30) and Monday 3rd May (Semester 2, week 12, Timetabling Week 36).

The Timetabling & Room Booking Team will now work to redistribute teaching, based on the following principles: 

• Teaching must not be re-arranged after 6pm on any day.
• Teaching must not be re-arranged into Wednesday afternoons.
• Teaching must not be re-arranged into the mid-semester week.
• An attempt should be made to reschedule teaching impacted by Bank Holidays into the week it would originally have been delivered.  If this is not possible, teaching should be re-arranged into the teaching week prior to, or after, the affected week.
• Where teaching is not able to be rescheduled in the same week or into the weeks before or after, the Timetabling & Room Booking Team will work with the activity deliverer to find an alternative solution.

PAL sessions

We are working closely with the Student Success & Engagement Team to timetable PAL sessions. These will be added to the timetable as students enrol onto the activities.