Liverpool University Term Dates 2026/27: All Four Compared

The University of Liverpool starts teaching on Monday 28 September 2026. LJMU, Liverpool Hope and LIPA all start a week earlier, on Monday 21 September. That one week apart is the thing most people get wrong, and no single university's own page will tell you about it.

So if you are booking a train home for Christmas, planning a move into halls, or working out when your tenant is back in the city, you need the right date for the right institution. All four 2026/27 calendars are below, side by side.

The University of Liverpool, LJMU and LIPA dates were re-checked against their own published calendars on 25 August 2026. Liverpool Hope's general calendar is a PDF and carries forward from the 19 August check. Where a date is not yet published, we say so rather than guessing.

Term dates by university

• University of Liverpool: Welcome Week 21 to 27 September, teaching from 28 September.
• LJMU, Liverpool Hope and LIPA: induction week 14 to 18 September, teaching from 21 September.
• Halls open from 5 September for postgraduates at both LJMU and the University of Liverpool. Undergraduate contracts start 12 to 19 September, so arrivals run across three weeks, not one weekend.
• Christmas breaks do not line up. LIPA breaks first (12 December), then LJMU (14 December), then Liverpool Hope and the University of Liverpool (21 December).
• January is not a holiday at the University of Liverpool. Teaching and assessment run 11 to 29 January.
• Placement, teaching, social work and some postgraduate courses run to different calendars. Check your own timetable before booking anything.

Liverpool university term dates 2026/27 at a glance

The LJMU and Liverpool Hope dates apply to standard programmes only. Both publish separate calendars for several professional courses, which we cover further down.

University of Liverpool term dates 2026/27

If you searched for "Liverpool University term dates", this is almost certainly the one you want. The University of Liverpool's official term dates page splits the year into teaching, assessment, break and dissertation periods rather than three named terms.

Watch the January dates

The winter break runs from Monday 21 December 2026 to Friday 8 January 2027. Teaching and assessment then start again on Monday 11 January and run for three weeks.

This catches people out every year. January is not an extension of the Christmas holiday, and those three weeks include assessments. If you are booking a long trip home, book the return for the first week of January, not the last week.

The Easter break

Easter runs from Monday 22 March to Friday 9 April 2027, with teaching back on Monday 12 April. Five more weeks of teaching follow before the main assessment period from 17 May.

The university also lists a semester-by-semester version of these dates for visiting students, which is the clearest layout if you think in semesters rather than teaching blocks.

When University of Liverpool halls contracts start

Teaching starts on 28 September, but your accommodation contract starts well before that. The accommodation important information page publishes the 2026/27 contract dates in full.

Two things worth noting. First-year undergraduates can move in from Saturday 19 September, nine days before teaching starts and two days before Welcome Week. Postgraduates get a 51-week contract starting 5 September, so postgraduate halls fill up a fortnight before the undergraduate ones.

The first-year contract ends on 19 June 2027, but the taught postgraduate dissertation period runs to 30 September. If you are going on to a masters, the accommodation gap between the two is yours to cover.

Liverpool John Moores University term dates 2026/27

LJMU starts a week before the University of Liverpool. The LJMU academic calendar for 2026/27 marks Monday 14 September as Week 0, induction, with Week 1 beginning Monday 21 September.

LJMU has separately confirmed that induction week runs from 14 to 18 September, with teaching starting on standard calendar programmes the following Monday.

• 4 September: general programme timetables available to view
• 14 September: induction week begins, and personal timetables become available
• 18 September: Freshers Fair at the Exhibition Centre Liverpool
• 21 September: Week 1, teaching begins
• 14 December: Christmas break begins
• 22 March: spring break begins
• July: referral examinations and graduation ceremonies

When you can move into LJMU halls

Move-in is staggered across a week and a half, and the dates depend on who you are. LJMU's moving-in guidance sets out four groups for students who booked through the Applicant Hub:

• Saturday 5 September: new postgraduates, including international postgraduates
• Monday 7 September: new international undergraduates and one-semester exchange students
• Saturday 12 or Sunday 13 September: new UK undergraduates

Slots inside those days are allocated by the accommodation provider, so do not book a non-refundable train or flight until yours is confirmed.

Not every LJMU course follows this calendar

This matters more than it sounds. The main calendar applies to standard calendar programmes only. Courses with teaching placements, healthcare placements or other professional requirements run on separate calendars held by programme leaders.

Taught postgraduates should also check LJMU's guidance for new postgraduate taught students, because induction arrangements differ from the undergraduate ones.

Liverpool Hope University term dates 2026/27

Liverpool Hope publishes the most detailed calendar of the four, and it is the only one of the Liverpool institutions with two full reading weeks built into the year. These dates come from its 2026/27 academic calendar.

Hope's Christmas break is the shortest of the four at two weeks, and an assessment week follows immediately from 4 January. If you study at Hope, plan your return travel for the weekend of 2 and 3 January.

Hope courses with their own calendars

The calendar above does not cover every course. Liverpool Hope publishes separate calendars for BA and MA Social Work, PGCE, BA QTS, and Holy Cross courses, all of which involve placements that change the teaching year.

At the time of checking, only the 2025/26 versions of those separate calendars were published. If you are on one of those courses, the 2026/27 dates were not yet available on the academic calendars page, so ask your programme team directly rather than assuming the general calendar applies to you.

New undergraduates can also use Hope's information for new undergraduate students for arrival arrangements.

LIPA term dates 2026/27

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts runs three named terms, and its Christmas break starts earliest of the four. These dates are from LIPA's published term dates and cover undergraduate degrees and CertHE courses.

LIPA also runs directed learning weeks from 26 to 30 October 2026 and 15 to 19 February 2027. Those are not holidays. LIPA warns that some teaching and assessment can still be scheduled during both those weeks and during the January teaching hiatus.

LIPA also expects students to stay for any assessment activity that runs onto the Saturday at the end of a term, so do not book travel for the Friday on the assumption that teaching has finished. Postgraduate courses including MA Acting and MA Music Industry Management have their own dates on the same page.

When students arrive in Liverpool in September 2026

There is no single weekend when the city fills up. The arrival period stretches across roughly three weeks:

• 1 September: LIPA online enrolment opens
• 5 September: LJMU and University of Liverpool postgraduate halls contracts start
• 7 September: LJMU international undergraduates can move in
• 11 September: LIPA International Orientation Day
• 12 and 13 September: LJMU UK undergraduate move-in weekend
• 14 September: induction begins at LJMU, Hope and LIPA
• 18 September: LJMU Freshers Fair at the Exhibition Centre
• 19 September: University of Liverpool undergraduate halls contracts start, the busiest single day
• 21 September: teaching begins at LJMU, Hope and LIPA. University of Liverpool Welcome Week begins
• 28 September: University of Liverpool teaching begins

If you drive, the two weekends to avoid around the university buildings are 12 to 13 September and 19 to 20 September. Pressure is heaviest around Brownlow Hill and Mount Pleasant for the University of Liverpool, the Byrom Street and Mount Pleasant campuses for LJMU, and the private housing streets off Smithdown Road, along with Kensington and parts of Wavertree.

Hope's Hope Park campus in Childwall sits away from the other three, so its arrival traffic lands on a different part of the city entirely.

Term dates do not apply to every course

This is the part to check before you pay for anything. Courses that can run outside the standard calendar include:

• teaching placements and PGCE
• healthcare and medicine placements
• social work placements
• postgraduate research
• dissertation and practice periods
• performances and productions

All four institutions say some version of this. LJMU describes its calendar as standard programmes only, Hope publishes four separate professional calendars, and LIPA lists different dates for its postgraduate courses. The University of Liverpool's dissertation period alone runs from 7 June to 30 September 2027.

Treat your personal timetable as the final answer, not the university-wide calendar.

What is still to be published

One set of dates is still missing, re-checked on 25 August 2026. Liverpool Hope has published its 2026/27 general calendar, but the separate calendars for BA and MA Social Work, PGCE, BA QTS and Holy Cross courses still show 2025/26 only.

If you are on one of those courses, ask your programme team for the 2026/27 dates rather than working from the general calendar. Placement blocks are the most likely thing to move.

What to do next

Save your own institution's term dates page, then check your personal timetable once it is released. LJMU releases general timetables on 4 September and personal timetables on 14 September, which is the earliest any of the four gives you course-level certainty.

If you are new to the city, our Liverpool student guide covers the practical side of settling in, and getting around Liverpool without a car is worth reading before you decide where to live relative to your campus.

Useful links and sources

• University of Liverpool term dates
• University of Liverpool semester dates for visiting students
• University of Liverpool accommodation contract dates 2026/27
• University of Liverpool accommodation applications
• LJMU academic calendar 2026/27 (PDF)
• LJMU induction and Freshers Fair announcement
• LJMU moving-in dates
• LJMU new postgraduate taught students
• Liverpool Hope academic calendars
• Liverpool Hope information for new undergraduates
• LIPA term dates