"Janterm" has long been a signature offering of liberal arts colleges. Wedged between the end of the holiday break and the start of the spring semester, these January terms, or interterms as they are called on some campuses, offer time for students to immerse themselves in travel abroad or a single, intensive course they never would take otherwise – because it's far outside their course of study, or nontraditional, or both. A student studying chemistry might take a three-week course on, say, Harry Potter or visit and study Greece with classmates.
But there are downsides to Janterm. It tends to lengthen the academic year, potentially disadvantaging graduates and student interns on the job market. And because students sometimes see a Janterm as a kind of "break" between semesters, it can be harder to get them to take their courses seriously. On top of those more practical concerns, shifts in higher education trends play into the Janterm debate. What may never have been passable as a full-semester course 20 years ago might well be so now, so professors these days don't necessarily have to wait for Janterm to offer a course on Beyoncé or "Breaking Bad," for example.
For those reasons, among others, Doane College in Crete, Neb., will do away with its Janterm starting next year.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/04/while-january-terms-are-popular-liberal-arts-colleges-one-institution-ending