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Why do I have to change the time in the UK?

In the UK we change time twice per year.

In the fall (autumn) the time ‘falls’ back by one hour.  When the time changes during the fall term your classes will start one hour later than originally scheduled on your timetable.

  • For example, if your timetable says that your class would normally start at 5:30 pm, when the clocks fall back in the fall term, it will start at 4:30 p.m.
  • We set our clocks backward in the fall in the UK because it gets dark in the afternoon during the Fall and Winter months.

During the spring term, the time here ‘springs’ forward.  Your classes will therefore start one hour earlier than the time on your timetable.

  • So during the spring term if you had a class scheduled on your timetable for 1pm for example, it will now start at 2 pm.
  • During the spring and summer months, the sun is out for longer hours sometimes into the late evening, so during the spring, we let our clocks go forward by an hour for the spring term.

If your Centre uses Brightspace for online classes, you can set up Brightspace so that when the time changes in the UK, your calendar’s time zone automatically adjusts.  If you would like to set your timezone in Brightspace, please follow the instructions on this guide: https://help.intostudy.com/support/solutions/articles/26000009109-how-do-i-change-my-timezone-in-brightspace-


If you are taking face-to-face classes in the UK, you can set your smartphone and devices to automatically change when the time changes.  Because this is done automatically, you can continue to follow the original timetable schedules because all of your phone and device clocks would have already changed.  The time change occurs early on a Sunday morning, allowing you to also adjust before classes resume the following day.

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