The University of Colorado Denver follows a semester term system with a standard-based academic calendar for the purposes of Title IV financial aid delivery. Semesters typically include 15 weeks of instruction, in addition to one finals week and one break week in the Fall and Spring semesters. Summer sessions are typically less than 15-weeks, but adhere to the policy in terms of contact hours and the amount of work required. Sessions within the semester term may also be scheduled for certain academic programs (for example, variable length sessions) that have a shorter number of weeks.

The University of Colorado Denver is on a semester credit hour system. A credit hour is the numeric measure of the instructional, research and/or other academic work over the length of a semester, and the value of a unit is calculated based upon standard semester credit hour formulas. A credit hour includes a combination of instructional contact time and out-of-class student work.

For every semester credit hour enrolled, students should expect to spend a minimum of 750 minutes in class and a minimum of 100 minutes spent on school work outside of class (approximately 50 minutes of instructional time per week and between one to two hours of school work outside of class).