The move is one of several recommendations confirmed by the university council this week aimed at trying to integrate the six-week school more fully into the rest of the university's teaching and learning programme.
Summer school begins in early January and exams are held about the middle of February.
Academic and international deputy vice-chancellor Prof Gareth Jones said summer school had grown so much since it began nine years ago the clash between exams and orientation was now creating serious academic and operational problems for the school's staff and students.
In 2001, summer school offered 23 papers and attracted 154 equivalent full-time students (efts); this year, enrolments totalled 344 efts over 77 papers.
A routine review of the school in 2007 recommended a strategic framework be written and that steps be taken to integrate it fully into the university's programme, Prof Jones said.
Its recommendations had been acted on and were now being taken to the university council for confirmation.
The review panel said the time had come to recognise formally that the summer school was a compact "special semester" which added value to the university and should be regarded as a fundamental, if recognisably distinctive, part of the university's core business.
As well as recommending sufficient time be created between summer school exams and the start of the first semester, the panel also recommended the academic teaching year officially begin in early January and that support services be provided for the school as they were during traditional semesters.
