Thursday, May 07, 2009

Is The Recession Making Students Study Harder?

University students in the UK study for two hours and 12 minutes more (per wek) now than they did two years ago, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI). This institute surveyed 2,000 undergraduates on their degree workload, the size of their classes and their contact time with lecturers. The time UK students spend in lectures and seminars is the same as it was two years ago.

"Hepi found that on average the students, who were first and second years at universities in England, spent 29 hours per week studying for their degrees, compared to its survey two years ago when a similar cohort of 15,000 students told Hepi they spent 26.8 hours studying per week."

In 2007 Hepi found that students in England spend fewer hours studying than students elsewhere in Europe, with the average student in England putting in 25 hours per week compared with more than 30 in the Netherlands and 35 in France.

"Pam Tatlow, chief executive of the university thinktank Million+, said: "This is a very restricted survey of only 2,000 students with no indication of the response rate and just three questions asked, compared to previous reports which surveyed 15,000 students."

More details are available from the Guardian here. The Hepi report is available here.

No comments: