Is this taking the Micky?

Most degrees are structured around a 30-35 hour week or so... That doesnt mean you will be lectured or in the lab etc for that duration, you may only have 8 hours of lectures (for example) and the expectation is that the rest of the time will be taken up with private study, background reading or coursework. At least that is the theory....

2 hours of 'contact time' does seem very much on the low side... I'd expect a minimum of around 7 hours for say a subject like History but for Biology it should be more i.e. at least 10 hours.

So yes, something doesnt quite seem right.
 
I often only had a couple of hours of actual contact time a week during my engineering degree. Mostly because I never attended any lectures (they were not compulsory) but it was always expected that I do 30+ hours of study a week. Whether working on course work or just reading up on the subject.
 
My eldest daughter went to Staffs Uni and she only went in twice a week for 4 hours at a time doing Travel & Tourism.
My youngest went to Chester and was in every day doing Sports Science.
 
That only sounds like a module worth of contact hours, we normally used to get 3 hours a week per module (3 modules per semester) with one hour being lecture and other two a workshop. Still felt like nonsense after coming back to uni from working 2 jobs and 50 hours average per week.
 
If you get a bit of paper at the end that says you've got a half decent degree then, yes it's worth the money.

No amount of teaching will prepare you for the real world. That'll be learnt in the first 3 months of your first job. The degree just makes it easier to get in that first job.
 
One said:
No amount of teaching will prepare you for the real world. That'll be learnt in the first 3 months of your first job. The degree just makes it easier to get in that first job.
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With all due respect, you are speaking rubbish. While I agree that there is a learning curve between finishing your degree and a first job, to suggest a degree teaches you nothing is very short-sighted.
 
Animal studies?! I mean / why that phrase! Conservational biology... Animal behaviour.... Physiology.... Nope. Animal studies. I don't get it - is zoology uncool? :p
 
I did once vaguely know someone who went to Oxford and only turned up for a few hours all year, she still left with a PhD.

I noticed PGCE's put in a shed load of hours, followed by anyone doing Engineering or a Science. They were also the only people living out of the library.

Other courses did seem to have an awful lot of free time and certainly no labs to write up. I'd imagine gender studies are too busy protesting statues than doing anything useful.
 
I think contact time is drastically reduced from year 1 to year 3.

If i recall from my compsci degree the idea was that for every 1 hour of contact time, you would spend 2 hours of self-study time. So 12 hours of lectures in final year, should have equalled a total of 36 hours learning.

Thankfully i finished before the 9k fees, as i'd be ****ed if i was paying 9k a year for 12 hours a week. Working that out roughly, 22 weeks of tuition, is a total of 264 hours = £34/hour. Which is fine if you were expecting some form of private tuition, but most of these are lecture halls of 200+ people (£6.8k hour).

Ok i admit it's not completely cut and dry as that, costs for running of the number of systems, + exams etc etc.
 
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