UK: you only attend uni 3-4 days a week, true?

Question

ive been told you dont attend the full 5 days its only 3 or 4 days a week depending on your course, is this true?

Answer 1

It depends on the course. My flatmate (English) had 7 hours a week in her first year, spread over 3 days a week. I (chemistry) had 25-30 hours a week, usually meaning I was in 5 days a week. My brother (design/engineering) seems to have more than me.

Answer 2

Yes it is, you may be there 3 days but the other 2 are designated study days and you must study.

Answer 3

yes but it mainly depends on you course.. however the study time makes it up..  

Answer 4

i'm doing social work and the final year involves 4 full-time days on placement and 1 full day at uni so if that's the course you're doing the answer's no.  it all depends on the course.  vocational courses normally involve more hours at uni/placement.

Answer 5

Undergraduate generally speaking yes. However Legal Professional Courses, Barrister Vocational Courses, and graduate course can be every day. So to answer your question it is dependent on the program and the degree.

You do have to realize the structure of the courses are different than in the US. In the UK your class lecture is 1 hour a week and 1.5 hours of seminar (small group discussion) for a total of 2.5 hours / per class / per week. In the US you have Biology that has four hours of lecture and 2 hours of lab per week. This means you spend more time in class but in the UK you left to your own accord.  

Answer 6

Yes, It is true.It all depends on your course. I have lectures 2 days a week. Wednesday and Thursday -9.30-4.30 and I'm a final year student.  Good luck with your course.

Answer 7

It depends on your course really. Some courses have lectures all day everyday whereas some only have one a few days a week so it is true for those courses. For me i only go in 3days a week.  

Answer 8

Yes, you may only attend lectures and tutorials on 3 or 4 days. The rest of the time you are writing essays, doing personal research and studying

Answer 9

Yes it's true. But that is because we already have the equivalent of a US first year in college before we get there and can be trusted to study on our own.

Answer 10

yeah but the rest of the time your meant to study.

Answer 11

It can be that way. It depends when your lectures are scheduled. When I went to university I only had to spend 16 hours per week on campus. The rest was freetime.

Answer 12

It depends on the course.  I'm doing single Hons. History and I only have 8 hours of lectures a week - but I probably spend another 40 hours working and researching!  It's not all about sitting in front of a lecturer.  Other courses - especially those which are science based or teacher training are often 30+ hours a week.

Answer 13

Well like you said, it really depends on the course. I have lectures every day, other people I know have them only 1 day of the week.

Answer 14

Depends on the course, university and timetable ( a few hours each day, or alot of hours in two days).

I did Chemistry and it was a 5-day, 28/32-hour taught/supervised week (lectures/tutorials/labs).  Then there was other study you needed to do (dissertations, reading...).  I think this is roughly true for most applied science courses.

Some courses (Natural Sciences @ Cambridge is one that I remember) even have tuition on Saturday mornings.

The flip side of this is soEnglishthe arts courses.  I had friends doing things like French, English and so on.  They typically had maybe 5 - 9 hours of formal tuition/week.  But the reading/writing/research that they had to do was higher.)  Even so, they seemed to have more free time than us scientists.

Somewhere in the middle are the social science (Economics, Geography, that sort of thing).  They had about 15 hours tuition, and a fairly heavy load of independent reading/research/writing time.

Hope this helps.  Good Luck

Answer 15

On the whole, true...unless  you're  very  unlucky.