Half of students spend less than 28 hours per study point

Twenty-eight hours of studying for a study point? In studies like economics and law, students most often require less time, as is demonstrated by the annual Student Monitor.

Nearly twenty thousand students filled out the survey from research bureau ResearchNed. One of the questions dealt with the study load per study point: how much time do students spend on their subjects? At the university, 52 percent needs less time than prescribed (28 hours per ECTS). Only eighteen percent says they need to study harder. For HBO-students, the study is even easier: 57 percent claims to require less than 28 hours to gain a study point. Only sixteen percent says, in contrast, to need to work harder.

Agriculture, Engineering and Medicine the heaviest

At the universities, students have to work the hardest in the areas of agriculture, engineering and medicine. In those fields, around one in four students spends more time per study point. The ‘easiest’ university sectors are education, economics, behavior & society, and law. In universities of applied sciences, the figures are a bit different. There, education belongs to the heaviest educations, together with language & culture, agriculture and educations in health care. In the HBO-law educations nobody seems to need to study more than the prescribed 28 hours per study point.

Freshmen spend less time

Especially at the university, first year students have to work less hard than advanced students, it appears from the tables: 59 percent of the freshmen spend less time per study point, while among advanced students that is only fifty percent. That difference is negligible for universities of applied sciences.

Multicultural students work harder

Students with a multicultural background work harder for their points, both in universities and in universities of applied sciences. Only 45 percent says to spend less than 28 hours per study point, while among their Dutch fellows 56 claim this. HOP