Undergraduate engineering students study more than students of any other major, while business and social sciences students put in the least number of hours, according to a study released yesterday by the National Survey of Student Engagement. The average full-time undergraduate student studies 15 hours per week.
The study was based on responses from first- and fourth-year undergraduate students from 683 U.S. and 68 Canadian institutions in 2011, including University students.
Engineering majors study 19 hours per week on average, the study found.
Alex McCormick, NSSE director and co-author of the study, said engineering has a "reputation of being a pretty demanding major."
Twenty-two percent of engineering majors surveyed often go to class without completing all of their assignments, however.
McCormick offered two explanations for this trend.
"They're just overwhelmed - even at this high level of studying they can't get everything done," he said. "Or they are behaving strategically, [thinking], 'I'm just going to do the stuff I know I need to do to fulfill the requirements to be prepared for class.'"
The study found that business and social sciences majors study 14 hours per week, one hour fewer than faculty expected for business majors and four hours fewer for social sciences majors.
Business majors also work 16 hours per week, according to the study.
McCormick said differences in study habits are significantly based on the field in question. "Students who study more learn more, so the fact that we observe pretty considerable differences among disciplines in how many hours a week they study is important for higher education," he said.
McCormick added that this information should still be taken in context.
"The number of hours you spend a week studying isn't the only part of an effective educational experience," he said. "It matters how productively [students] spend that time ... [The study] is valuable for starting some conversation about what the expectations are for our students and how we hold them accountable for rising to meet those expectations."
Faculty may be surprised to see how little students study per week, McCormick said.
"There's always been a rule of thumb that they should be studying two hours for every hour of class, but [the study] shows that students are studying about one-to-one," he said.
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