The Student Room Group

Is your uni workload too high? Or not high enough?

Oxford has been told to address fears over ‘excessive’ student workloads:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/oxford-told-address-fears-over-excessive-student-workloads

And THE did its own analysis of various universities recently:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student-workloads-compared-and-contrasted/2006151.article

What is it, or was it, like at your university?

Oxbridgers, is it excessive?
(edited 7 years ago)

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I never thought I'd say this, but on the course I dropped out of, the workload was far too little.

It's not that I would have wanted more (although I guess it wouldn't have been much of a problem) but it just made it difficult to engage with the course and alongside my very few contact hours I didn't feel like I was getting my £9ks worth.

But then again, it was a Sociology degree, so YMMV.
Original post by jneill
Oxford has been told to address fears over ‘excessive’ student workloads:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/oxford-told-address-fears-over-excessive-student-workloads

And THE did its own analysis of various universities recently:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student-workloads-compared-and-contrasted/2006151.article

What is it, or was it, like at your university?

Oxbridgers, is it excessive?


It was too high, even at a poly, studying Chemistry is so tough
Felt about right for me (although this was a long time ago :moon:). I averaged around 25-30 hours per week.

But I did history, so the trick was to make sure you read and take notes every day to keep on top of things. Otherwise you can get away with doing 10 hours per week for a month and then be absolutely swamped when all the deadlines catch up with you.
well, you don't go to oxbridge for the fun and games, do you?
Reply 5
Original post by V ugvg jhi
well, you don't go to oxbridge for the fun and games, do you?


or rowing...


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French and Linguistics

Roughly enough work. I would say that for £9000, it's not quite enough, but overall there is real in depth study in the modules.

Just kidding.
I haven't even finished my GCSEs...
Reply 7
The workload has been pretty much spot on with Warwick maths. Some people seem to have found it a bit overbearing but I mean it should feel a little bit like that, it's basically your full time job.. Well to be honest I haven't worked as much as I should, and overcatted a bit less than some people, but I mean the workload they give you is ideal (obviously one should be left time to independently study; it is that which I have neglected rather than set work)
Original post by V ugvg jhi
well, you don't go to oxbridge for the fun and games, do you?


Too right! It's why it's so difficult to get in because of the workload, definitely universities for the dedicated!
Reply 9
I think it depends on the subject. From my experience, history is an enormous amount of work because of the reading, as it should be. Few contact hours doesn't necessarily mean much work as most of that's in the prep. For others, like languages, it depends. You get much less work for cultural modules than you do in other humanities subjects and, if your language is already at a decent level, the actual language classes are a joke.

I think what a lot of people mean, however, when they say it's too much work is that it's a different kind of work to what they're used to. In school, we consider 'contact time' - ie classes - as the time you spend learning. Homework's just an added bit that you don't always see the point of. At uni, prep is the main thing that takes up your time and should feed into your seminars, as opposed to your classes feeding into h/w at school.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by V ugvg jhi
well, you don't go to oxbridge for the fun and games, do you?


Too true!

I had 28 contact hours per week, and probably at least the same in private study including 4 tutorials with work to be done for each of them.

When I compared with friends doing similar courses at other universities, it was 2 to 3 times as much. And then there were the history students who had 1 or 2 lectures a week, and often didn't go!
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
The workload has been pretty much spot on with Warwick maths. Some people seem to have found it a bit overbearing but I mean it should feel a little bit like that, it's basically your full time job.. Well to be honest I haven't worked as much as I should, and overcatted a bit less than some people, but I mean the workload they give you is ideal (obviously one should be left time to independently study; it is that which I have neglected rather than set work)


Which year are you in? I felt like that too until I had to miss a few weeks from illness and then the catchup was just insane. Lots choice of modules too, if you're taking maths electives you're workload will be more than if you're taking language electives. I did German 5 and German 6 in first and second year respectively (24 CATS) and compared to Analysis in first year, for example, it was very little work, maybe 3 hours a week including classes. Spent more than double time than that just on weekly analysis workbooks tbh.
Reply 12
Original post by Wahrheit
Which year are you in? I felt like that too until I had to miss a few weeks from illness and then the catchup was just insane. Lots choice of modules too, if you're taking maths electives you're workload will be more than if you're taking language electives. I did German 5 and German 6 in first and second year respectively (24 CATS) and compared to Analysis in first year, for example, it was very little work, maybe 3 hours a week including classes. Spent more than double time than that just on weekly analysis workbooks tbh.


Only first, which I probably should have specified as I've heard it picks up a lot in second, or at least gets harder if not heavier. I can imagine it being like that after missing some weeks. I took Logic 1 which is a nothing module in terms of workload as well.
Are we including PGCE's in this? Workload seems pretty horrendous for those...
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
Only first, which I probably should have specified as I've heard it picks up a lot in second, or at least gets harder if not heavier. I can imagine it being like that after missing some weeks. I took Logic 1 which is a nothing module in terms of workload as well.


Logic 1! I did that in second year, didn't go to a lecture or even look at it until 2 days before the exam and it was my best mark :biggrin: absolutely beautiful module, does it still have the lecture notes with the black background? Think the lecturers name sounded like Butterworth or something, he did great notes anyway, quite funny if I recall but not quite Siksek-standard.

Yeah second year is harder, save yourself some trouble and download all the answers to the assignments for modules like Algebra 1 now, you should be able to access it until the end of June kind of time when they reset the module pages. I'm not advocating cheating or anything, you get more out of doing the assignments yourself/as a group, but doesn't hurt to have them.

Hope your results go well!
Reply 15
Original post by Wahrheit
Logic 1! I did that in second year, didn't go to a lecture or even look at it until 2 days before the exam and it was my best mark :biggrin: absolutely beautiful module, does it still have the lecture notes with the black background? Think the lecturers name sounded like Butterworth or something, he did great notes anyway, quite funny if I recall but not quite Siksek-standard.

Yeah second year is harder, save yourself some trouble and download all the answers to the assignments for modules like Algebra 1 now, you should be able to access it until the end of June kind of time when they reset the module pages. I'm not advocating cheating or anything, you get more out of doing the assignments yourself/as a group, but doesn't hurt to have them.

Hope your results go well!


Would have been a bit better to do it in second year, an easy 40th of my degree rather than an easy 80th. It was certainly a very easy exam, though I am trying to prepare for the worst in that regard rather than expect 100% lol. I find the logic itself quite interesting, so I might take logic II next year. He's called Butterfill, think he's been doing it for a while, he was very good at explaining and pretty humorous yeah.

Sounds like a decent idea, not sure I could resist if I had them though so I dunno...I'd probably learn a lot less. I know with past papers and stuff where the solutions are available I so often just give up on anything tricky and check what they did and it never helps. :s-smilie:

Thanks, I think I've done pretty well, especially in the required cores (except Differential Equations, which is bordering on fail territory so far as the exam goes, but I'm hopping to be propped up to at least a 2:2 by coursework and scaling lol), but trying to avoid assuming it'll go great so I don't get disappointed if it doesn't.. you finished or in third/fourth year?
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
Would have been a bit better to do it in second year, an easy 40th of my degree rather than an easy 80th. It was certainly a very easy exam, though I am trying to prepare for the worst in that regard rather than expect 100% lol. I find the logic itself quite interesting, so I might take logic II next year. He's called Butterfill, think he's been doing it for a while, he was very good at explaining and pretty humorous yeah.

Sounds like a decent idea, not sure I could resist if I had them though so I dunno...I'd probably learn a lot less. I know with past papers and stuff where the solutions are available I so often just give up on anything tricky and check what they did and it never helps. :s-smilie:

Thanks, I think I've done pretty well, especially in the required cores (except Differential Equations, which is bordering on fail territory so far as the exam goes, but I'm hopping to be propped up to at least a 2:2 by coursework and scaling lol), but trying to avoid assuming it'll go great so I don't get disappointed if it doesn't.. you finished or in third/fourth year?


I left Warwick after second year and am now at UCL studying Economics, just finished first year. Warwick wasn't the right environment for me and I couldn't get a good work ethic there so I wasn't doing that well.

Differential equations always had very hard exams, yeah! I averaged in the 90s in assignments then got like 36 or so in the exam and I think 44 overall for the module or something, can't remember specifically but something like that. That said instead of revising in first year when it came to exams I just played online poker and runescape so idk if it's normally that dramatic of a drop haha. My experience with uni exams is you normally do about as well as expected but a tiny bit worse. They give you way more marks for understanding than for getting it right, so I'm sure you'll be fine :smile:
Oxford muso alumna here :musicus: :flute: :yep:

As awful and gruelling as it was at the time, I wouldn't necessarily call the workload I had excessive. I mean, it was compared to everywhere else bar Cambridge, but in itself it was mostly surmountable. I agree that it makes you an essay machine and that the quality of each essay can therefore not be up to scratch sometimes, but I do not necessarily view that as a completely bad thing. It gives you a lot of helpful life and workplace skills.

What I do agree with from that first link is that there ought to be some kinda standardisation across colleges. Even, perhaps, between certain comparable subject areas. Like us musos did far more work than the history students which (considering there were certain peers who thought that music shouldn't be taught at Oxbridge at all coz it's apparently "not a proper subject") was more than a tad worrying and irritating, tbh. And myself and my tutorial partners did far more work than most of the other musos in our second year (though they then had to cram it all into their third year which, for us, I guess was mostly a doddle).

I think there just needs to be better welfare provisions at Oxbridge in general. I don't think the workloads necessarily HAVE to change or are that damaging, in and of themselves... :dontknow: :iiam: :ninja:
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
Oxford muso alumna here :musicus: :flute: :yep:

As awful and gruelling as it was at the time, I wouldn't necessarily call the workload I had excessive. I mean, it was compared to everywhere else bar Cambridge, but in itself it was mostly surmountable. I agree that it makes you an essay machine and that the quality of each essay can therefore not be up to scratch sometimes, but I do not necessarily view that as a completely bad thing. It gives you a lot of helpful life and workplace skills.

What I do agree with from that first link is that there ought to be some kinda standardisation across colleges. Even, perhaps, between certain comparable subject areas. Like us musos did far more work than the history students which (considering there were certain peers who thought that music shouldn't be taught at Oxbridge at all coz it's apparently "not a proper subject") was more than a tad worrying and irritating, tbh. And myself and my tutorial partners did far more work than most of the other musos in our second year (though they then had to cram it all into their third year which, for us, I guess was mostly a doddle).

I think there just needs to be better welfare provisions at Oxbridge in general. I don't think the workloads necessarily HAVE to change or are that damaging, in and of themselves... :dontknow: :iiam: :ninja:


Now this is an entirely serious question- what sort of things are there to do in a music degree other than listen to and analyse music, and constantly gain understanding about reading music, time signatures, Italian words etc. ?




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Reply 19
Original post by TeenPolyglot
Now this is an entirely serious question- what sort of things are there to do in a music degree other than listen to and analyse music, and constantly gain understanding about reading music, time signatures, Italian words etc. ?

#GetsPopcorn

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