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How much free time at university

How much free time would you expect to have at university if you’re an average student doing a social science degree in the first year?

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous

How much free time would you expect to have at university if you’re an average student doing a social science degree in the first year?

It depends on the student. A standard week has 168 hours. 56 hours are expected to be spent sleeping. 6 hours are expected for lectures, and 3 for seminars. That typically leaves you with 103 hours a week for anything else.
I personally work on a 60 hour rota for study and work. Anything more and it will take a bit of a toll on your health (investment bankers and hard working entrepreneurs doing 100+ hour weeks might disagree though). That leaves roughly 40 hours of free time to do other stuff.
Some first year students think they have 160 hours of free time.

Those who take their degrees more seriously are expected to do 30-40 hours of study a week, irrespective of which year of uni you're in. If you're skimming things and want to do the bare minimum, I suppose you can get away with 20 hours of study a week (although I would really not recommend this).
Anything more than 40 hours for the first year tend to be a little excessive in my opinion, unless you're doing a difficult subject that will require long hours and prep e.g. maths, physics, engineering, medicine, etc. Social sciences isn't a subject where you are expected to put excessive hours in.

Reply 2

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

How much free time would you expect to have at university if you’re an average student doing a social science degree in the first year?

Hey there!

I had a fair bit of spare time in my first year but upon reflection I should have been doing more work outside lectures and seminars than I was. They don't explicitly say "you have to do this and that before next weeks lecture", you're just expected to know. That was probably the part I slacked on because it does help you to complete your essay and do referencing properly. I'd say I was in uni less time than I was out doing a communications degree and usually ended up with two days free of no teaching but this might not be the same for everyone.

Hope this helped!
Lucy - Digital Student Ambassador SHU

Reply 3

De Montfort University

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

How much free time would you expect to have at university if you’re an average student doing a social science degree in the first year?

Hi there ! First of all congratulations🎉 on getting into university and starting this new journey . I can't put an exact figure on how much free time you will get as this differs by university and by course . Generally for first year you should expect an average of 15 hours engaged in lectures , practicals and seminars , this may be a lot less in some cases. At DMU we advise students to at least put in the same amount of time at home as they do in classes to keep up with the work load. In my first year I found that if I spent 1-2 hours in the evening going over the work I did during the day I managed to do well academically . The amount of time I put in at home increased when I had assignments and reports to complete and hand in .

Bare in mind university is rather flexible and should allow enough time for you to take part in a sport , or a society and to get a decent amount of social interactions with people or just get some rest . If you manage your time well , you can have a balanced life it will just take some time to settle in and build a strategy that is most time efficient and works for you.
I hope this helps .

Cece ✨
Engineering student
De Montfort University

Reply 4

UniOfLincolnStudent

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

How much free time would you expect to have at university if you’re an average student doing a social science degree in the first year?

Hi @Anonymous,
Great question. I couldn't give an exact amount of time, since it will vary across courses and between universities. However, I would say you are given plenty of time to complete individual study, join a sports club/society, and socialise, alongside your studies. Personally, in my first year I felt I had more free time than I did when I was in sixth form, most likely related to the fact universities understand that many students with be living away from home for the first time. Therefore, you will have time to manage things like your cooking and washing also.
Best wishes.
Megan (University of Lincoln Geography Graduate)

Reply 5

University of Bath

Official Rep

Hi there,

This can be very broad as it will vary from student to student and uni to uni. Generally you'll have a lot of basic free time outside of lectures. Some courses have one or a few lectures every day while others may give you one or two days totally free. I would say in this sense its going to feel like you have a lot.

However you need to make sure you consider your time to study, complete projects and generally look over your work independently. I would recommend for every hour in lecture , you spend an hour studying the learnt material. The time for a project will vary for every project and you may need to focus a lot into them.

As well you'll want to join some clubs and societies! This really isn't too bad to do at all and the times are usually outside of lecture times so you don't worry about clashing. As long as you're doing regular work then having time for hobbies is absolutely fine.

Generally you'll have a good amount of free time provided you are steady with your work. If you spend very little time working one week you may find you have no free time the next when the deadlines due so just be careful with how you utilise your time.

Hope this helped,
- Sophie (uni of Bath)

Reply 6

University of Kent

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

How much free time would you expect to have at university if you’re an average student doing a social science degree in the first year?

Hey!

I mostly agree with what's been said above: it will depend on your uni, etc. I did my undergrad in psychology and personally found I wasn't actually at uni as much as I thought I would be; it's not an all-day everyday type of thing! I found I would have time throughout the day free or even whole days (but this will depend on your timetabling). I tried really hard to and was able to get most additional work done in the gaps between lectures and seminars, so I could relax in the evenings/on weekends :smile:

Hope this helps & best of luck with starting uni!!

Natalie
University of Kent Student Rep

Reply 7

University of Sunderland Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

How much free time would you expect to have at university if you’re an average student doing a social science degree in the first year?

Hi there,

I think it depends on the course, I am not sure for social studies but I know alot of degrees do have alot of spare time for independent learning. You will most likely be expected to read things from the reading lists, complete assignments and write essays in this time. You will also have the weekends.

I really hope this helps,

Ellen
Y4 Medical Student
Uni of Sunderland
Digital Ambassador