Student Workload

University policy is that every credit should carry with it 10 hours of work, distributed over the 15-week semester. So a 20-credit 3rd year module should occupy 200 hours of work – to include reading, writing, attendance at lectures and seminars, as well as preparation for and sitting exams. This means that, on average, 13 hours a week should be devoted to each Philosophy module (three hours of which will be attendance at lectures/seminars).

As a rough guideline, in your 10 hours each week outside of classes you might hope to read somewhere between 3 and 8 chapters or articles more-or-less carefully, or to draft an essay or exam answer.

Note, however, that in philosophy `work´ can be construed quite broadly. For instance, discussion of the material in a module with friends over coffee should certainly be counted as `work´, and might actually be amongst the most beneficial parts of your course of study.

Note also that University guidelines specify that students should not work more than 16 hours per week in employment during the semester.