UK students are 'least hard-working in Europe'

More than a third struggle to clock up this amount in lectures, tutorials and writing or researching work - the equivalent of having a part-time job.

In media studies, a student typically works for only 19.4 hours a week.

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In other subjects such as social studies, business studies, history and philosophy, they put in an average of just over 20 hours a week.

On average, a student in England works for about 26 hours a week on a course lasting around three years.

But in Germany, students typically work 34 hours a week for degree courses lasting seven years.

Europe's hardest-working are in Portugal, where they put in an average 41-hour week.

The report from the Higher Education Policy Institute, a respected academic think-tank, warned that the undemanding nature of courses threatens to damage the standing of English universities.

They are being subsidised to provide full-time education to students who were really studying only part-time, it added.

The findings, taken from a survey of 15,000 students, also raises questions over the value that they and their families are getting for top-up tuition fees of £3,000 a year.

One in five British students at English universities now feels he or she is getting poor value for money, a third up on last year.

A similar survey for the Institute last year suggested that students at some new universities can study for only 20 hours a week but still gain a first or upper-second class degree.

According to latest HEPI report: "There is real reason to doubt whether English degrees will be perceived as being of equivalent value to degrees from countries where the requirements on students are more onerous.

"These are potentially very serious findings.

"Although there is no suggestion that the length of study equates to quality of learning, there is bound to be increasing pressure on English universities to explain how their shorter, less intensive courses match those in Europe."

According to the survey, the highest workload was borne by veterinary students, who work on average for 37 hours a week. Similar hours were required from those studying medicine and dentistry.

Physics, maths, engineering and law all demand an average of more than 26 hours a week.

In a commentary with the report, Professor Graham Gibbs said: "In the UK, full-time students appear to be able to enrol full-time but actually study only part-time.

"They work their way through college but still achieve the necessary credits to obtain a degree in only three years.

"It is unlikely UK students are significantly more able. A plausible conclusion is that demands on UK students are lower in terms of expectations of study hours or in the standard expected to gain credits - or both.'

Professor Gibbs said evidence that high numbers of students were satisfied with their courses should be re-examined in the light of the low demands made on them.

A spokesman for Universities UK, which speaks for university vice-chancellors, said: "We would caution against any sweeping conclusions based on the survey's limited sample size.

"The results also relate mostly to first-year students only in their second term."