18 October 2019
RECORDS MANAGEMENT SECTION
The University of Edinburgh
File ref: T3/39/127
Old College
South Bridge
Edinburgh EH8 9YL
Mr Jeroen van Herk
Direct Dial 0131 651 4099
Sent by email: request-609079-
Switchboard 0131 650 1000
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Email xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xx.xx
Dear Mr van Herk
Freedom of information request
Thank you for your email of 3 October 2019 requesting information about average study
hours.
The University of Edinburgh is a global university, rooted in Scotland. We are globally
recognised for our research, development and innovation and we have provided world-
class teaching to our students for more than 425 years. We are the largest university in
Scotland and in 2017/18 our annual revenue was £984 million, of which over £279 million
was research income. We have over 41,000 students and more than 15,000 staff. We
are a founding member of the UK’s Russell Group of leading research universities and a
member of the League of European Research Universities.
Average study hours
For each programme offered by the University, you asked for the average number of
hours prescribed for weekly scheduled and directed/independent study.
The University currently offers 421 undergraduate degree programmes.
Our flexible four-
year degree programmes are designed to give students the best chance of success, and
a broader and more flexible education. All of our students have the opportunity to
experience different ways of learning by drawing on one of the widest subject mixes
available in any leading university. The University does not centrally collate information
about study hours, and is unable to produce the average data you request from its
information management systems.
Our undergraduates can determine their own pathway through their degree programme,
and each programme is made up of courses with broad course options in the first years,
deepening into more specialist study in later years. This means that students are able to
determine where their strengths and interests lie, and tailor their degree accordingly. It
also means they can select courses that move them easily from one degree programme
to another. Combined, this means that our students are able to tailor a highly individual,
potentially unique, and distinctive learning experience. The average number of
UNIVERSITY SECRETARY Ms Sarah Smith
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336
link to page 2
scheduled and directed/independent study hours will therefore vary from student to
student, even within the same programme.
Please note, however, that full-time undergraduate study comprises 120 credit points in
each year of study and that a full time programme
1 “involves the student in an average of
at least 21 hours study a week, including private study, for periods of more than 24
weeks per year or, in the final year, for 24 weeks or less if the earlier years met the
definition of full-time”. This constitutes the minimum average for our full-time
undergraduate students.
Information from which it is possible to calculate study hours and class time for an
individual student is, however, contained within our
Degree Regulations and
Programmes of Study (DRPS). Information about the University’s
semester dates, which
will assist in these calculations, is published on our website. Our
Students’ Guide to the
DRPS may also prove helpful.
In order to locate information about a particular programme, select the
DRPS for the
relevant academic year, then select ‘Browse Degree Programme Tables (DPTs)’ from the
right hand navigation pane, or the ‘Degree Programmes’ section, of the resulting index
page. It is then possible to view a list of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees
offered by any of the University’s schools. For example, if you were to select the ‘School
of Divinity’, you would then be able to further select programmes such as the BA in
Theology or the MA Hons in Philosophy and Theology. Selecting a programme provides
a list of available courses, both compulsory and optional. Selecting a particular course
provides a range of information about that course, including information about learning
and teaching activities. For example, the learning and teaching activities information
provided for ‘Greats: From Plato to the Enlightenment’, a compulsory course of the MA
Hons in Philosophy and Theology, states that the course requires a total of 200 study
hours, split as follows: 33 lecture hours; 10 seminar/tutorial hours; 2 summative
assessment hours; 4 programme level learning and teaching hours; and 151 directed
learning and independent learning hours.
Technical exemption
Please note that as this information is available to you through the University website, it
is technically exempt from the University’s obligation to answer requests for information
under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. The information is exempt under
section 25 of this Act, because it is available to you by another route. This exemption is a
technical matter only and does not affect your ability to obtain the information on-line.
If you do not have access to the Internet or would prefer to receive information in hard
copy please let me know and I will arrange for printouts from the appropriate web pages
to be sent to you.
Right to review
If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may ask the University to conduct a review
of this decision by contacting the University's Records Management Section in writing
(e.g. by letter or email) or in some other recorded form (e.g. audio or video tape). You
should describe the original request, explain your grounds for dissatisfaction, and include
Scottish Funding Council Early Statistics Return guidance1
2
an address for correspondence. You have 40 working days from receipt of this letter to
submit a review request. The contact details for the Records Management Section are at
the top of this letter. When the review process has been completed, if you are still
dissatisfied, you may use th
e Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on making
an appeal to make an appeal to the Commissioner. If you do not have access to the
Internet, please let me know and I will provide a copy of the relevant web pages.
Privacy notice for information request applicants
The University of Edinburgh's request privacy notice, which describes how we use the
information you have supplied about yourself and your request, is published on the
University website.
Yours sincerely
Lorraine Orr
Information Compliance Officer
If you require this letter in an alternative format, such as large print or
a coloured background, please contact the Records Management
Section on 0131 651 4099 or email xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xx.xx
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