[Turino]

I can collaborate what the article is asserting about many students "skating by" with five or so hours a week of study. This is more prominent in the social sciences than, say, engineering, where I am. I frequently notice students drinking in the middle of the day or goofing off all day when others spend the recommended 40+ hours outside of class in the library.

I guess this shows how a college degree no longer means much on its own, and students need to make sure they are leaving with marketable skills that employers demand. Some programs, CS for example, arguably allow students to move directly into a productive position out of university, while others seem to lack in this aspect.

[noahc]

I will second this in the social sciences, I went to a top rated public liberal arts school and I studied at most an average of probably 1 - 2 hours per class per week. So that's 5 hours per week for a typical semester.

[Tycho]

on my literature course, in the finaly year, more than once somebody read a 'presentation' that was copied straight from wikipedia, indicating they couldn't even put in more than 5 mins effort when they had an actual assignment. add to this that the majority of people never say a fucking thing in seminars, and the 5 hour per week figure sounds about right.

[Tiomaidh]

From what I've seen, the intersection between "Material taught as part of a CS degree" and "Material needed to be a competent coder" is alarmingly small. The people who turn out to be good programmers are the ones who are working on their own stuff outside of class--and aren't just making sure they can sort a linked list efficiently.