College Students Study Time Drops By 10 Hours Per Week

A recent study by 2 University of California Professors  came up with 3 very disturbing conclusions  concerning long run trends in the time students spend studying in college:

-Study time for full-time students at four-year colleges in the United States fell from twenty-four hours per week in 1961 to fourteen hours per week in 2003, and the decline is not explained by changes over time in student work status, parental education, major choice, or the type of institution students attended.

-Evidence that declines in study time result from improvements in education technology is slim.  A more plausible explanation is that achievement standards have fallen. The study decline could not have happened without the cooperation of colleges.

-Longitudinal data indicate that students who study more in college earn more in the long run. The study uses four large data sets.

The article is at http://www.aei.org/outlook/100980