Time allocation during Higher education : a study of Brazilian, French and Spanish students
Abstract
The results we present enable us to highlight common features and disparities in the way students from the three countries organize their time. While the lecture attendance time varies little from one country to another, it is different for other elements of time use. The Spaniards in particular seem to spend more time on personal work and the Brazilians more often have paid employment. The initial comparison should however be regarded as provisional in that no systematic correlation was made with educational policies in each country. Certainly, the lack of grants system in Brazil is linked to the significant amount of available time spent on salaried work but it would be advisable to include elements allowing us to link time allocation to the inherent productivity of the educational systems (drop-out rate, repetition rate, time necessary to graduate) as well as to their administrative organization