Our undergraduate and postgraduate students have many demands on their time, with an increasing number reliant on paid work to help fund their studies. It’s no surprise then that prospective students are keen to understand their study commitments so they can understand their likely capacity for paid work while at university. School editors can use the ‘sample timetable’ and ‘study options’ sections of the new undergraduate and postgraduate degree finder templates to address these content needs for prospective students.

Full-time students are mostly working alongside their studies

Our students are working more than they used to. 68% of full-time undergraduate students surveyed in the Student Academic Experience Survey 2025 are doing paid work during term time. This is up 12% from 2024.

In November 2025, the Higher Education Policy Institute published a landmark study called ‘Student Working Lives’. In it, the authors highlight that more than ever students are reliant on paid work to fund their living costs and even tuition fees. Of the 1,040 full-time, undergraduate and postgraduate students they surveyed across 4 universities:

• 66% of students work to cover basic living costs
• 20% work to pay tuition fees
• 31% of those working to pay fees were international students, compared to 16% of home students
• 38% are on zero-hours or casual contracts
• Students are typically working 17 hours of paid work a week alongside their studies

Their motivations for working were varied, but chief among them was the need to pay bills and fees. This was followed closely by saving for the future, avoiding debt, and supporting family.

Part-time students need clarity too

This study didn’t include the proportion of part-time students who are also working around their studies or other commitments.

Universities (ourselves included) all promote the benefits of pursuing part-time study to allow you to work and live around your commitments, but often this is surface-level information. It can lack the detail our prospective students need to really plan how to work alongside their studies.

A matter of time: why our universities can’t crack the part-time postgrad code (blog post by the Higher Education Policy Institute)

Students with caring responsibilities have similar needs

Carers Trust Scotland estimates there are around 30,000 to 35,000 unpaid carers attending college or university in Scotland. They may also be working on top of their caring responsibilities, and so have an additional need to account for their time more precisely.

Carers trust: College and university work in Scotland

This also impacts student parents. At least 4% of undergraduate students coming via UCAS in September 2023 were parents, and they again have specific needs when it comes to weighing up their study options. In the sector, student parents tend to lack visibility (a question on parenthood only entered the UCAS application form in 2023), but smaller-scale research has indicated that student parents need:

• flexibility of time and place of study
• to feel a sense of belonging on campus

And that often student parents note concerns about:

• dual pressures on time – managing deadlines, inflexible mitigating circumstances policies
• how to balance childcare with late release or changes to timetables

While these figures and responses relate to undergraduate student parents, it’s easy to see how these requirements also map to postgraduate study, whether full- or part-time.

Influencing decision making

Our recently published prospective student user journey maps and insight reiterates that students are consistently looking for a high level of detail on programme options and commitments during their research on possible programmes.

See our prospective student user journey maps

Undergraduates, being new to the process, have a strong desire to understand what it’s ‘really’ like to attend a given institution, particularly once they reach the stage on narrowing their choices. Timetable examples are one way to make the reality clearer to students, particularly when contextualised among other aspects of campus life, like distances between teaching environments and accommodation.

While postgraduate students understand the process more than undergraduates (having already experienced university once), they may carry assumptions based on their previous institution. They are comparing large numbers of potential programmes in the early stages of their research, before digging into detailed programme and module content to try and understand the experience of studying before they apply. Specific information about their options can help them assess the variety of options available, particularly as they are juggling other commitments that come with their phase of life and circumstances.

These topics have also come up in some qualitative research undertaken by the Prospective Student Web Team. While time commitment and study options don’t always top the list for every student, to those it matters to (due to caring, work or other responsibilities), they’ll be crucial in terms of their decision-making. If a student with caregiving responsibilities can’t work out how much time they need to be on campus, they can’t calculate how much childcare they’re likely to need.

And even beyond those with fixed commitments like work or childcare, our qualitative research shows students are interested in how their studies will fit into their whole life experience for a year or more. How much time will they have to explore the city and country? Or to socialise with others on their programme? Clearer information about likely structure and time commitment will give them a better understanding of how they can balance life and study.

How can sample timetables and study options information help?

To help address these content gaps for prospective students, our new degree finder templates include opportunities to present:

• Sample timetable (for undergraduate) under ‘Teaching’
• Study options (for postgraduate research and taught templates) under ‘About the degree programme’

Sample timetables

Given that 2/3rds of undergraduates are working term-time during their studies for up to 15 hours each week, these sample timetables are an extremely useful at-a-glance way for students to see how they might juggle their priorities, particularly when official timetables aren’t confirmed until after matriculation. The aim here isn’t 100% precision, but more to indicate the amount and balance of contact time over the week.

Sample timetable: History and History of Art

Initial analytics on these sample timetables indicate that prospective students are interacting with these sections to get more information on their study commitments.

While only 80 or so undergraduate programmes have these sample timetables at the moment, they represent an important ‘click’ on our undergraduate degree programme pages, ranking above some consistently presented call-to-actions like more information on living costs or options for studying abroad.

They are also important to prospective students browsing from some of our key markets; the top locations for people clicking on sample timetables are UK, US, India, Spain, Malaysia and China.

We don’t currently have an equivalent area for sample timetables at postgraduate level, but similar information can be added to the Teaching sections of the postgraduate research and taught templates.

Postgraduate study options

As postgraduate courses often have more flexibility in their study options, instead of supplying a sample timetable, you can use the ‘Study options’ section in the Overview to help prospective students understand the variety we offer. It appears near the top of both postgraduate research and taught programme pages when used, and is particularly useful for programmes with multiple exit routes. A number of programmes in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine have started to use this to present all the options students can choose from:

Anatomical Sciences (Online Learning)

This section works well for programmes with a high degree of flexibility, as it offers a quick introduction to what the different awards mean and what length of commitment they require. We have a lot of flexibility, particularly with online programmes, but we need to make sure we’re not assuming our audience knows what all the different routes mean, particularly in the early stages of their research. While programme durations are automatically pulled into each programme’s key facts box, the study options section allows you to provide more detail about how this works in practice.

The study options section can also be used for programmes with a complex structure, for example to explain the practicalities of optional placements or irregular patterns of study. Some schools are using this space to explain weekly time commitment at-a-glance, which is particularly helpful when comparing full- and part-time options. It can also be used to explain programmes that combine on-campus and online-learning elements, like some Counselling programmes:

Psychological Therapies

Next steps

As we’re in the middle of preparing undergraduate 2027 entry, this is a great time to compile a sample timetable for publishing in March 2026. If you need support with this, please contact your assigned PSW team liaison and they can discuss it with you.

While postgraduate 2026 entry was published in October, it’s possible to add this important information as an in-cycle change in time for the peak conversion period. Additions to published programmes that provide clarity or cover existing information gaps are always welcome!

If you need support with this or would like to talk about your programme pages more generally, get in touch.

Prospective Student Web Team contact details and support materials

Helping prospective students plan their time with sample timetables and study options / Future student online experiences by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0