British students are the laziest in Europe, according to a survey of how much time they devote to their course.

Undergraduates across the UK confessed to putting in an average 32-hour week during term-time, including lectures, seminars, library time and working at home.

The British performance was some way below the European average of 39 hours, and ten hours a week behind the French, according the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market at Maastricht University.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said: “To make a judgment that British students are lazy from the hours they study is ludicrous. What we think is important is learning outcomes, rather than just time spent on a course.”

Dutch students were the second-least-industrious, working 33 hours a week on average. But whereas Dutch universities said that they would use the findings of the research to put on more courses and increase the hours students work, there were no such plans in Britain.

The survey, of about 1,000 recent graduates from each of ten European countries with the best higher education records, indicated that British students were the least likely to carry on with their studies at a higher level. Only 5 per cent of British students took up postgraduate study compared with the European level of 18 per cent.

A spokesman for Universities UK said: “UK higher education has a rigorous framework in place to ensure that standards and quality within higher education are being safeguarded and enhanced.”

Wes Streeting, vice-president of the National Union of Students (NUS), added: “UK students work tremendously hard, often studying alongside paid work to fund their studies. This is reflected in the high calibre of UK graduates. However, this study does throw up questions about levels of taught contact time at UK universities in comparison to those across Europe. This has been a long-term concern for NUS.”

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