How to calculate the weekly study load for Business courses

What do we mean by ‘real weekly workload’?

For every Business course, from MBA, certificate, diploma to bachelor degree, there are hidden hours outside of class that will potentially interfere with your job, family life or other commitments. It’s essential to have a realistic understanding of what kind of workload you’re signing up for, before you enroll in a course.

The real workload of a course includes the hours of:

• Scheduled classes
• Studying the material,
• Assignments outside the classroom,
• Course-required work placements, applied learning or internships.

It’s important to note that the weekly workload of a course is within your control, because of the different flexible options you can choose.

• If you choose a part-time course, you will have more hours every week for the rest of your life outside of school, than if you enroll in a full-time course, but your course will take longer to complete.
• If you choose an accelerated course, it will require more hours of commitment to your coursework per week but you will be finished sooner.
• Online or blended courses may save time by cutting out commuting and gaps between classes from your schedule.

What about the weekly workload of a diploma versus a degree or an MBA?

There are a lot of different options on offer when it comes to studying Business courses at Torrens University, such as a:

• Diploma,
• Bachelor Degree,
• Graduate Certificate,
• Graduate Diploma,
• Master or
• Doctorate.

With so many options on the table: full-time or part-time, diploma or bachelor: how can you possibly figure out how many hours you’re going to be spending studying each course?

How to calculate the weekly workload of a Business course?

With this one simple student life hack, you can now easily get an idea of how many weekly hours your course will really take up.

Here’s how it works.

Each subject = 10 hours per week.

As a general rule, almost every business subject at Torrens University equals approximately 10 hours of total study per week: 3 hours of facilitated study, such as lectures or classes, and 7 hours of personal study.

This rule applies across all business subjects and courses whether it’s an MBA, a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) or a Diploma of Event Management

Subjects per trimester = subjects per week.

Business courses, hospitality and blended business-hospitality courses are typically taught across three trimesters.

Each Business course outline tells you the required amount of subjects you have to study each year in order to complete the course, under the section titled ‘Subjects and Units’.

This number changes depending on the full-time, part-time or accelerated delivery options.

A typical Business course will require you to complete:

• 8 subjects per year, equaling: 2 to 3 per trimester, full-time.
• 4 subjects per year, equaling: 1 to 2 per trimester, part-time.

On a weekly basis, this typically means you’ll be studying:

• 2-3 subjects per week across each trimester full-time, or
• 1-2 subjects per week across each trimester part-time.

Number of subjects per trimester x 10 = hours per week of real study time involved.

Now you can just make a simple calculation: the number of subjects per trimester (i.e. per week) x 10 hours, and you’ll have the total real hours of weekly work you can expect to do for your course.

The typical weekly workload for a Business course

• A full-time trimester based load of 2-3 subjects per week requires 20-30 hours of total class and independent study.
• A part-time trimester based load of 2 subjects per week requires 20 hours of total class and independent study.
• A part-time trimester based load of 1-2 subjects per week requires 10-20 hours of total class and independent study.

Add any additional required hours of industry placement

Each course description will also list whether or not your course requires you to complete any number of hours of industry placement.

The great news is that industry placements can be paid work, and if you’re already working part-time in an industry job while you’re studying, these hours can be counted as your industry placement hours. As a Torrens University student, you can contact your Success Coach to find out more.

Most industry placement units are designed to be completed over the course of one trimester and during that trimester you’ll usually have fewer other subjects to complete, allowing you a bit more time in your week for the placement.

So, simply take the number of required total hours for that industry placement unit, divide by the weeks in the trimester, and add that onto the weekly total hours you’ve already calculated.

That’s it. Now you can calculate all the weekly hours of your course.

Of course, this is just a guide to give you some idea of how much time a standard course will take to complete. As you begin your course you’ll get better at managing different tasks and schedules and you’ll find new ways to save time along the journey.

Juggling study, work and life is challenging but many students and graduates find it to be worthwhile. In the long run, studying will accelerate your whole career trajectory and save you precious time by propelling you faster up that ladder.

See here for more information on all the different types of business courses on offer at Torrens University Australia.