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Full-time and part-time study explained

We offer the majority of our undergraduate, postgraduate and MPhil/PhD courses, both full-time and part-time. Most of the teaching for these courses takes place in the evening but, from autumn 2024, a selection of undergraduate and postgraduate courses will be taught in the daytime – read more about our daytime courses. Whether you choose to study full-time or part-time you'll receive the same University of London qualification.

Deciding on the pace of study that's best for you, and how it fits around your life, is important. Your choice of full-time or part-time study will depend on how intensively you want to study, what your work, family or personal commitments are and how quickly you want to complete your course. You also need to take into consideration the time commitment for attending classes, whether on campus or online, and for studying outside of class time.

Use this overview to guide you through the decision about whether to study full-time or part-time. If you need further help choosing which option to take come to one of our open days or evenings.

Undergraduate degrees

  • Most of our undergraduate degrees are available to study full-time over three years or part-time study over four years. Some are also available for part-time study over six years. If you need to build your confidence, alongside core skills first, then our degrees with foundation year studies may work for you and these run full-time (four years) or part-time (six years).
  • Depending on your course, you'll either study in the evenings or, for a selection of courses, in the daytime - find details on our course pages.

Postgraduate degrees

MPhil/PhD Degrees

  • You can undertake a research degree full-time over two to four years or part-time over four to seven years. 

As a working parent, Bethany found Birkbeck’s part-time study options helped her achieve a BA in Media and Culture:

Balancing study with other commitments 

Our courses are designed to help you balance your work or other commitments outside university with your studies, but there is still a lot to consider when choosing which course is right for you and whether to study full-time or part-time. 

You should take into account both the time you will need to attend classes, whether they are on-campus or online, and the time you will need for independent study. Much of your time will be spent on self-directed study at home or in the library, including preparing for classes and following up afterwards. Each class will have required and additional reading, with most lecturers giving a detailed breakdown of readings in advance of each class. Sometimes links to articles will be posted on Moodle, our online learning environment. 

Everyone is different, and the study time required varies topic by topic, but as a guide:

  • Full-time undergraduate students will need to schedule around two hours of self-study for each hour of face-to-face teaching in class. 
  • Full-time postgraduate students will have around 25-30 hours of organised study per week, although exact hours depend on the programme and your ability. 

MA European History graduate, Timothy, explains how commuting from Bristol worked for him during his postgraduate studies at Birkbeck: