University is not about studying entirely. You can freely study in your own as much as you like, simply buy the textbooks and read them. Indeed in such way one can in perhaps five years learn about all the major subjects, economics, physics, literature, et al.

The lectures are nothing more than a fanciful way of stating what is in the reading and if you have done the reading before hand you would be really bored and it is boring enough.

The seminars can be interesting and that is when everyone learns. You do need to do the reading before hand, but that takes no more than one hour. That is how long I used to study, one hour of reading before the class and I would be very well prepared. Then I was able to engage in the class discussions and engage in some real thinking.

That however does not include the assignments, especially in the final year, or the exams, where, at some point around February or March, you need to study almost all day and things can very easily get out of hand if you do not.

This is also where real knowledge is acquired. Not from the reading of the class book, but from the preparation of assignments, which requires a reading of some 20 journals, many cases - I did law and psychology - some books and then the actual writing of the paper itself. It is a very successful model of learning, that of learning by doing.

Now to go back to my point. University teaches you how to live independently for a start, to have the confidence to stand in front of your peers or argue with them, to manage and organise your time, but most important of all, to actually learn who you are and who you want to be.

The real story from this article is not that students are studying less, the reasons are obvious, we hardly need to take notes in class, we have power point presentations which we can read at any time which we do not because they are too condensed, everyone now has their own textbook which might not have been true 50 years ago, which are only little used because we can actually access real research which happens in pokets of the year rather than throughout.

Thus the questions for the researches of the polls and the like mentioned in the article are, when were the polls asked. From the article mentioning that number one is that the students do not know how to study I would probably think the polls were around October or November or maybe December time. This is the quietest time in university life. Even if the polls were asked at the same time each year since 1960s, there still have been many changes and things are very different. Thus, perhaps students are not really studying less. They might and probably do underestimate the time they spend studying also and perhaps some might not consider certain activities as studying at all such as researching for your assignment.

The real story from the article is that No 2 on the list is that the students are depressed. Why? Perhaps because they are disappointed and bored. It is too easy, you read the book, then you go to the lecture and are told what was in the book, then you go to the seminar and again are told what is in the book. Unless your memory is inferior, you will probably have a very good understanding of what is in the book by the end of it, until come February that is.

So why are the students depressed? Because they are disappointed and kind of angry. They want to be creative, opinionated, original, discover some ground breaking way of thinking, not rigid, objective, professional. They feel like they are a bit regimented.

However, perhaps and probably by the end they realise that their expectations were simply wrong and not very effective or useful when engaging with practice. They instead probably appreciate that they now have very good idea of the methods of operating within their field. If that is not success and if the system which achieves the goal of teaching the kids how to be men, then, what on earth is?

University works. Through the troubles and ordeals the adolescents are turned into adults. They are given the time to discover what they like, what they think, what are their principles, values, what are the principles and values of society, do they agree with them, would they like to change them, they are given the skills required to communicate effectively, find knowledge and synthesise it with the aim of coming to a conclusion on the entire matter etcetera.

I therefore disagree with the article that people are studying less. They are just studying differently. I also disagree with many commentators who suggest that our educational system is a shambles, especially at a university level. I think it is the best system humankind has found to a smooth transition from a confused adolescent to a very able adult.