Contacttijd

Contacttijd, in Dutch higher education, refers to the time students spend in direct contact with teachers or instructors for instructional purposes. It encompasses activities such as lectures, seminars, tutorials, lab sessions, practicals, workshops, and feedback meetings. Time spent on independent study, assignments, and exam preparation is excluded from contacttijd, though some institutions include certain assessment-related interactions as part of contacttijd.

Purpose and use: Institutions use contacttijd to describe the teaching load of a course or program and to plan staffing and timetables. It is often reported alongside total workload and credits (ECTS). In the European context, 1 credit typically represents about 28 hours of total student workload, of which a portion is contacttijd and the remainder self-study. The balance between contacttijd and self-study varies by program and instructional design; more contacttijd usually corresponds to more interactive or collaborative formats, such as seminars or guided labs.

Limitations: Contacttijd is a structural indicator of teaching time, not a measure of learning outcomes or quality. Differences in pedagogy, assessment methods, and course design can lead to similar contacttijd figures yielding different student experiences. With online or blended formats, some activities may shift between contacttijd and self-study depending on institutional definitions.

Related concepts include ECTS and zelfstudie.