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I have been looking into master's programs in Spain. 95% of the Spanish programs I've been seeing tend to meet in the evening, with times like 3-6 PM or 6-9 PM. It's not clear to me whether this is particular to the courses I'm looking at, or a national, or international phenomenon. I only have educational experience in the Americas -- in the U.S. and Chile, in which places class meetings were nearly always in the morning or early afternoon -- and had never heard of this before. I hazard a guess that it's a European norm, but this is the vaguest of suppositions.

In which fields or areas are late afternoon graduate courses normal? I can guess that this makes education more accessible to the employed, but the disadvantage to parents is significant.

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    In America at least, this is most common (as far as I know) in MBA and master's in education/teaching programs that often have working students. – Azor Ahai Jan 20 at 2:53
  • As someone from Europe, the only place I have encountered where this was "normal" is Brazil - which is (obviously) in the Americas. – Chronocidal Jan 20 at 15:17
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    9pm in Poland and Spain happen at the same time because they are in the same timezone. Let that sink in and take a new look at the schedules. – Bakuriu Jan 20 at 20:48
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Europe is not a country, but a continent. There is a lot of variability inside Europe. So no, it is not a European thing.

All Bachelor's, Master's and PhD courses I teach (in Germany) are between 10:00 ad 16:45. About 15 years ago I taught a course (in the Netherlands) in the evening for a part-time Bachelor's program aimed at people who work besides their study. For obvious reasons those programs tend to organize their courses such that they happen in the evening. However such programs tend to be the exception rather than the rule in my field (sociology) and the countries I am familiar with (Germany & the Netherlands).

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    It can vary even between departments inside a single university.. The history department at Leiden University has evening classes as well as daytime, while computer science is almost entirely daytime. – ObscureOwl Jan 20 at 9:19
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    +1 for "Europe is not a country, but a continent." – Dohn Joe Jan 27 at 12:49
  • At my university (Oslo, in Norway), no classes or meetings of any kind occur after 4pm. – Sverre Jan 27 at 17:33
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Several countries in southern Europe have lunch, dinner and working times shifted toward later hours with respect to northern European countries or the US.

For instance, in my university, in Italy, lectures are scheduled from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm, both for undergraduate and graduate classes, and in the past I also taught up to 8 pm. Other universities have similar schedules.

In Spain, lunch time is frequently around 2 pm and dinner time can be around 9-10 pm, so lectures 3-6 pm may not be uncommon, and considered "early afternoon", and also 6-9 pm can be accepted.

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    The discussion about air conditioning has been moved to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment. – cag51♦ Jan 20 at 20:14
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    To be noted: they have lunch at 2pm because they are way more west than Italy yet have the same timezone, so 2pm in Spain is relatively closer to their midday than what you may think... – Bakuriu Jan 20 at 20:44
  • @Bakuriu but people wake up at the same time based on the timezone? If so, how would the position of the sun affect lunch times? – JonathanReez Jan 20 at 23:28
  • @JonathanReez They don't. – Vladimir F Jan 21 at 7:28
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At the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, we have some courses that start at 8:00 AM. So I suppose it depends on university, course, semester. I prefer evening courses rather than early ones. But I don't know how are the schedules in USA.

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