Pharmacy students at some schools will receive 1,700 less teaching hours than students at other institutions over a four-year course, a C+D investigation has revealed.

Pharmacy students at the University of Wolverhampton could expect to receive 3,068 hours of contact teaching time during their degree, but those at the University of Bradford will have just 1,365.

The figures, which were based on teaching hours for the 2010-11 academic year, showed pharmacy students at the University of Manchester would have over 2,000 teaching hours during their degree, with those at Nottingham getting 1,848.

But students at King's College London and the University of Brighton had less than 1,380 hours.

Student leaders were surprised by the results, but experts warned teaching hours did not necessarily reflect the quality of courses, saying other factors should be considered.

Louise Hemmings, president of the British Pharmaceutical Students' Association (BPSA), told C+D: "I know some students [say they] have a nine-to-five day, but others say they have a lot more free time – I was surprised at the result."

But the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), which regulates pharmacy schools, said teaching hours were not used as a quality measure in its assessments. And Numark director of professional services Mimi Lau said it would be hard to draw conclusions about the value of a course based only on the number of teaching hours on offer.

In C+D's investigation, contact teaching time included lectures, tutorials, laboratory-based lessons and any other teaching that involved contact with a member of staff.

King's College London said it focused on quality, not quantity; the University of Bradford said it used out-of-class initiatives to give students the best possible start to a pharmacy career; and the University of Brighton said it sought to develop students' skills through contact and innovative non-contact teaching.

This January saw an increase of 16 per cent in applications for pharmacy-related degrees compared to last year, according to UCAS.