I don't think so. In fact, University is the only place where time elapses even when you are on a community lot.

Personally I find it to be way too long. Most of the time I have fast-forward the game because it's getting extremely boring. And yes, my sims always graduate with 4.0 GPA so it's not like I'm not spending enough time doing school work.

Well, once you get the hang of it, it's really easy to maintain 4.0 GPA and still get lots of other things done.

I guess it could be hard in the beginning if your sim didn't have any extra money to start with. I usually make sure that my sim gets lots of scholarships before starting University so money is never an issue. If you are low on funds, send your sim to a dorm, where the rent is cheap and the food is free. The Greek House is also cheap, but you'll have to look after more than one sim unless you move the rest of them out.

As for school work, be sure to select a major the moment you start University. If you wait for a couple of semesters before doing that, you'll end up wasting time developing skills that are not required for your major. Then build up the skills needed to open up a full GPA bar for that semester. Term papers fills up most of the GPA bar, but it also takes a long time. If you are like me and do not want to watch your sim banging at keyboards for 6 straight hours, get 3000 influence points (really easy if your sim has popularity aspiration) and get some other poor sucker to do it for you. Just make sure you stay on the same lot as them until they finish it, otherwise the lazy bastard will simply take off.

Going to classes is the next best thing. I normally don't waste time doing bs stuff like homework, research, etc. Term paper and classes are all that's needed to get the best grade. Finally, make sure you send your sim to the final exam in a good mood. Even if your GPA bar is only 3/4 filled, going to an exam in a platinum mood will likely fill it completely to the top.

Every semester is 72 sim hours, and I can usually get the GPA bar filled between 24-36 hours. So you can see why I find it so boring trying to kill the rest of the semester doing other crap.