If you are serious about studying photography and going to pursue it half-to-full time, you'll rack up your 10,000 hours pretty quickly, and can easily outgrow an entry-level dSLR body that might be a better fit for a weekend hobbyist shooter starting out.
In this case, the best recommendation for a "value sweetspot" is typically going to be a mid-range "prosumer" camera (in Canon terms, an XXD model or 7D; in Nikon a D7x00 or D3x0 series), one generation back, used/refurbished.
You want the mid-tier/prosumer model main for the better hardware UI (more dedicated physical controls, reducing menu diving), expanded menus and functions, more robust bodies, and better fast-action features. You want one generation back used/refurbished, to get a camera that's depreciated into a more affordable range, but is still feature-rich compared to current models and is unlikely to be so old that the usable lifespan of the shutter box assembly in the camera could come into question.
Going by these criteria, I'd say look for a used/refurbished Canon 60D, or a used or refurbished Nikon D7000, since the current models (at the time of writing) are the 70D and D7100. Going factory refurbished will often be slightly more expensive than the used market, but the camera will have been thoroughly inspected/repaired by Canon/Nikon, and given a new-model warranty, and will still cost less than a brand new entry-level body kit.