Do most University students have part time jobs?

[duchy]

My local uni positively encourages both working and volunteering as they believe it produces students with better employment prospects as it develops skills beyond the academic.

As a mature student with a son of almost university age at the time I found this difficult to argue with. Their employability rate based on students employment direct from graduating certainly supported this culture.

My own observations were many students would have had to drop out for financial reasons if they didn't work too and that students with enough parental financial support that they didn't need to work didn't get better marks and in many cases were the less motivated to study possibly because if you haven't experienced low status employment you didn't have the same motivation to graduate into a job as far removed from that as possible.
Most of the major party animals were parentally funded and certainly quite a few dropped out.

I don't think there's one answer but overall I don't believe termtime working is damaging to prospects and for some is positively beneficial.

Originally Posted by florida2010

I work at a University and its very mixed to be honest. If at all possible if you want to get the most out of studies then doing part time work isn’t always the best thing to do. Often part time jobs want people to be flexible and juggling this with a changing timetable can become a big issue. Do you work and cover some of your bills or do you miss out on really important academic time? No set answer to be honest.

Its a big commitment and often seeing students drop out - one main reason for this is committing too much to the part time job and income -

Both having multiple children going through Higher Education and working in the sector I can see both sides of the situation. No easy answer other than what works for one individual doesn’t for others.

See more...

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Edie ray

Thanks for everyone’s replies, it’s very interesting hearing all your stories

My son is hoping to study History which I know has a lot a reading hours attached to it

He works labouring for his dad in the holidays so will have a bit of money

I guess it depends which uni he gets into and what jobs are available at the time

I am all for him having some sort of job as he is an adult after all and I don’t really want to be paying for his beer money

See more...

My three housemates through university all did history and none of them had a job. I studied maths so had many more lectures than they, but they were expected to be using their free time reading, not working.

My parents did not give me a penny and certainly did not provide beer money. I saved what I could during holiday time, took up small student loans and generally went without.

[Tubbsy]

DD struggled to find work in her first year, so we had to help. But her second and third year she worked and volunteered.
I would look at your son's course content as to whether he would cope, but working and volunteering certainly helped DD with writing her CV after uni.

[waiting4disney]

I didn't when I was at Uni but that was before fees were introduced. Instead I always had a holiday job in a shop when I came home for Christmaa, Easter and Summer.

[Lisbon]

Our DD works when shes home for the summer
Rob

[Orlandobelle]

I worked when I was at uni - a long time ago.
Our Uni has a 'Job Shop'. Students are encouraged to work/volunteer - often within the university - to increase their employability. My post grads take tutorials/marking etc and get a decent rate of pay

[macadoo]

My ds works part time, hours vary each month. He’s stayed local so living at home but at the moment he’s only at uni about 13 hours a week max so needs something else to fill his time.

[Dazed]

My son will be going to uni in September (he's just received an unconditional offer at his 'joint favourite' uni and he is thrilled).

We are paying for his accommodation & food. He will have the student loan amount.

He is planning on working over the summer to save as much as he can. We are hoping that he can manage the first year without working at uni, but working during the holidays when he is home.

I'm not sure if this is realistic, but this is the plan for now.

[Bella1]

It depends very much on the course.

DD did about 11 hrs contact time a week so also did other work as she could fit her study around her work.

However DS is doing a BA in Acting and has between of 30-35 hours contact time a week and then does rehearsals and reading out of that time plus they have to attend quite a few performances. He wouldn't have the time or the physical energy to do much more so he makes sure he works pretty much full-time in the holidays instead to make his money

[Myakka17]

I think it very much depends how full on the course is. My DD will be studying architecture and been told they won't have time to work.