A new survey shows paid employment is now seriously impacting on university student's study. Dr Bill Robbins, Charles Sturt University’s Acting Head School of Business says this has implications for life-long learning.

 

The amount of paid employment being undertaken by students has caused concern for some time. The Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee is expected to release new data on student paid employment next year. Two years ago, the Department of Education, Science and Training found that between 1994 and 2004, the number of students engaging in paid employment had risen by 8 per cent.

 

“What I discovered was that the trend for student paid employment has increased even further. It has gone from 43 per cent in 1994 to 66 per cent in 2006,” said Dr Robbins.

 

While a relatively small number of students, 17 per cent, said paid employment was interfering with their ability to attend classes, a much larger proportion, 53 per cent, said work was “substantially or highly significantly” impacting on their out-of-class work.

 

“In a lot of cases what we ask them to do outside of class is to begin the application of skills that relate to life-long learning. They research, they critically read, they assimilate, they analyse, they write and articulate their arguments.

 

“We don’t ask them to do that in class, we ask them to do that outside of classes. Over 50 per cent of students are now reporting that they are substantially or significantly unable to do that,” said Dr Robbins.

 

According to the survey results, over 30 per cent of university students are working two or more jobs. “We expect at least 12 – 14 hours face-to-face teaching a week, then the same again in out-of-class study. Now society is also expecting them to be working at least 14 ½ hours in paid employment, if not more.

 

“Because the cost of living is higher in the capital cities it appears more students at capital city campuses are working and may be working longer hours,” said Dr Robbins. “The labour market in our regional centres seems to be providing students with the work they need to live in what I call ‘frugal comfort’.”

 

“There appears to be a misconception that students these days are more consumer-orientated, but they are not living a lavish high life, they are living very simple lives where they are working mainly to keep a roof over the heads, and pay for food and utilities.

 

“55 per cent of students get no government support and 29 per cent get no family support either. So students have to rely on themselves to generate the income they need.

 

“The other noticeable feature was that there were significant numbers of students from families with incomes over $100 000 who were receiving full government support. Wealthy and well-to-do families are getting a significant proportion of the available government support.

 

“This appears highly anomalous with the reasoning for government support for students and it is something I will further look into as part of my research,” Dr Robbins said.