Student Finance Shocker: Study Finds Part-time Jobs Lower Achievement

A recent study has shown that working part-time for more than 20 hours a week can lower academic achievement and increase the likelihood of drug addiction. For students working to finance their studies, this will not make encouraging reading.

Researchers at the University of Washington, the University of Virginia and Temple University studied data from around 1,800 US students aged 16-18 in the 1980s. They explained that the data set was still relevant because students' part-time jobs had not changed since the 1980's. This assumption alone is questionable, since sites to flexible freelancer jobs such as Student Finance Express did not exist at the time!

The study suggested that students working long hours tend to take easier classes, and spend less time on homework. Students' academic achievement was negatively impacted for a year after quitting part time jobs or reducing their working hours.

These results suggest potential problems for university students facing higher tuition fees in the UK, who will increasingly need to work part-time in order to fund their studies. With students from lower income families requiring the most part-time work hours to fund their education, the implication is that high tuition fees would result in lower academic achievement by students from working class backgrounds. In a highly competitive labour market, academic achievement is critical to job market success, so lower academic achievement by students from poorer families would diminish the progressive impact of education, thereby undoing billions of public investment.

Potential solutions for this double jeopardy come from equipping students to compete in the knowledge sector jobs that offer higher pay, and have a lower impact on students' achievement. Freelance work is an example of this, as it can often be done online and during hours that suit the student's study timetable. The recently launched Student Finance Express enables students to obtain part-time knowledge work as freelancers. Students can get part time freelance gigs from admin, research, writing to programming and web design. These jobs can be performed anywhere, with just a computer and internet connection.