More than half of full-time students are working long hours in jobs to support themselves at university, spending nearly two days a week in paid employment during term time, owing to the cost of living crisis.
A survey of 10,000 full-time UK undergraduates by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) found a record 56% had paid employment while they were studying, working an average of 14.5 hours each week.
Experts said that the lack of maintenance support was creating a two-tier higher education system, with a widening divide between students who need to work long hours to survive while their better-off peers are free to concentrate on their studies and improve their grades.
When combined with time spent attending lectures, classes and other study, students with part-time jobs are averaging 48-hour working weeks during term time, while some have 56-hour weeks – far above the average 36.6 hours by adults in full-time jobs, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Rose Stephenson, Hepi’s director of policy, said the traditional model of higher education, with undergraduates studying full-time away from home, was becoming unattainable unless student maintenance support was improved.
Stephenson said: “As students battle the cost of living, the trend around part-time work becomes more concerning. Most students work and the number of hours they work is increasing, and if this trend continues full-time study may become unfeasible for many.
“The UK prides itself on its traditional, full-time residential study model for many students, with high completion rates. There’s a chance that without intervention, the higher education model may accidentally evolve … into a two-tier system based on who can afford to attend university.”
The cost of living crisis abruptly flipped the proportion of students mixing paid employment and full-time study. Before 2021, roughly two-thirds of students had no paid employment in term time. But this year, 56% of students said they had paid employment and were working longer hours than students in previous years.
Three-quarters of those in work said they did so to meet their living costs, while 23% also said they worked to give financial support for friends or family.
“For a lot of students, paid employment isn’t a choice, it’s something they have to do,” Stephenson said.
Students on intensive courses, such as veterinary studies and dentistry, were averaging 56 hours a week on studies and paid employment, while 80% of students who had been in care were working in part-time jobs.
Nick Hillman, the director of Hepi, said many working students were now in the “danger zone” identified by earlier research, with higher drop-out rates and reduced chances of gaining first class degrees.
“I think this is already a problem,” Hillman said, adding that a “bifurcated” system was developing between undergraduates who can afford to enjoy the traditional university experience, including extracurricular activities and sports, and those for whom paid work “has to come first”.
