Higher Education Close Up2 Conference
Lancaster University
16-18 July, 2001
Students’ term-time employment: the view of academic staff
Susan Curtis
Department of Business and Management Studies
Manchester Metropolitan University
Crewe + Alsager Faculty
Crewe Green Road, Crewe, Cheshire
CW1 5DU
Tel. 0161 247 5238
Email:
Students' term-time employment: the view of academic staff
Introduction
This paper argues that there are considerable possibilities for the support of full-time undergraduates who take paid employment during term-time. The paper suggests that the current situation, in one Faculty of a large university, is unsystematic and there is a lack of awareness amongst academic staff that students are combining work with study. The paper argues that although there is no official policy on support for working students, and that the university could be providing more support, but also that there are considerable constraints on the institution doing so. There is national concern about student numbers, all universities appear to be enthusiastic to recruit more students and to retain those already registered. This case study reveals an uncomfortable picture of staff and the institution being largely out of touch with the student body, their needs, concerns and opinions of the service they are receiving. The opposing stance is one which may be equally valid, that the institution is in the business of delivering higher education and should not be diluting this with services which could be obtained elsewhere. All universities face increasing staff/student ratios which means a greater pressure on staff time. At the same time there is more emphasis on research and administration which means that staff are often unavailable to students and feel pressured and stressed in their work. Students also are suffering higher levels of stress due to the juggling of two roles, concerns about assignments and financial problems. The support which could be given to working students needs a policy and support from the most senior level within the university. Doing nothing will mean an even greater drift away from our customers in years to come with a potential threat to retention and recruitment. An awareness amongst staff that support is a possibility will go a long way to helping the students and also lecturers in bridging a widening gulf between themselves and their clients.
Reasons for students taking paid employment during term-time
Students make up a significant proportion of the part-time labour force, with over a million schoolchildren and undergraduates currently working during term-time. This is an increasing trend, with some estimates of students taking term-time employment being as high as 72 per cent (TUC, 2000). The reason for such a marked increase in students taking part-time work is largely financial. The government have introduced tuition fees and reduced grants so that it is not possible now for all students to devote themselves to full-time study without some form of additional help such as parental assistance or a student loan. A survey by Barclays Bank estimated the total student debt for the year 1999 at £3.5bn, this is made up from £1.8bn borrowed from Student Loan Company and another £1.7bn worth of debts in the form of borrowings such as overdrafts and credit cards. The average debt upon graduating is £6,507 (Barclays, 2001). McCarthy and Humphrey's (1995) survey at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne found that students get into debt providing for their basic needs for food and shelter. A Hardship Survey by the National Union of Students (1999) maintained that there was a gap between student living costs and the total package available to students. The NUS states: "In 1998-99 the total available to undergraduate students was £3,545 whilst the survey shows the average income needed by students is £5,641. A total gap of £2,096" (p6). Students therefore need to work during vacations and also during term-time to earn money for living expenses.
The benefits of students' part-time work
Students mainly work in distribution and hospitality, the types of jobs they do are very varied (Curtis and Lucas, 2001), representing a wide range of opportunities for undertaking different types of work in their part-time employment. The experience of working is valuable in itself as it helps to provide a mature work orientation, increase self-reliance and provides a better understanding of business, economics and consumer affairs. Experience in the workplace may communicate to young people certain ideas about what sorts of traits and information one may need to function successfully as adult workers (Steinberg et al, 1981). Steinberg's 1982 research into the effects of working on American high school students found that part-time employment appears to have a positive effect on the acquisition of practical knowledge and enhances the students' 'survival skills'. In cases where the work may be directly related to a students' vocational course of study, working may improve their academic knowledge/skills, academic motivation, career development and employment prospects (McKechnie et al, 1999).
Lucas and Lammont (1989) found further advantages to students and schoolchildren working part-time which encompased more than financial considerations. A combination of social factors (making friends, mixing with customers and staff, learning new skills and gaining employment experience) were mentioned by respondents. The survey also found that the ability to function in teams and to handle delicate, difficult and occasionally hostile situations with tact, presence of mind and diplomacy were also a benefit to the experience of working.
Students also gain academically, being able to apply knowledge learnt in the classroom to their work experience and benefit from the enhancement of their skills and building of confidence (Curtis and Atkinson, 2001).
University support for student employment
Students are calling for assistance from universities in the form of more flexible timetables and skills advice (Watts and Pickering, 2000), and different 'opening hours' (Winn and Stevenson, 1997). The Cubie Report on financing in Scottish Higher Education suggested that universities should establish part-time employment schemes and advise students on how to balance studies with earning money (The Independent Committee of Inquiry into Student Finance, 2000). Part-time students who receive support have been found to be more successful in the process of combining work and study (Kember, 1999). It is often the case for full-time students that not only do they not receive any support from their employers, but they are occasionally pressured to work longer hours than they wish (Taylor, 1998). They are also sometimes made to work unpaid overtime and do not get their basic employment rights in terms of entitlement to breaks and paid holidays (Curtis and Lucas, 2001).
Little research has been done in the area of lecturers' views on students taking paid employment during term-time. Regularly employed American students have been assessed by their teachers as exhibiting more negative classroom behaviours than non-working students. These behaviours included more fatigue and more absences, less attentiveness, participation and effort in class; fewer homework assignments completed and lower academic goals (Bills, Helms and Ozcan, 1992). Hodgson and Spours' (2000) research among 14-19 year olds in South Gloucestershire found that teachers appreciated the potentially positive relationship between learning and earning from an educational perspective. This was particularly the case with GNVQ teachers who said that students could use their experience of the workplace in their assignments. Teachers have shown great reluctance to accommodate the needs of working students in America, with only 6 per cent of teachers identifying this need in a survey by Helms, Bills and Ozcan(1994). Helms found that teachers did not know the proportion of working students in their school and the accuracy and extent of respondents' knowledge about the problems of working students, as well as about existing statutory provisions governing student work, were limited. Part-time students who perceived their university as providing effective support services reported the lowest levels of work-school conflict (Hammer et al, 1998). Hammer suggested that there is a need to help students better balance the demands of work and school by providing programmes which would help them deal more effectively with their multiple demands.
There are many instances in the UK of campus-based employment agencies, called Job Shops. These Job Shops are often self-financing, charging employers for their service and gaining sponsorship from employers. WorkBank is the first campus-based agency to use professional recruiters (Kirsh, 1998). WorkBank is an associate company of DeMontford University and is a commercial venture. Its aims are to help students find temporary or part-time employment, to place them in sandwich jobs and to help graduates find permanent jobs. Although Job Shops do represent a very useful form of support to students they are not available at all universities.
In the light of these calls from students for support from their universities, this investigation set out to look at the perception of academic staff of undergraduates taking paid employment during term-time.
Using a case study of one Faculty of a UK university, the objectives of this research were:
1To ascertain academic staffs' views on students working during term-time
2To discover the extent to which academic staff feel able to support students
3To evaluate the constraints on universities to provide support for working students.
Research method
The study consisted of 22 in-depth semi-structured interviews carried out between November 2000 and June 2001. Two non-academic staff were interviewed, the Careers Officer for the Faculty and the Business Manager of the Student Job Shop in Manchester. Academic staff included the Dean of the Faculty and two Heads of Department (hereafter referred to as 'Manager'), six staff responsible for timetabling in their departments, five skills co-ordinators, course leaders and other academic staff. Interviewees were sent questions prior to the interview, although these were not always adhered to rigidly during the interview. The interview process was assisted by a common vocabulary between the researcher and interviewees as all were employed by the same establishment. This can have the drawback of everyone making and accepting the same assumptions.
Respondents were often nominated by interviewees, who thereby acted as gatekeepers. The questions asked were led by the debate in the literature. This was discovered fairly late on in the interviewing process to be incomplete as far as possible sources of support for students are concerned. Although I had been discussing on-line learning with my respondents, it was actually the comments of the 21st interviewee which made the interviewer realise that notes on OHTs from lectures on the intranet is an important source of support for working students and this activity had not been asked about specifically. Although this was a source of great regret at the time, it demonstrated that further interviews are still valuable even when it seems that all possible points have been covered. The interviews were taped and typed up afterwards, and a copy was sent to interviewees for them to check as valid transcriptions.
The case study: Crewe + Alsager Faculty
Crewe and Alsager is the most southerly Faculty of Manchester Metropolitan University and has around 3,500 full-time students, 1,000 postgraduate students and 1,500 part-time students. The Faculty was formerly Crewe + Alsager College of Higher Education and had originally specialised in initial teacher education. The Department of Education is now amalgamated with the department at Didsbury Faculty and has been renamed the Institute of Education. Other departments at Crewe + Alsager Faculty include Humanities and Applied Social Science, Contemporary Arts, Exercise and Sports Science, Business and Management Studies and Environmental and Leisure Studies. Crewe + Alsager Faculty consists of two separate campuses, six miles apart. Students often study at both sites and a free inter-site bus is available for students. Both campuses are in fairly rural settings and the campus grounds themselves are spacious with gardens and playing fields. Crewe campus also has a brook and a small lake. There is a range of subject-focused and integrated courses and also a Joint Honours degree which permits students to select two subjects from over 20 available from the six departments. Joint Honours students are therefore often studying combinations of subjects which range across different departments. This impacts on the Faculty timetable in that those subjects offered to joint honours students have to be timetabled across all departments (known as the joint honours interlock), restricting the flexibility of the timetable to be changed once in place.
Academic staffs’ attitudes to students working part-time during term-time
Knowledge of which students work
Most staff could only guess at the proportion of students who might be working, mainly because the students themselves do not talk about their work to their lecturers.
No idea. I think a lot more work now than they did 10 years ago, but how much I
don’t know.(Timetabler 5)
Only some of them and those are the ones who have approached me for handouts
or needing to leave early and get to work or whatever. So as a general rule, its
only a very small percentage that I know about.(Lecturer 2)
Some staff felt that lecturers ought to know more about the wider student experience:
I’d like to know that some of my students are working, apart from anything else
I’m quite interested. I think academic staff need to be aware of the needs of
students. We should be seen to be on their side and supporting them.
(Course Leader 1)
I think knowledge is one of the major barriers. Who actually knows which students are working? Do we know our audience, do we know our customers? (Lecturer 1)
Should students be working during term-time?
Reasons for academic staff approving of students taking on paid employment included that it might provide them with opportunities for jobs later, would look good on their CVs and that it was a good idea to get away from the sheltered environment of the university. One respondent felt that students should attempt to match their parents’ financial contribution. Statements of approval were, however, by far in the minority and many felt that although working was nowadays unavoidable, that it would affect academic study adversely, or be a cause of stress for the student:
I just think it’s an inevitability, given the way that funding is going for students.
Really it’s a bit like wishing against bad news, it just seems inevitable. It think it must be the case that students find it difficult to concentrate and do good work as compared with my generation when we didn’t have quite that level of pressure.
(Timetabler 2)
The alternative is worse, the alternative isn’t worth thinking about, it’s either vast
debt when they finish, or we only get students in the first place whose parents can
afford to support them, which I don’t think is a viable alternative to having some work. (Course Leader 1)
Views on whether academic work was affected by paid employment were divided, although few actively approved of work as beneficial. Opinions included that it depended upon students' individual motivations, that working made them more focused with regard to their studies and that students are tired and sliding along with their studies. Others felt that students were poor time managers and one lecturer thought that working students missed out on the informal student discussions of assignments which their non-working peers could afford to engage in.
Trusting students to be able to judge the number of hours to work
The average number of hours worked by students at Crewe + Alsager is 16, although some are working full-time hours (Curtis and Lucas, 2001). Some staff felt that students ought to take responsibility for themselves and that any guidelines on number of hours per week to work would be impossible to police. Others felt that students are not mature enough to judge for themselves, that because the Faculty are recruiting weaker students now, lecturers need to give them more guidance on hours to work.
The growth of the numbers of weaker students is why we should insist on students
coming to lectures. It’s a difficult area because how far should we impose?
How far should we be developing people to manage those things themselves?
The weaker students are the ones who are less blessed with key skills.
(Skills co-ordinator 2)
I actually offer a kind of anecdotal guidance to them. My strong feeling is that
when they go above about 12 hours a week it does have an adverse effect on their
academic work. I point out that there is a student I know who scrapped the fat