“An investigation into the impact that part-time employment has on the mental and physical health and well-being, and academic performance, of Scottish Undergraduate university students.”
Abstract
This research study investigates the underlying reasons as to
why Full-time Undergraduate Students in Scotland engage in
Part-time employment. Furthermore, it seeks to produce
results which show the ways in which these individuals are
impacted Academically, Physically and Mentally by juggling
work and studying at the same time. There is a keen focus on
the impacts on the Mental Health of these students as
amongst young people especially, there is Mental Illness
crisis. A literature review is conducted in order to uncover the
key themes in each of the objectives in this study, from
already published studies. A qualitative primary research
approach is then adopted in favour of quantitative, due to
much of the established literature being based on the latter
methods. This allows the researcher to gage the opinions and
experiences of students with part-time jobs; one to one basis
in semi structured interviews. Furthermore, a qualitative
study is necessary to gather data from Scottish students,
where previous studies do not focus specifically. The results
drawn from these indicate that there is an issue with student
funding in Scotland. Although it is relatively available through
the Student Awards Agency Scotland, it is not enough to
provide full financial security, failing to cover a combination of
University Associated Costs, Living Costs and Luxuries.
Hence, that latter is often sacrificed. Furthermore, the results
indicate that the Mental Health Crisis amongst young people
is huge. Based on these key results, and other findings, a set
of recommendations are made by the researcher to
researches considering a similar and study, and to both
universities and employers; pledging the importance of their
understanding of the impacts of part-time employment, and
why the occur in the first place, on university students.