“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.