“An exploratory study, investigating the impact part-time employment has on academic studies, health and wellbeing focussing on Scottish undergraduate students.”

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this dissertation was to effectively understand students attitudes towards part-time work during their years in full-time education, and to understand from students themselves how work impacts on their academic studies, wellbeing and wider learning. In contrast to previous studies, this research explicitly explored Scottish undergraduates’ experiences, opinions and attitudes towards their part-time employment. Design/methodology/approach: This endeavour adopted a qualitative methodological approach, whereby rich and insightful semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve male and female Scottish undergraduate students. The researcher employed quota sampling, interviewing three students from each year of enrolment, from First to Fourth. By doing so, this developed a deeper understanding of the impacts of part-time employment, and helped to clarify whether the impacts differ depending on the year in which the students are enrolled. After the research had been conducted, the results were transcribed and coded in order to present the emergent themes through direct verbatim quotes. Findings: The research found that students with part-time jobs that bore no relation to their academic studies had a more diverse and negative attitude towards their part-time work compared to those students whose work related to their academic studies. The researcher derived at this conclusion after these students provided contrasting views, stating that their part-time work consisted of monotonous and repetitive tasks, with limited progression opportunities. However, a more concerning finding was that, although students felt their employment provided them with valuable experience, part-time employment affects students mental and physical health, which can precipitate sleep deprivation, body image disorders, and wider mental health issues. In turn, this affects students ability to deliver high quality coursework, which thereby hinders their academic performance. Research Limitations: This dissertation only explored students from one University, therefore, in order to make the results more generalisable, future research should encompass and investigate other educational institutions. Secondly, although the sample taken was suitable for an honours project, in the broad scale of things the sample size was relatively small, hindering the researcher’s ability to gain large amounts of valuable data. Finally, the limited resources, financial constraints, and the relatively short time frame, meant that the research project had to be managed effectively in order to meet the University deadline. This required planning, as various activities including interviewing and transcribing data were time consuming. Originality: Although the impact of part-time employment is a topical subject, previous research fails to acknowledge the Scottish perspective. Therefore, this research identifies the attitudes Scottish students hold towards part-time employment, which in turn may help managers to understand the stress students experience when balancing part-time employment with full-time education. By doing so, this may prompt managers to consult, and gauge their employee’s current mental and physical health in order to support their staff through stressful periods. Keywords: Students, Undergraduates, Part-Time, Full-Time, Impacts, Consequences, Mental Health, Physical Health, Stress Paper type: Honours dissertation