Time spent working and studying in the first year:
What do students tell us?

Alex Radloff and Lesley Parker
Teaching Learning Group
Curtin University of Technology

There is growing evidence that university students engage in paid employment while studying. Given changes to Austudy and HECS, this trend is likely to increase. How much time do first year students spend working? What implications does this have for the time they spend studying and for their academic performance? Data gathered as part of a broader study, was analysed to answer these questions. Questionnaires were administered at the end of Second Semester to 111 students studying a core Educational Psychology unit. Results showed that almost 70% of students reported working. Hours worked per week ranged from 5 to 40, with a mean of 16.05. No differences were found between working and non-working students in reported time spent studying for the unit (mean = 2.27 hours per week). Nevertheless, there was a statistically significant negative correlation between hours spent working and students' Semester Weighted Average. We consider the implications of these findings for curriculum planning and instructional strategies.

Introduction

In this paper we present some research findings related to student work and study. We describe the method used to gather data on a group of first year Education students' study and work patterns, outline our results, consider reasons for the findings, discuss the educational implications, and consider the dilemmas which working students pose for tertiary teachers.

The impact of paid work on students

Possible negatives include the following:

• Students who work are likely to be less involved in university life. Working may take students away from other students, leaving them with less opportunity to become integrated into the university community. Being integrated into the university is especially critical for first year students who are just beginning to settle into university life. Successful early integration has been shown to increase retention and persistence rates, with research indicating that many students make the decision to opt out of university at the beginning of their university lives (McInnis, 1995).

• Working may reduce students' commitment to their course of study and their persistence at university, because they are exposed to other life choices and opportunities.

• Working may be associated with students feeling less satisfied with their course of study (Astin, 1993).

• Time spent working is not time spent studying. A key aspect of paid work is the number of hours spent working. In general, the more time students spend at work, the less time they have to spend on their study. Less time on study may lead to poorer academic performance (Chambers, 1992).

• The jobs which students engage in are generally off campus and unrelated to academic study. A survey of 154 first year students from Health Sciences and Architecture at Curtin University showed that over 80% of students perceived the jobs they were doing as not relevant to their course of study or career goal (Fairnie, 1996).

• Students with jobs may have fewer financial worries and experience better living conditions than students without paid work.

• Working may provide opportunities for the development of responsibility and life skills such as communication, negotiation and time management.

• Students may establish contacts through work which could be professionally or personally useful.

• Research literature indicates that in some cases on-campus employment does not hinder academic achievement. More positively, it is often associated with higher academic performance. However, for this to be the case work experience should be on-campus, highly structured, relevant to student's interests and the course being studied, and have as its aim to contribute to the students' intellectual and social development (Wilkie, 1994).

Gathering data about paid work and study

Students' Semester Weighted Averages (SWAs) for Second Semester were also collected, and student responses to the questionnaire and their SWAs were then collated and analysed using SPSS.

Our findings

More than two thirds of students (69.4%) reported that they had a part time job, and of this group, the majority came from the school leaver group (70%), followed by the non-school leaver group with previous tertiary experience (26%). Only 4% came from the non-school leaver group with no previous tertiary experience.

The number of hours students reported working each week ranged from 5 to 40, with a mean of 16.05 hours and a mode of 10 hours per week. The mean reported number of hours worked per week by the school leavers was 15.08 hours, by the non-school leavers with previous tertiary experience was 17.42 hours, and by the non-school leavers with no tertiary experience was 3.50 hours.

Students' age correlated significantly with hours spent working (r = -.192, p = .048), studying (r = .223, p = .023) and SWAs (r = .188, p = .049). Older students worked fewer hours, studied for more hours, and had higher SWAs.

Time spent working was correlated with academic achievement. The correlation between hours spent working and SWAs was statistically significant (r = -.254, p = .009), with the more hours students reported working, the lower their SWAs.

Students reported studying for Education 102 on average 2.27 hours per week, with hours of study ranging from 0 to 9. Ten percent of students reported spending no time studying for Education 102. School leavers, non-school leavers with no previous tertiary experience and non-school leavers with previous tertiary experience all reported similar amounts of study time. Similarly, no differences were found between working and non-working students in time spent studying for Education 102.

Implications for teaching and learning

The hours which students spent studying Education 102, at just over two hours per week, amounted to less than the three hours of class contact time. This was for a core 25 credit point unit which included three short answer tests, two research project reports, and a final exam, and is often described by students as 'heavy', 'demanding', 'effortful' and 'hard'. Using the generally accepted formula of two hours of study outside class for every hour spent in class, we would expect students to be devoting about six hours a week on this unit in total. In fact, only five students reported spending at least six hours per week studying. The low number of hours which students reported studying may be explained by how they interpreted the question, with some students possibly only including hours spent learning for tests or exams and not time spent completing assignments. Even if this explanation is correct, in our estimation, students would have needed to spend about three and a half hours per week learning the material which was assessed in the tests and exam.

Despite the above situation, we found no relationship between reported hours of study and SWAs, suggesting that amount of time spent studying is not related to academic performance. Clearly, this lack of relationship may be due to how students interpreted the question and needs further investigation. Another possible explanation is in terms of students' metacognitive skills: students may have difficulty assessing how long they actually study, or reflecting on and understanding what behaviours comprise studying. Students may have developed certain study habits at school where most learning is assumed to take place in the classroom and any outside study is highly structured and teacher controlled. Finally, students may just not be interested enough or able to resist other activities which compete with study time. However, this is at their peril, as much of what students gain from their studies is a function of the amount of time they devote to class-related activities out of class time (Pace cited in Kuh, 1995, p9).

The lesson for those teaching first year students is that, if they expect or want students to spend their out of class time productively, they must make expectations very clear and provide support and guidance. As one student said,

'[Lecturers should give] a bit more guidance...I guess I wish to be indicated that this is exactly where you should be reading and this is what you need to be doing....I just find it hard to find a lot of information and then to sort out what is relevant and what is not relevant and what is needed and what I should be doing outside of campus time. How much time should be allocated for this and the certain components of the different units.'

Our dilemma

What is our responsibility - ethically and practically - to students who work?

What advice should be given, especially to first year students, about work and academic achievement?

Is there anything which we can do to strike a balance between time spent working and time spent studying?

References

Chambers, E. (1992). Work-load and the quality of student learning. Studies in Higher Education, 17(2), 141-153.

Fairnie, I. & Forde, P. (1996). Pilot student and jobs survey. Paper presented at the Second Annual FYE (First Year Experience) Seminar. Curtin University of Technology, Perth.

Kalsner, L. (1991). Issues in college student retention. Higher Education Extension Service Review, 3(1), 1-10.

Kuh, G. D. (1995). The other curriculum: Out-of-class experiences associated with student learning and personal development. Journal of Higher Education, 66(2).

McInnis, C., James, R. & McNaught, C. (1995). First year on campus. A commissioned project of the Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Wilkie, C. & Jones, M. (1994). Academic benefits of on-campus employment to first-year developmental education students. Journal of The Freshman Year Experience, 6(2), 37-56.