University students who have part-time jobs are struggling in school, according to a recent survey released by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA).
Sixty-four per cent of Ontario faculty members who responded to an informal survey online said they thought paid work had a negative impact on student success. Participants also felt that the number of hours that students work is increasing.
“The average student works 18.5 hours a week,” said OCUFA president Mark Langer. “However, students with off-campus jobs can work upwards to 30 hours a week.”
“If you’re a philosophy student, well, maybe you can be philosophical about flipping burgers to put yourself through school, but it’s not going to help your education,” Langer said.
“It’s impossible to keep up with school while working 30 hours a week.”
According to the OCUFA survey, just under half of Canadian students have part-time jobs, a trend that seems to be increasing with the cost of tuition. This is forcing many students to make a choice between school and employment.
“Research has shown that first-year students who work part-time are less likely to continue on to second year,” said Alexi White, executive director of the Ontario Undergraduate Students Association.
“An increasing number of students are being forced to drop out because they can’t balance school and work.”
Langer said he agrees completion rates and student debt are serious problems.
“When I started teaching in the ‘70s, students were hugely involved in societies and clubs on campus. Lecturers would come in from outside and the place would be packed. But over the years this has dropped off because students have had to work,” Langer said.
“We’re not just churning out people with the skills set for a particular job, we’re churning out a literate, numerate, and critically informed population which is vital for the functioning of a democracy and I think this is being adversely affected because students don’t have time for extracurricular activities.”
Second-year student Alana Dunbar said she agrees it’s tough to find time to fit everything in.
Dunbar said last year she balanced a double major in journalism and African studies with competitive curling and a part-time babysitting job.
“I definitely tried to do too much and my grades suffered,” she said. “I was curling at least three nights a week, plus babysitting in the mornings before classes. It made life crazy, especially because I had to take the bus everywhere.”
However, she said she thinks it was a good mistake to learn from.
“Time management was a super important lesson to learn, right along with knowing my priorities. This year I know that it’s critical that school work comes first and I make sure that I schedule my jobs around it,” Dunbar said.
Second-year communications student Keshia Eversley-Omlin said she agrees that time management is important.
“Last year I didn’t have any idea how to manage my time, which was to my disadvantage because I had so much time to do things,” she said.
This year Eversley-Omlin said she is trying to balance a job with school.
“Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson from last year,” she said. “We’ll see how it pans out.”