Experts claim that a lack of maintenance support creates a two-tier higher education system.
More than half of full-time students work long hours in paid jobs to support themselves at the university, spending nearly two days a week during term time due to the cost of living crisis.
According to the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPi) survey of 10,000 full-time UK university students, 56% worked an average of 14.5 hours per week in paid jobs while they were studying.
According to the experts, the absence of maintenance support is resulting in a two-tier system of higher education. Students from affluent backgrounds can focus on their studies and raise their grades, while those from less fortunate backgrounds must work long hours to make ends meet.
According to the Office for National Statistics, when combined with time spent attending lectures, classes, and other studies, students with part-time jobs average 48-hour working weeks during term time, with others reporting 56-hour weeks, which is far more than the average of 36.6 hours for adults in full-time jobs.
Rose Stephenson, HEPi’s director of policy, stated that the traditional model of higher education with full-time students studying away from home is becoming unachievable. Maintenance support is provided.
She added that “the trend around part-time work becomes more concerning as students battle the cost of living.” Most students work, and the number of hours they work is rising, and if the trend continues, full-time studies may be unfeasible for many students.
The UK takes greater pleasure in offering many students a traditional, full-time residential study model for many students with completion rates. Without intervention, the higher education model could intentionally develop into a two-tier system determined by who can pay to attend the university.
The cost of living crisis suddenly varied the percentage of students mixing paid employment and full-time studies. Roughly two-thirds of the students did not have paid employment in terms of term time before 2021. But recently, 56% of the students have paid jobs and are working longer hours than students in previous years.
Three-quarters of those working in paid jobs said they are working to meet their living costs, while 23% are working to support their families and loved ones. Stephenson stated that for many students, paid jobs are not a choice; it’s something they must do.
Students in intensive courses such as dentistry and veterinary studies worked an average of 56 hours a week on paid jobs and studies, while 80% of students who had been in the care were doing part-time jobs.
According to Nick Hillman, Director of HEPi, many working students are now in a danger zone with higher drop-out rates and reduced chances of graduating with first-class degrees. “I think this is already a problem,” he added. He also added that there was a developing “bifurcated” structure between undergraduates who can afford to participate in extracurricular activities and sports and those who have to come first in paid jobs.
Students with part-time jobs were more inclined to view their lectures online and more likely to use artificial intelligence (AI) programs. A third of those without paid jobs said they did not find suitable jobs. Only 23% of the students claimed they don’t need to work.
The National Union of Students (NUS) states that as the crisis in the cost of living worsened, the percentage of students using a food bank has doubled. According to Chloe Field, NUS’s Vice President for Higher Education, students are not only cutting back on food, but they are also working almost full-time on top of their full-time studies, leaving them exhausted and unable to commit proper time and energy to their studies.
“The effects of the ongoing underfunding of education are multifaceted, but the remedies are straightforward: expand maintenance loans, reinstate maintenance grants that reflect the actual cost of living, and grant universal credit.”
According to Hillman, the notion that students are “snowflakes” has been dispelled as more undergraduate students spend time on their studies each week than when the survey was first conducted in 2016.
Student satisfaction levels have risen since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 39% of students saying that their degrees are good value for money despite their increased workload. Only 26% of the students stated that their course could have been better value for money, the lowest percentage for the decade. HEPi noted that the improvement was driven by higher satisfaction among international students.
The Conservation Party’s pledge in their platform to abolish “low-value” university courses in England and direct students towards apprenticeship was deemed by Hilman, a former special advisor of Conservative higher education ministers, “nuts for many reasons.”
