Working and stydying at University at the same time abstract

Review of Related Literature

Student’s experiences
As reported by Steinberg et al. (1981), engaging students in part-time and some full-time employment is progressively a common phenomenon everywhere. As also stated in a study 30 years ago, working while studying provides students with quite naturally an indication of the requirements that will be needed to function effectively in one's later career (Schill, McCartin, & Meyer, 1985). In recent years, further studies found that students who are working part-time can easily develop team cooperation, customer care, communication, and practical skills (Lucas & Lammont, 1998; Curtis & Lucas, 2001). Students can have the prospect to directly relate the experiences of working part-time to enhance and refine their academic knowledge, motivation and employment prospects (Curtis & Shani, 2002; Curtis & Williams, 2002). Thus, some researches have concluded that a combination of financial needs and the opportunity to gain experiences will ultimately enhance career opportunities in the future (Harvey, 2000; Devlin, James & Grigg, 2008; Nonis & Hudson, 2006). According to the research conducted by Watts and Pickering (2000), while working part-time and studying full-time has a variety of positive outcomes, respondents generally viewed part-time employment as a necessity to survive in the contemporary higher education sphere. In Manthei and Gilmore's (2005) study, it is understandable that the money earned from part-time employment is spent usually on essential living expenses. From the perspective of students themselves, part-time work is often an introduction to the real world which will assist them both in personal and career development especially in the higher education sector (Tymon, 2013; Tomlinson, 2007). Higher education institutions should identify opportunities to increase the extent to which students could be more familiar with work and expose them to educational, part-time vocational and career experiences (Yorke, 2004; Glover, Law & Youngman, 2002).
There is a wide variety of studies that examined the impacts of part-time employment on full-time students. Based on the research of Manthei and Gilmore (2005), for instance, considered that working part-time leaves less desired time to
study. Also, Jogaratnam and Buchanan (2004), specified that new students who choose to do a part-time job while having full-time academic load were most likely to suffer from stress and sleep deprivation. As many studies suggested, indeed a combination of full-time studying and part-time working can cause a damaging effect on the physical and mental health of students. It can create a negative impact on academic performance (Hovdhaugen, 2015; Creed, French & Hood, 2015; Darolia, 2014). In the study of Curtis and Shani (2002), they believed that students who are working part-time would most likely miss lecturers with a lot of lessons to catch and feel that they could achieve higher grades had they not been working. For that reason, universities should be aware of contemporary students' lives. They should introduce an element of flexibility as a mean of structuring assignments and course requirements to support this (Curtis, 2007). Positively, perhaps students might obtain personal transferable skills, enhance employability and increase confidence in the world of work (Watts & Pickering, 2000). However, negatively, students who are working part-time tend to achieve poorer marks compared to their classmates who are studying full-time. In particular, a part-timer working student is a common phenomenon. Jogaratnam and Buchanan (2004) suggested that universities have a moral requirement to more effectively understand and manage the stressors experienced by students studying full-time and working part-time. Perhaps, providing appropriate training for students would be an alternative. Universities who are struggling with the debates regarding the cost or validity of practical skills training might be able to take advantages of the synergy that exists as a means of solving these tensions.