Ahead of her January deadlines, Megan Allen, a second-year student, spent December and part of November working full-time in a bar in Leeds. Allen, 19, and studying sociology at Leeds Beckett University, knew her coursework was suffering as she clocked up 40 hours a week in the bar, but needed the money. “I actually have to work – when the opportunity comes up, I can’t say no,” she said. “I definitely didn’t put enough into the things that I handed in, it wasn’t my best work at all.”
After the Christmas rush, Allen went back to working her normal hours – 20 hours a week on top of her full-time degree. Working three to four shifts weekly has been tough: “I don’t have enough time. My days off from work are not off, because I’m doing uni work – I’ve got no time to myself at all.” Allen, who receives the minimum maintenance loan, said: “I don’t get regular money from my family – I’ll get some support from my mum if I really need it, but I hate asking.”
Allen said working long hours had affected her attendance at times. “If I’m on a closing [shift], I don’t finish until 1am. If I have a 9am lecture, I rarely go – I physically can’t sit and keep my eyes open. I once missed four weeks of one module that was at 9am.”
She said the stress had affected her health, forcing her to take three weeks off work last October after she came down with gastritis. “I was really rundown, not looking after myself,” she said. Allen hit the bottom of her overdraft and had to apply for a university hardship fund over Christmas.
Brendan Cormac, 21, worked at least 16 hours during term time at a bus ticket office while he completed his chemistry degree at the University of York. “Work inevitably affected my studies – made more difficult by the fact that I work a customer service job not designed for students, especially around exam periods,” he said.
Cormac, who has just finished his degree, received the maximum student loan and a bursary from the university. He struggled to juggle work and his studies: “I did coursework at work whenever I could and wrote my dissertation entirely at work. My record for handing in tutorial work was abysmal, I just didn’t have time to do it.”
Many of his peers didn’t have to work to support themselves. “I was the only person who worked in my flat – everyone got on well but they were from a place where they didn’t have to worry about money,” he said. “Among the people I knew, there seemed to be a correlation between those who seemed well-off and who were high achievers, versus us on max maintenance loan who worked and perhaps didn’t do as well.”
Engji Salihu, 19, is sometimes so tired after a late shift she has to nap in the afternoon and double-check her notes from university to ensure they make sense. Salihu is in her second year studying psychology at the University of East Anglia, and works part-time with the university’s alcohol impact crew, supporting vulnerable students at club nights.
She usually works two shifts a week, starting at 10.30pm and sometimes won’t get home until 4am. “It’s quite a late night, and then having to wake up early the next day, it just means I’m tired,” she said. “I needed a part-time job so I could have some extra money. I didn’t want to ask my parents – I have three other siblings – so if I can, I’ll work instead.” She had managed to keep her studies going, despite sometimes picking up extra shifts, but said: “It just had a massive impact on my sleep schedule.”
Lewis, 22, who did not want to give his second name, has just completed a law degree at Sussex University. He took a year out after his A-levels and worked in a petrol station to save for university. “All of my savings went in the first year,” he said. He got a job as a bartender, working up to 33 hours a week. “It’s a lot, especially when you are expected to read 1,000 pages a week sometimes,” he said.
“It’s been challenging. [The work] definitely had an impact on my studies. Sometimes I finished work at 4am. Sometimes I didn’t feel motivated to go to university. Sometimes my lectures would finish at 8pm and I would have to be at work for 6pm so I would avoid going to campus.”
He has still averaged a 2:1 this year. “But I would have done better without having to do all that work,” he said. Lewis has friends who have had it even harder, though. “I know people who are having to put their work on the back burner and they have not turned up to a single thing all term – and this is their final year. University is meant to be the best time of your life – a lot of us are having to spend it working.”
