Prospects Earn money
Give something back Other
104 easily around study hours”, “University working hours are flexible” and “flexibility” were recorded across individual responses.
One student offered a prioritisation order that revealed a multiplicity of reasons for taking a job on campus. “1. Money 2. Flexibility 3. Personal Development 4. CV opportunity/employability”. This was echoed in another who explained that s/he wanted “to enhance my employability and CV, to earn money, to meet new people and work with others outside the university”. The comments from students at the focus groups exhibited a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, but with an emphasis on the extrinsic. This resonates with the suggestion of Kember (2016) and Biggs (1987) that extrinsic drivers are likely to take precedence in the student mind. I would propose that it is likely that for some students the need to survive financially will be the primary driver for undertaking any form of work alongside their academic studies. However, once this extrinsic need for finance to enable students to continue to learn has been achieved, other drivers may be considered by students and can form components of how students identify and rationalise the benefits of working on campus.
4.2.5 Summary
The research question sought to identify reasons why students took jobs on campus. As identified in this section, many of the reasons aligned with the evidence from the literature. Of particular interest for this research, was the fact that the jobs on campus programme appeared to be of greater interest to students who lived on campus or rented a flat nearby. The majority of students at the University are commuters and that population appeared to engage less with the opportunity than those students who were new to the city and did not have links with employers in the city. In addition, there was clarity offered around the insufficient amount of hours provided by working on campus and the need for students to have multiple jobs to meet their financial needs. The impact this had on the study hours that a student was able to commit appeared in line with the research literature (Babcock and Marks 2010). Finally, the stated reason of students taking up jobs to improve their job prospects through the development of skills (Astin 1993) demonstrated an
awareness in students around the need to position themselves and prepare for life beyond university.
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4.3 Research Question 2: What are the implications of student employment on campus for students and their learning?
This section considers the second research question and begins by considering changes in staff/student relationships as a result of students working for the
University. To investigate this further, students were questioned about the impact of on-campus employment on their studies and the impact on their attitudes to learning and the university.
4.3.1 Connectedness, relationships and belonging
Roberts and Styron’s (2010) assertion that an enhanced relationship with staff would help create a greater sense of connectedness between student and the institution is a significant benefit of employing students within the university for many reasons ranging from retention of students and student success through to the influence that they may have over others students on their programme of study. Since undertaking part-time employment at the University over 85% of students felt their relationship with staff members had improved. Nine students felt they were unsure about this, accounting for 5.9% of answers, whilst just 8.1% of students either disagreed or strongly disagreed. Increased interactions with staff should, according to Astin (1993) and Tinto (1993), ensure greater persistence and achievement of students. The creators of the jobs on campus programme wanted it to generate a positive impact on the student learning experience and students’ attitudes towards studying. This was viewed as an important indicator of the benefit for students of working on campus. 64% of students felt that they worked harder at their academic studies (shown in Fig.11) because they worked on campus. The work of Zhao and Kuh (2004) speaks of increased academic effort being evident in students who feel part of a community at university and who have generated those relationships. This supports the anecdotal observations highlighted in the introduction (1.4) where a student employee explained to me this desire to impress her university work boss with her academic achievement.
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Figure 10: I now work harder at my academic studies...
Students were asked if they spend more time studying on campus as a result of University employment. This question was received with a mixed response as
around 55% agreed they did spend more time on campus studying. However, almost a quarter of students said they did not whilst the remaining 18.5% were unsure. This could align with an earlier question that showed that students believe they learn most effectively when at home, meaning that they don’t stay on campus if they do not need to. However, the fact that over half of employed students spent more time on campus studying represents a positive outcome for the University and hopefully the student. On-campus employment at the University not only aims to provide students with invaluable work experience but also aims to generate further engagement in the learning community. This was demonstrated when students were asked if, since working for the University, they were more likely to ask questions of their lecturers. Fig.12 shows that 67% either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. The work of Furr and Elling (2000) and Lundberg (2004) highlighted the benefit of this engagement in the creation of engagement opportunities with staff and peers and how this created a greater sense of belonging that saw students become more motivated to succeed at their university.
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Strongly Agree Agree Don't know Disagree Strongly disagree
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