Can students combine work with studies?

by Ruth Reyes

More and more students are combining their studies with work, as students with odd jobs become the norm rather than the exception.

Loans are no longer a sustainable way to live and the costs of living in London are rising.

In the case of art students, it has become even more expensive to create art, meaning students have had to turn to the less fashionable jobs market to suit their needs.

Chanel Kern, a student studying English at Middlesex University, has looked to funeral homes to keep her head above water: "It’s a family business, I actually grew up around it, and when I came here I needed a job, but nobody thinks about working here," she said.

Other more interesting avenues of work include life modelling, which Georgina Ashdown, a graphic design student at Chelsea, does once a week along with her retail job at Anthropologie: "It's the easiest job in the world," she told Arts London News.

"I sit there, they draw me and I get paid 40 quid.

"I guess the only difficulty is that it's cold and you have to be uber confident in yourself and not worry about the possibility of there being perverts around," she said.

Mimi Lau, a graphic and media communications student at LCC, says that she works so that “I don't have to rely on my parents, I can be independent.”

Is it routine?

Students with jobs often find it difficult to balance their work commitments with their studies, so how do they manage to juggle the two around without one or both of them suffering in the long run?

"You just get used to it," Lau said.

"It’s really hard at first balancing everything out, learning how to really manage limited amounts of time, but it becomes a part of your daily life, feeling routinely tired and work just becomes engrained." 

Dr Andrew Cubie, of Student Finance's 'Fairness for the Future' project, insists that students should not work more that 10 hours a week so that it does not interfere with their studies.

However, a poll conducted by Student Finance in 2008 reveals almost half spend nine to 16 hours working.

A large number of students rely on paid jobs to pay for basic living expenses and the additional cost of study materials.

Loans are not enough

Fine art student Fred Stubbs finds it hard to live on his loan alone: “Art material is so, so expensive these days that to even create a piece I have to spend a week’s living budget on it.

"It certainly brings new light to the stereotype ‘starving artist’," he said.

The main source for debate is whether or not working is having an adverse effect on their studies at university.

Ashdown, who works 20 hours a week at Anthropologie, finds it very difficult to provide quality work for university: “I’m always so tired after work and just want to go to sleep and not bother.”

Alexis Rockley, a student Central St. Martins College (CSM), and also an employee at Anthropologie, has even found herself choosing a work shift over attending University: “There have definitely been days when I’ve thought to myself 'I have uni for a few hours and I should be in the studio, but the shift is eight hours pay.' I choose getting paid, which is what I did last Friday.”

Even jobs such as working in funeral homes cuts hours out of school.

Chanel Kern argued: “You can't help it when people die.

"Sometimes I have to prepare the rooms and help prepare the bodies after embalming, at a time when I should be at a lecture or writing one of the million essays I have to write.

"It's inconvenient, but ultimately I'm earning money."

Finding a balance

Students work hard every day, both in employment and at university.

The main task is balancing everything together to ensure that their education doesn’t suffer because for many, not having a job is unthinkable in today’s economic climate.

Some work in bars and shops, whilst others have stranger jobs, like working at funeral homes or life modelling.

However, each person has the same aim; trying to make a living being a student, a task becoming increasingly difficult each academic year.