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Studies in Higher Education

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Balancing paid work and studies: working (class) students in higher education
MariePierre Moreau & Carole Leathwood
a a a

London Metropolitan University, UK

Available online: 24 Jan 2007

To cite this article: MariePierre Moreau & Carole Leathwood (2006): Balancing paid work and studies: working (class) students in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 31:1, 23-42 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070500340135

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Studies in Higher Education Vol. 31, No. 1, February 2006, pp. 2342

Balancing paid work and studies: working (-class) students in higher education
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Marie-Pierre Moreau* and Carole Leathwood

London Metropolitan University, UK
Institute Article Marie-PierreMoreau 0 600000December Ltd 30 2005 OriginalinFrancis Studies in 0307-5079 Francis2005 Studies&for(print)/1470-174X 10.1080/03075070500340135 (online) CSHE_A_133996.sgm Taylor andHigher Education EducationLondon Metropolitan University166220 Holloway RoadLondonN7 8DBUKm.moreau@londonmet.ac.uk Policy

Engagement in paid work during term-time amongst undergraduates in England has increased in recent years, reflecting changes in both higher education funding and labour market policy. This article draws on research with students in a post-1992 university to explore undergraduate students accounts of combining work and study during term-time and the various strategies they employ in their attempts to balance the two. Many of the students in this study may be described as non traditional entrants, and attention is paid to the ways in which students accounts reflect issues of social class. It is argued that the transfer of responsibility for funding university study from the state to the individual student and their families, and the lack of attention paid to the demands of term-time work in higher education and institutional policy, risks reinforcing and exacerbating inequalities.

Introduction Reductions in financial support for higher education students have taken place in the UK since the 1980s. In the late 1990s, the incoming New Labour government took this a step further by abolishing maintenance grants and replacing them with loans and tuition fees. Over the same time period, a facet of the massification of higher education has been a greater diversification of the student body, and an increasing number of students facing financial hardship (National Union of Students (NUS), 1999a). There is also evidence that UK students face a higher level of financial pressure in comparison with their European counterparts, due to the absence or low level of tuition fees and/or the availability of more favourable grants in many European countries (EURYDICE, 1999). In this context of increased financial pressure on students, term-time employment has become a relatively commonplace aspect of undergraduate experience in the UK.
*Corresponding author. Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University, 166220 Holloway Road, London N7 8DB, UK. Email: m.moreau@londonmet.ac.uk ISSN 0307-5079 (print)/ISSN 1470-174X (online)/06/01002320 2006 Society for Research into Higher Education DOI: 10.1080/03075070500340135

24 M.-P. Moreau and C. Leathwood In a survey conducted in 1993, and based on second-year undergraduates at four institutions in England, Ford et al. (1995) found that 30% worked at some stage during term-time. In a survey at Queens University, Belfast, 46% of students were working during term-time, with 50% of those not working actively seeking work (Leonard, 1995). The 20022003 Student Income and Expenditure Survey (SIES), based on a representative sample of full-time students in England and Wales, reveals that the proportion of students doing part-time work grew from 47% in 19981999 to 58% in 20022003, while the proportion of those working during the academic year, including vacation time, grew from 64 to 70% (Callender & Wilkinson, 2003). Forsyth and Furlong (2003), in their study of young people from Scottish areas of disadvantage, found that 63% of those in higher education were undertaking term-time work. Students also work more hours, whilst the proportion of paid work in their total income has expanded from 14% in 19981999 to 20% in 20022003 (Callender & Wilkinson, 2003). Yet they are predominantly in part-time jobs in the service sector, especially catering and retailing (Ford et al., 1995; Curtis & Shani, 2002), where hourly wages and levels of unionisation are particularly low (NUS, 1999b). Most surveys have concluded that students work an average of 1015 hours a week during term-time, with the exception of the NUS survey (NUS, 1999b), which reported a weekly average close to 20 hours. More recently, the SIES (Callender & Wilkinson, 2003) found that, in the weeks they work, students with term-time jobs work an average of 14 hours. However, these averages hide important variations between students. For example, although Barke et al. (2000) reported a weekly average of 14.2 hours during termtime, 6% of working students were undertaking more than 25 hours a week; Curtis and Shani (2002) identified a weekly average of 15 hours, with 30% of students working 20 hours per week or more. There are also important variations in the extent of term-time working between institutions, with, for example, van Dyke and Little (2002) noting variations of student employment between higher education institutions in the UK as high as 42%. This is likely to be due to both the different characteristics of universities (for example in relation to social class of the student intake) and to different survey sampling methodologies. Callender and Wilkinson (2003) found that students from lower social groups were more likely to undertake paid term-time work than those from higher social groups, and also to work on average a higher number of hours during the term. They also discovered, however, that overall earnings between students from these different social class groups were similar, because working-class students tended to receive a lower hourly rate. Similarly, Barke et al. (2000) found that 17% of students with professional parents worked during term-time, compared to 50% of those with parents in skilled manual jobs. There is also evidence of gender differences, with women, especially those from working-class backgrounds, more likely to undertake term-time work (Callender & Kemp, 2000). There are also significant differences in hourly wage rates, with women earning, on average, less than men (Callender & Kemp, 2000).

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Research on student employment has been predominantly quantitative with a focus on the extent of employment, its patterns and/or its impact on academic performance (van Dyke & Little, 2002). Exceptions include work by Smith and Taylor (1999) and Lucas and Lammont (1998) who explored patterns of students employment and the combination of work and studies; Leonard (1995), who highlighted the difficulties of combining work and study, and Christie et al. (2002), who identified the labour market strategies that students adopt in relation to changing funding arrangements. However, overall, students accounts have received little attention a gap that this article seeks to address. The article begins with an account of policy developments, and an analysis of policy discourses, in relation to term-time working. We then focus on data from an ongoing longitudinal study of undergraduate students, conducted in an inner-city post-1992 university (a former polytechnic which gained university status in 1992) to examine the implications of policy for these students. We explore these students articulations of their experiences of employment and study, and the strategies they adopt in their attempts to combine these. In a context in which more substantial maintenance grants have gradually been replaced by loans and fees, the responsibility for funding university study has moved increasingly from the state to the individual student and/ or his or her family. This can be seen as part of the wider trend of the increasing individualisation of society within a neo-liberal economic and political framework, whereby individuals become fully responsible for negotiating and managing their own lives in the absence of state and/or institutional support. More students are now working more hours during term-time, yet limited attention has been paid to this within higher education and institutional policy, with particular implications for some groups of students. Our analysis suggests that it is not simply that most students are now undertaking some paid term-time work with the effects of this impacting in a fairly uniform way across the student body, but rather that the extent, meanings and impact of paid work reflect social class differences, with the most negative impacts experienced by working-class students. Policy discourses and student employment There has been limited recognition within English higher education policy, of issues of term-time working amongst students, apart from some acknowledgement that working too many hours may be detrimental. The Cubie Report (Independent Committee of Inquiry into Student Finance, 1999) however, which looked into issues of student funding in Scotland, recommended that students should not work more than ten hours a week in term-time, and that universities should advise students on managing their work and studies. Similarly, the Education and Employment Committee (2001) suggested a 12 hours per week upper limit. Institutional policies vary, with some universities or colleges recognising that students need to work, and developing employment agencies and codes of practice, whilst others, often elite universities, simply recommend that their students do not work above a certain limit or prohibit term-time work entirely. On the whole, however, the lack of regulation of student paid work remains.

26 M.-P. Moreau and C. Leathwood Ministerial concern about term-time working has also been lacking. Margaret Hodge, ex-Minister for Higher Education, declared that she was not too concerned about students doing part-time work when they are studying (Epolitix.com, 2002), and in her evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills, she stated:
I do not think that working whilst you are a student in higher education needs to be detrimental. It depends on the number of hours worked. The Barclays Report shows that on average they are working 1114 hours a week. If you look at young people in FE [further education] colleges and schools, we have about the same proportion doing parttime jobs in the FE sector and nobody raises an issue around that as we have of students in higher education also doing part-time work. Every student feels hard up but what they feel and what in reality they have to pay for may be two slightly different things. (Hodge, 2002a)

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The latest Higher Education White Paper also largely ignored the issue of term-time employment, other than stating:
We will also be carrying out a survey into how much students need to live on. We know that choices about lifestyle affect how much people spend, and we think that it is reasonable for students to work to pay for extras. (Department for Education and Skills, 2003, p. 8)

These discourses closely associate student employment with lifestyle choices. Indeed, in her evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills, Margaret Hodge explained:
If, out of the Unite MORI poll, we know that students on average are spending 25 a week on drink, that is 1,000 a year whilst nobody wants to interfere with lifestyle choices is it appropriate that there should be state support to those life choices? (Hodge, 2002b).

The assumption, then, is that students work to pay for extras and lifestyles, and that work during the holidays and possibly a few hours in term-time should therefore be sufficient. In this discourse, lifestyle tends to be a euphemism for excessive drinking and socialising, yet a comparison between the 19981999 and 20022003 surveys (Callender & Wilkinson, 2003) reveals that expenditure on alcohol fell by 10% in real terms, a period during which those surveys identified an increase in student paid work. The 20022003 survey also reveals important differences between different groups of students, with non-White, women and students from poorer backgrounds having much lower alcohol-related expenses. And 18% of non-White students have no alcohol-related expenses at all. What is also not acknowledged in these discourses around lifestyle is the financial hardship that many students face, in particular those from a working-class background (Callender & Wilkinson, 2003; Leathwood & OConnell 2003), and the reality that many may need to work simply to remain at university. This echoes another commonplace representation of students as consumers rather than as producers (Ford et al., 1995) and as consumers of an education as well as of products to support their chosen lifestyle. As Morley notes (2002, p. 2) in a market economy, students are no longer constructed as recipients of welfare, but purchasers of an

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expensive product. Silver and Silver (1997, p. 165) also argue that as British public higher education has been driven towards the market the dominant imagery has also become that of the consumer, customer and purchaser. In contrast to this studentconsumer representation, a number of studies have highlighted the contribution of the student workforce to national economies and its impact on the labour market (Canny, 2002; Hofman & Stein, 2003). There are also echoes of New Labours rights and responsibilities discourse underpinning higher education policy, with the state providing opportunities in the form of a university education, and the student, who will accrue considerable benefits as a result, expected to pay for their education. Claims for the economic benefits of higher education are used to justify the reduction of financial support to students and the proposed imposition of top-up fees, and implicitly, to undermine any concerns about student poverty or the need to work through their studies after all, the benefits it is assumed they will gain will more than make up for this. One problem with this is that potential gains in the labour market are related to students gender, social class, age and ethnicity. Students who are young, White, male, from middle-class backgrounds and who have graduated from Oxbridge are most likely to accrue the highest earning potential from their studies (Elias et al., 1999; Purcell et al., 1999; Purcell, 2002; Brennan & Shah, 2003), that is, precisely those students who are least likely to be working, or to be working long hours, during term-time. The lack of concern about student employment also reflects the dominance of a New Labour and neo-liberal discourse of the self-responsible citizen as a worker, that is, as someone who takes full responsibility for providing for and maintaining themselves, now and in the future. This is Labours new work ethic (Holden, 1999), although it is not confined to the UK, with participation in the labour market a major aspect of European social policy (Hofman & Stein, 2003). As Fraser notes, the worker tends to become the universal social subject: everyone is expected to work and to be self-supporting (Fraser, 1997, p.135). The continual assertions by government of the material benefits to be derived from a university education, and a discourse of fairness related to who should pay for these benefits that only accrue to a relatively privileged group in society (i.e., university graduates), combine to transfer responsibilities for such payment on to the students, or graduates, themselves. Researching student paid employment This article draws on a longitudinal study of undergraduate students conducted in a post-1992 inner-city university in England. The research has focused on students experiences of university study, their views about their learning and their progression post-graduation. It was not specifically designed to investigate students term-time working, but issues related to the combination of term-time work and study emerged as a key theme throughout the research. The main research cohort for the study consisted of 310 students who enrolled in 1999 in one of four courses/programmes from different disciplinary areas (psychology, business, computing and film studies) and who completed an initial questionnaire at

28 M.-P. Moreau and C. Leathwood the beginning of their first year. They represent approximately 47% of all the first-year undergraduates who enrolled on these courses during that academic year (the wider cohort: n = 667). The initial questionnaire gathered basic demographic data, as well as probing students reasons for choosing to do a degree course and their expectations of university study. These students were tracked throughout their degree studies using the student records system, and progression and achievement data was downloaded into the SPSS dataset that contained the questionnaire responses. A second questionnaire was also distributed to the wider cohort during their third year of study (2002). Eighty-eight questionnaires were returned and this data was also added to the SPSS dataset. At the beginning of their second year of study, 18 case-study students were purposively sampled from the main research cohort to be interviewed on an annual basis. The sampling method was designed to ensure a diverse sample in terms of course, sex, ethnicity, age and level of achievement to date. In total, 62 in-depth semistructured interviews have been conducted with these 18 students, with most having been interviewed 34 times during the course of the research. In addition, separate focus groups were conducted twice a year with students on each of the four courses. Students from the wider cohort were invited to participate in focus groups, so not all were part of the main research cohort whose progression was being tracked. The focus groups were used to elicit snapshots of students experiences and concerns related to their course at different stages of their studies. Twenty-nine focus groups have been conducted with 132 students across the four courses. All qualitative data has been transcribed and entered into NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Key themes, commonalities and differences within and across students accounts have been identified, with the analysis on-going throughout the study to inform further data collection. It was during this process of analysis that term-time work emerged as a key theme, and as a consequence specific questions about this were then added to the interview schedules used with the case-study students. In addition, another six students (again purposively selected to include a mixed group in terms of course, gender and ethnicity as far as possible, and drawn from the main cohort of 310) were interviewed to further probe issues of term-time working. The study was designed to facilitate analysis of data related to specific course/ disciplinary areas and was not intended to be representative of the universitys wider student population. The main cohort of 310 students therefore reflected the student intake and the relative size of the student group on each of the four courses. Of this main cohort, 61% are men (as the majority of students studying computer science are men, and this was the largest course group, although women are in the majority in the university undergraduate student population). Sixty-two per cent were under 21 years old at the time of their entrance, 22% were between 2225 and 15% were older than 25. Home students represent 81% of the cohort with overseas students 19%. Identification of ethnicity was based on students self definitions in relation to the categorisation used on the university enrolment forms. A recoding of ethnicity into four categories reveals that 42% of the students are White, 31% Asian and 23% Black. The students were overwhelmingly attending the university full-time (96%).

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The gender and age imbalance of the questionnaire responses was somewhat redressed by the focus groups, with more women and older students volunteering to participate in these (58% of focus group participants were women, 60% entered the university as mature students, 29% were Black, 27% Asian, 36% White, 8% Other). The students interviewed (i.e., the 18 case study-students and six additional students interviewed in relation to term-time working) represent a balanced sample in terms of gender, with twelve women and twelve men. Thirteen of these students are White, six students are Black and five are Asian. All these students were full-time when they entered the university, although in some cases their mode of attendance varied towards the end of their studies. All names used are pseudonyms and all quotations are from individual interviews unless indicated otherwise. Social class has been identified as an important factor in higher education participation (Archer et al., 2003), and although class is being re-configured (Walkerdine, 2003), class inequalities persist, both in the UK and globally (Leathwood & Archer, 2004). As has been seen, social class is an important issue in relation to term-time work, and this is evident within national studies, which show a greater propensity towards term-time work and working longer hours amongst working-class students. Similar patterns emerged from the qualitative data in this study. Social class has, however, long been questioned as a mode of classification, and social class categorisation, whether relying on objective criteria such as head of households occupation or on self identification, is problematic (Savage, 2000). We conceptualise social class not only in terms of economic and/or employment categories, but also as changing, embodied and subjectively experienced, drawing on the work of feminist theorists including Mahony and Zmroczek (1997), Reay (1997, 2001) and Walkerdine (1990, 2002; Walkerdine et al., 1999, 2001). The discussion of social class and term-time work in this article draws primarily on the individual interview data. In the interviews, students provided a range of indications of social class background, for example by disclosing their parents occupations, referring to their familys social, economic and educational background, and/or by explicitly stating their class identification. Whilst recognising that social class categorisation remains problematic, of the 24 students interviewed, eleven can be identified as from working-class backgrounds, eight from upper working/lower middle-class backgrounds, and two from middle-class backgrounds. However, we also need to be alert to class fractions within, for example, working-class groups (Reay, 2003), and recognise that class is mediated by ethnicity, gender and other structures/markers of difference. For the other three students, classification in terms of social class was particularly difficult, due to the complexities of their family histories and current situation (e.g., as immigrants to the UK) or because, in one case, we had insufficient information. Specific data on social class background or parental occupation was not gathered in the questionnaires as the study was not originally designed to explore class issues. We included a question about the extent to which students felt that financial issues could cause them difficulty (45% responded in their first year that money was a very serious or serious problem, 44% a slight problem and 11% not a problem), but

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30 M.-P. Moreau and C. Leathwood did not request specific information on student loans or financial support from parents. Students were, however, asked about levels of parental education, with 68% declaring that neither parent was educated to undergraduate degree level, 19% responding that one of their parents had a degree and 13% stating that both parents had degrees. As discussed elsewhere (Leathwood & OConnell, 2003), most of the students involved in this study may be considered non-traditional, a label that tends to include any student who is not young, White, middle-class, able-bodied, childless and entering with standard A level qualifications (Webb, 1997). Relatively few students in the cohort would meet all the criteria for a traditional university student, and the university in which this study is based is amongst those institutions with the largest intakes of minority ethnic and lower social class students in the country. The quantitative data on term-time working used for this article is drawn from student responses to both the first and second questionnaires. Term-time working also emerged as a theme in focus group discussions and individual interviews, and these form the basis for the qualitative data reported here. When students discussed issues of term-time work, they tended to highlight the difficulties of managing the combination of work and study, rather than any benefits they may have derived from their term-time work, and so this is the emphasis of this article. It is also important to note that, in line with other research in this area, the focus of this article is on paid work. This risks marginalising the unpaid labour of domestic and caring work, which is still performed mainly by women. We did ask students about their caring responsibilities, but the numbers declaring such commitments in the questionnaires were relatively small, making detailed quantitative analysis difficult, although some of the qualitative data volunteered by students touched on this area and we make reference to it here. The extent of term-time working Throughout the study, employment has emerged as a common aspect of student lives. At the time of their initial enrolment, 38% of students responding to the questionnaire stated that they were undertaking paid employment, with 81% of those not in employment stating that they planned to find work. Two years later, the figure for those in employment was 71%. Employment was also not a marginal aspect of their lives, with 35% of working students undertaking a weekly average of 20 hours or more at the beginning of their first year, and 59% reporting a similar weekly average two years later. Women and minority ethnic students were more likely to be working during term-time than White men across both surveys. There are a number of possible reasons for the extent of work undertaken by students in this cohort, including the relatively high proportion of students from working-class backgrounds attending this university, as well as the location of the university campus in an inner-city area with high living costs (NUS, 1999a) and many opportunities for student employment. Poorer students are more likely to depend on student loans and paid employment compared with other entrants (Universities UK, 2003), and more likely to engage in term-time work and undertake more hours (Barke

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et al., 2000; Callender & Kemp, 2000; Callender & Wilkinson, 2003). Students from new universities are also more likely to have term-time jobs and work longer hours (Callender & Wilkinson, 2003), a finding which is also likely to reflect social class differences. Students involved in this study articulated a range of reasons for undertaking paid work, including the desire to become more independent, gain confidence and earn money to pay for leisure activities. The majority of interview respondents, however, stated that they needed to undertake paid work in order to be able to continue with their studies, and this was particularly so for those from working-class backgrounds. Many articulated an experience of university life as one of struggle, and financial concerns were a major part of this (Leathwood & OConnell, 2003). The NUS (1999b) found that more than two-thirds of students are motivated to work in order to meet basic living costs, whilst Barke et al. (2000) reported that 43% of students work simply to remain at university. Forsyth and Furlong (2000 p. 39) also reported that, for students in their Scottish study, paid work was essential to successfully funding their way through higher education. Some students reported working a high number of hours in order to try to limit their debt, and working long hours could be interpreted as one way of attempting to limit the financial risks of study. The risks associated with study are higher for working-class students (Archer & Hutchings 2000; Archer et al., 2002) and such risks are heightened by the relatively low status of post-1992 universities (Leathwood & OConnell 2003; Leathwood & Hutchings, 2003). It is evident from the interview data that students do not rely on paid employment alone, but combine various resources in order to fund their studies. These include taking out a loan, being financially supported by their parents or partner and/or living with their family. Amongst the 24 students interviewed, 21 reported undertaking term-time work at some stage. Of the three who did not work, two were mature students drawing on savings from previous employment and family support, and we lack information about financial support for the other student. Of the 21 students who were undertaking term-time employment, 16 had taken out a loan whilst three had not (information was not available for two students). Fifteen received some form of support from parents, but this was mainly in the form of living in the family home rather than receiving additional financial support. Employers undoubtedly benefit from the flexibility of students, but neither employers nor the university appeared to make many attempts to meet the needs of working students. Standard full-time undergraduate courses in England were designed for full-time study. Even where the number of hours of lectures/seminars is relatively low (e.g., for humanities courses) students have always been expected to devote considerable time to independent study, with paid work largely assumed to be confined to the vacation period. For most elite universities, attendance is only necessary for 2430 weeks of the year, enabling students to undertake paid work during holiday periods, rather than during terms when academic demands can be intense. Student employment has changed considerably, but university courses have, on the whole, not adapted accordingly. The net result is that working students are often

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32 M.-P. Moreau and C. Leathwood studying full-time whilst working a significant number of part-time hours, and continually trying to manage the conflicts that arise from this. Combining work and studies and the demand for flexible labour A key aspect of the new market economics is the demand for flexible labour, with many employers particularly valuing students assumed flexibility, which helps employers to cope with variations in demand, and their availability, with students providing cover for full-time staff during holidays and at week-ends (Lucas & Ralston, 1997; Barke et al., 2000). As Holden (1999) notes, a commitment to flexible labour market policies is central to the current governments economic strategy, and students provide a suitable labour pool for the peripheral workforce. Students involved in our research, many of whom worked in the retailing and catering industries, often reported great demands on them from employers in terms of flexibility. For many, employment was characterised by variable working times. Some were called into work at very short notice, and others received repeated requests from employers to undertake more hours. For example, Mike worked for 16 hours a week when we interviewed him in his second year:
You cant just say boy Im not working this week or I just want to take this week off. I find it very hard. Its supposed to be 16 [hours a week] but its usually more because another manager doesnt come in to take over his shift. So youve got to stay there until somebody else comes in. (Mike, Black Caribbean, male, under 21)

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Some students were in more favourable positions with regular hours, and some felt they were able to re-negotiate their hours when needed, for example during preexamination periods. But overall students appeared to have limited control over their working times, as Watts (2001) also found, and flexibility was usually one-way, as also identified by Smith and Taylor (1999). For example, a student working in a call centre was required to contact the manager each week to find out his schedule of working hours for the following week. However, after taking some time off during a pre-examination period, he was then refused work. He felt that his employers response constituted a punishment for his previous lack of availability. Some students expressed concern that, if they did not meet the demands of their employer, they might lose their job. Christie et al. (2002), in their survey of two Scottish universities, note that students ability to resist employers demands in relation to flexibility and availability depended on their access to other sources of income (e.g., parental contribution). For some students in our study, unpredictable risks of unemployment were associated with worries about how they would manage financially and the time and stress involved in finding another job:
I got a phone call one day saying this is the last week the jobs going to be open. (Mike) I registered with the agency and sometimes for two or three weeks they wont even call me and there is no other wages coming in. When I dont have money and the bills are coming in and sometimes I find it difficult to pay to the school, I cant read, the pressure piles up

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on me, I cant study. It really gets me down. (Abedi, Black African, male, 3645, focus group)

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Most working students also felt that the university did little to recognise or support them in combining work and study, although teaching staff were regarded as quite sympathetic when the issue was discussed, as was also found by Curtis (2001). Timetable changes every semester were perceived as particularly hindering their work arrangements:
For this semester, theres all different times and all the lectures keep changing. So I wouldnt know whether to tell my employer, can you change my hours this time and then next semester, you have to change. (Michelle, Black African, female, under 21, focus group)

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The difficulties of negotiating flexibility are apparent in Michelles account, highlighting the theme of juggling which emerged from the study. The strategies students adopted to deal with the demands of both their employment and their studies are discussed in the next section.

The self-managing individual: juggling work and studies A notable feature of the narratives of working students is the underlying assumption that they are fully responsible for managing the combination of work and study, reflecting discourses of the neo-liberal subject as a self-managing and responsible one. This also echoes common constructions of the student in educational discourse as an autonomous independent learner, a construction which is gendered and culturally specific, with particular implications for students who do not fit with the traditional norm of a young, White, Western, able-bodied, male student (Leathwood, 2001). Milly (Black African, female, 2225), a focus group participant, saw herself as fully responsible for managing her work and study: its about you co-ordinating yourself, your time. When interviewed one year later, she added, at the end of the day the approach on work is that its your business. Similar assumptions were reflected in other students accounts, and, when asked if there were things that the university could do to better facilitate the combination of work and study, most had never considered this a possibility. Data from the third-year questionnaire indicate that students who were working during term-time were more likely to feel that their studies were always or usually a struggle compared to non-working students (31% compared to 20%), although these students could not simply be described as victims of the system. Rather, it is apparent from the qualitative data that they developed many strategies in their attempt to combine work and studies, changing their approaches and renegotiating the balance as the demands of their studies, work and lives changed. It is not, therefore, easy to categorise students as adopting one particular strategy. We were, however, able to identify some strategies that appeared to be adopted by most of the students we interviewed at some time, and some that were more likely to be adopted by particular groups of students.

34 M.-P. Moreau and C. Leathwood A frequently mentioned strategy for coping with and managing the conflicting demands of paid employment and study was to limit social activities. This is in sharp contrast to the images of student life as one of leisure, socialising and drinking. Although this strategy may be successful in academic terms for students, some expressed feelings of frustration and resentment. This was reflected by the comment of a focus group participant, (Milly, Black African, female, 2225), who explained:
I had formed, I dont know if I should say this, but an illusion in my head as to what university would be like. I believed it was going to be a lot of hard work but there was going to be a lot of playing hard as well. Unfortunately studying computer science and not getting grants from the government makes that impossible because Im studying 20 hours a week and Im working 15 hours a week and that leaves no time for anything else and you know you hear people going on about when I was in university we got up to this and we got up to that, you know, we went here as a team, as a group, a couple of friends, unfortunately Im not getting any of that.

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Most of the students we interviewed described curtailing their social life at some stage, depending both on work and study requirements. However, it was women and students who lived away from home with limited financial support from parents who were most likely to emphasise the need to limit their social lives to undertake paid work. This group also appeared to be more likely to work longer hours. In contrast, a few students interviewed emphasised the quality/extent of their social activities during their time at university, but these either lived at home and/or were students from middle-class backgrounds who worked relatively few hours. Such a strategy, however, impacts on the extent to which students feel part of university life (Humphrey, 2001). A common theme in this study, especially, but not only, in the early years, has been one of isolation, with a number of students feeling that they did not get to know other students very easily. A modular system, along with the pressures of paid work and family commitments, all mitigate against students meeting outside formal study time, with potential implications for the development of student communities. Another strategy discussed by some students was to choose a job which enabled them to get into a routine, or a clock-in clock-out job as one student described it, so as to maintain a focus on their studies. Most term-time work available to students was of a routine nature, but some students emphasised the value of this. Keeping the same job for a long period also appeared to make getting into a routine easier, as well as putting students in a more favourable position if they needed to re-negotiate their working hours. As Paula explains:
Its a shop. People tell me I should get something thats got to do with what I am studying but I try to explain to them that if you do full-time studying of something, Im just so tired. I just need to do something else. I just want to get away from it. I like to do something that doesnt take too much energy or thinking. (Paula, White Other, female, 2225)

Several other students emphasised the value of routine work, and all had relatively stable part-time employment in the retailing sector. In addition, promotion, whilst welcome, was perceived as carrying disadvantages as it may lead to further pressure to take on more hours. Although Lyle is in a situation where he manages to negotiate

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35

his working times, his promotion resulted in unwelcome pressure to work more hours, although, in this case, it was pressure he was able to resist:
Theyve made me the weekend manager so they want me to work Saturdays and Sundays but I realise working on a Sunday, which used to be my day of doing most of my uni work, working on a Sunday sort of put me out. So Im trying to keep Sundays because I normally do work for most of the day on a Sunday. They understand. (Lyle, Black Caribbean, male, under 21)

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Some of the students interviewed, especially those working a large number of hours and/or with family responsibilities, talked about the difficulties of devoting sufficient time to their academic work, especially additional reading. For example, Maya, who works 20 hours, said:
I really dont know how they expect you to do the reading Ive got to work three nights a week and then Ive got to cook three nights a week, I know this is just me personally, and Ive got family responsibilities as well. I dont know how they think people are able to do all the stuff. (Maya, Indian, female, under 21)

Limiting study time obviously has potential consequences for students in terms of their academic performance and/or the time it takes them to complete their degree, with many taking longer than the standard three years (or four for business studies students with a one-year placement). Data from the study indicates that the higher number of hours students reported working during term-time in the questionnaires, the lower their progression rate from year one to year two of their course, with students working nine hours or less almost twice as likely to progress straightforwardly at the end of their first year, compared to those working over 20 hours a week. In year three, students undertaking term-time work were also less likely to complete their studies on time than those not doing paid work. In the interviews, some students said that they thought they would have been able to achieve higher grades if they had not needed to work so many hours, which is consistent with other research which has identified the negative impact of term-time work on students achievements (NUS, 1999b; Callender & Kemp 2000; Watts 2001, 2002; van Dyke et al., forthcoming). A few students interviewed made a deliberate decision to temporarily interrupt their studies, and/or to study part-time, in order to combine the need to earn with successful study. John, for example, is a film student who returned to education as a mature student. During his last year at university he also had a child, for whom he shares caring responsibilities. He has undertaken a variety of paid work alongside his studies, and performs as a musician. He has taken out the full student loan entitlement and so built up significant levels of debt. John was reluctant to allow his studies to suffer, so decided to take time out of his course for one semester to enable him to work intensively, and then to study intensively during the following semester. The difficulties of trying to combine work and study remained a continual struggle for many students, with Sean (White Irish, male, under 21) talking about how hard it is trying to balance it all. Seans account illustrates the continual and fraught process of juggling commitments and priorities that many respondents articulated.

36 M.-P. Moreau and C. Leathwood These students could be seen to be performing as the multi-tasking, flexible, self-managing individuals of neo-liberalism (Giddens, 1991; Beck, 1992) and to be succeeding by sticking with their studies despite the pressures, yet their narratives do not exactly conjure up an image of the free, autonomous individual of neo-liberal discourse. These narratives certainly do not signify a time-rich experience of student life with ample opportunities for reflecting on learning, reading widely around the subject or engaging in leisurely discussion with peers. Instead, some students were coping with stress and ill-health:
I started with eight hours [work] but sometimes I did some extra but then I had kind of a financial problem last semester and towards the end of the semester I started working three days a week and thats what really made me break down. I was completely dead after that I couldnt deal with it because I was too exhausted. So I just fell to pieces, kind of. So I learned from that and Im not doing that again. I cant do it. (Paula, White Other, female, 2225)

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Women were more likely than men to talk about the stress, and the impact on their health, of juggling the different pressures of work, study and family, perhaps reflecting the additional domestic work, or second shift (Hochschild, 1997; Warren, 2003), that women tend to undertake. In addition, women in this study were more likely to engage in discussion of emotions and health matters, whereas the demands of dominant masculinities to cope, and to demonstrate inner strength and confidence in the face of adversity are likely to mitigate against many men engaging in similar levels of personal discussion. Not all students appeared to struggle, however. The narratives of two students from more middle-class backgrounds provide a rather different account to that of their working-class peers. These students are Phillip (White, male, under 21) and Rahia (Bangladeshi, female, under 21). Both live at home with their parents, are supported financially by them, and do some part-time work:
Yes I live with my parents. They pay for my books and everything. Obviously Ive got my loan now and I dont need to pay rent or electricity and all that. I just pay for my travel. I should be all right for a year. My parents arent poor. (Rahia)

Phillip explained that he has not needed to take out a loan as:
Ive worked in store and had help from Mum and Dad I feel that forget the money, its not as important as your education at the end of the day.

Rather than reflecting a sense of struggle, these students narratives particularly emphasised the positive outcomes of working, such as increased confidence and skill development, as well as financial gains. Combining work, studies and a social life does not appear to be as problematic for these students as it is for many others. They both emphasised that they could stop working when they needed to as they had sufficient resources to fall back on, thereby avoiding the levels of stress and anxiety that giving up work caused some other students in this study. The accounts of these two students cannot, of course, be used to generalise about middle class students. They are, however, indicative, and point to the need for further qualitative research on the experiences and meanings of term-time work for differently classed students.

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37

In sharp contrast to these students relative financial security, others gave financial reasons as a major factor in their decision to leave university before completing their degree. Dropping out is, perhaps, a rather more drastic strategy adopted by those who see no other way of dealing with the demands of work and study. It is likely to be due to a complex amalgam of student and institutional processes and interactions (Ozga & Sukhnandan, 1998; Yorke, 1999), something that was also evident in this research, but for Paul (White, male, under 21), lack of money proved a deciding factor. Paul is the first in his family to go to university. He had moved to this inner city area to enter higher education, so was not living at home, and he had taken out his maximum loan entitlement. His academic achievement was above average.
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I thought I cant stay at university because I cant afford it. I thought I cant go to university and rush off to work. I cant do that every day. Unfortunately my parents havent got any money to give me. I cant ask for money from them. I decided that I had no choice but to leave university because I cannot practically manage going to university and working non-stop and doing the course non-stop. So I thought I cant practically stay at university. Id like to but I cant. So I had to leave and look at my options.

Pauls narrative illustrates the ways in which individual choices are constrained by the material, as well as the social and cultural, in sharp contrast to neo-liberal discourses of the individual as an entirely free and autonomous agent able to make rational choices in the (higher education) marketplace. Conclusions UK government policy has resulted in a reduction in financial support to students, increasing financial hardship and debt, and a related growth in student term-time employment. Yet, as has been seen, the impact of such policies is not equitable. As in other areas of social life, increasing marketisation, the withdrawal of state financial support and the placing of responsibility on the individual citizen reinforce and exacerbate existing inequalities. Working-class students are more likely to work during term-time, to work more hours and to emerge from university with higher levels of debt. Significant levels of term-time work also impact negatively on students academic achievements (Curtis & Shani, 2002). This research highlights the ongoing struggles and negotiations of managing the demands of work and study, and points to the class-based aspects of these processes. Attempts by both universities and employers to understand and mitigate the pressures on working students appear to be limited. The benefits of flexible labour predominantly accrue to the employer, whilst the activities and provision of higher education institutions for full-time students still tend to be premised on a conception of the student as someone who has few demands and responsibilities beyond their studies. Three-year full-time degree courses are not designed to accommodate significant levels of term-time working, and government performance indicators, used to rank higher education institutions in published league tables, reward those institutions deemed most efficient, that is, those with the highest proportion of students

38 M.-P. Moreau and C. Leathwood who successfully complete within this three-year time period. This, therefore, favours those universities with higher proportions of middle-class and wealthy students, who are less likely to undertake such high levels of term-time work. Government policy discourses continue to construct the student as someone who works to fund their excessive lifestyle, whilst also placing a responsibility on students to make a significant financial contribution to the costs of studying. Concern about the debt and poverty faced by students from working-class backgrounds has been minimal. Whilst the 2003 Higher Education Act removed the requirement for students to pay up-front tuition fees from 2006 (instead, top-up fees will be paid after graduation), and provides some maintenance grants/bursaries for the poorest students, the current tuition fee exemption arrangements will cease and it is possible that fewer young students (under 25 years old) will benefit from financial assistance than under current arrangements. It is hard to predict precisely what the impact of these changes will be, but it appears unlikely that it will result in a dramatic reduction in term-time work, nor in a significant change in the material constraints placed upon students from working-class backgrounds. This article has not considered the extent to which the experience of undertaking term-time employment, even in low-skilled jobs unrelated to a students course of study, may be of longer-term benefit to the students, for example in the graduate labour market (nor has it considered the impact of students displacing other workers in low skilled jobs see Hofman & Stein, 2003). Many students in the study felt that they had gained useful skills and life experience as a result of undertaking termtime work, and there is some evidence that graduate employers want students to have some work experience even if it is unrelated to their studies (Bowlby et al., 2000). However, Blasko and colleagues (2002, p. 48) found that although there is some possibility that term-time work can provide longer term benefits similar to those of work experience the risks are likely to be more significant. Their study reveals that term-time work is associated with a slight decrease in the risk of unemployment for men graduates. However, they found that the likelihood of obtaining a graduate job was lower for both men who had worked above ten hours a week during term-time and, to a lesser extent, for women who had engaged in term-time work at all. The study also reveals that the careers of graduates from lower social backgrounds were more likely to be affected by term-time work. Preliminary findings from students who have graduated in our study suggest that many are feeling that their lack of work experience directly related to their studies is one factor that is hampering them in gaining employment in their chosen field. With the need to work in order to fund their studies, students from working-class backgrounds are less likely to be able to take up opportunities for voluntary/unpaid work in their chosen field than their middle-class peers, with potential consequences for their attainment of graduate employment. This article has touched on the implications of term-time work for students experience of university life. For many of these students, the university is only one aspect of their lives, and not necessarily a central one. Working students accounts of their multiple commitments and associated feelings of stress and struggle mean

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that they have limited time not only for study, but also for getting involved in university life, especially when many live at home to save costs. Some report feelings of isolation and the difficulty of building friendships with other students, because of the limited opportunities to socialise together outside formal class time. One effect of government policy has been to further individualise the student experience, raising potential implications for the development of student communities, activities and politics. An important equality issue, and one particularly relevant to widening participation and issues of access, is that of access not only to university per se, but also to a quality student experience, including the time to engage fully in academic life.
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Acknowledgements We would like to thank Becky Francis and the two anonymous referees for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. References
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