Student Employment is back in the news. But the gendering of this work continues to be overlooked.
13th June 2024
Student employment – or Earning whilst Learning (EwL) – is back in the news again, with the Guardian reporting the results of a new survey showing that more than half of university students are working long hours in paid jobs. It is encouraging to see EwL getting this level of attention from popular media, and that there is pressure on different parties at election time to look at the HE funding model and the financial vulnerability of students. The ongoing Cost-of-Living crisis is undoubtedly impacting student finances and their wellbeing and we wholeheartedly back calls to address the inadequacy of student maintenance support to reduce some of these pressures on students. However, we in the L-earning team have some points to add to this debate, based on our ongoing mixed methods research.
Firstly, the article points to a ‘bifurcated’ system in HE, in which students are defined as occupying two distinct categories – those who don’t need to work and can therefore prioritise the ‘traditional university experience’ and those for whom paid work is an essential priority. We do not dispute the classed nature of HE experiences, though these are not necessarily new; a ‘traditional university experience’ (whatever that means) has long been out of reach of commuter, first generation and mature students. Notwithstanding the impact of social class and socio-economic status, however, we note how in this and other commentaries on students EwL, the significance of gender is overlooked and under explored.
Our quantitative analysis of the Annual Population Survey (APS, Office for National Statistics) shows 35.4% of female 16-29 year old full time students working in the first quarter (2022) compared to 26.9% of their male peers at the same time. It is important to recognise, then, in any discussion of students EwL that women are more likely to be undertaking paid work while studying than their male peers – and our analysis shows that this is the case at every age across school, college and university level. This gendering of EwL is important – especially given that women outnumber men in HE.
Our second and related point is that while understanding what proportion of students are working, how many hours they work and how often is important, much of the research and debate about EwL fails to consider the nature and content of the work that students actually do. Our own research shows that a large share of student workers are found in two of the lowest paid occupations (with average pay below 2022 UK minimum wage level for both adults and 21-22 year-olds). These occupations (sales assistants and retail cashiers and other elementary services occupations) account for 54 per cent of student workers overall and over two-thirds (70 per cent) of the youngest cohort of student workers. We argue that this constitutes a ‘studentness penalty’ in which students are concentrated in poorly paid areas of the labour market, which are directly shaped by lower legal rates of pay for young people. In short, students paid labour is devalued by dint of their age and ‘studentness’.
Being concentrated in low-paid occupations and sections of the labour market that have high levels of churn often means that students are sometimes not fully aware of their rights regarding pay and conditions. More typically however, students are aware but find it difficult to contest or challenge unfairness and bad practice in the workplace. In our focus groups with women students in schools, colleges and universities across England, we found many examples of young women’s hesitancy to challenge unfair practices at work, particularly around pay and hours. As Elira, aged 18, from one of the focus groups told us:
“I think a lot of people go into work without knowing the rules around working our age and a lot of managers try and get around that without trying to make it clear. I don’t know how to explain it, just your pay, your hours that you’re working, there’s a lot of rules that are broken and no one talks about that”.
Participants expressed that asking about their pay or working hours was ‘awkward’ and may be interpreted by their employers as rude or arrogant. It is not only age which plays a role here. Gendered norms and expectations are also likely to be a factor, making it harder for young women to improve their pay and working conditions. Moreover, whilst pay was one key area where students experienced difficulties, we also found that sexual harassment was a regular and commonplace feature of the workplace for the women students we interviewed, particularly for those working in hospitality. It is thus vital that debates around student employment contend with these gendered experiences and risks.
Our third point is that whilst the commentary on students EwL focuses on the negative impact of part-time work on study outcomes in the here and now, the discussion falls short of considering how students’ exposure to, and deep involvement in, low paid and often discriminatory practices in work, socialises them into becoming particular kinds of workers in the future. Most discussions of student work and EwL proceed from an enduring framing of ‘work’ and ‘education’ as two separate, time-ordered, and typically hostile spheres; they are seen as (ideally) sequential rather than entwined and mutually constructing. We argue that such an approach is outdated and misses the complexity and significance of paid work in the lives of young students – including both the harmful and more enriching features of this work. It is our view that to better understand young people’s lives and identities, we must appreciate the significance of paid work undertaken alongside education. Not least because for many involved in employment during their studies, work can be an ongoing and potentially important aspect of their lives, but also because it is clearly now a necessity for many. As such our analysis underscores the need to see student workers as a key part of the labour force.
Please see our recent Times Higher Education piece for more of our early research reflections, and follow us on X for updates on the research.
