Students who also work - How many hours do you work on average a week?

DannyWhoWorks

Just wondering if I am doing too much/too little compared to everyone else.

I do on average 18 hours a week working in a local shop.

skivenov

It's a lot of years since I was at uni. The novelty of getting !!!!ed every night wore off, so I used to do 4-6 nights a week in a warehouse.

Actually earnt more then than I do now, and graduated with a set of forklift licences to boot!

dizzyrascal

I work at a university and they recommend no more than 15/16 hours. If you worked for the university, say in the library, they would not employ you for more than those hours, full stop. Obviously you work for an outside organisation and your hours can't be monitored
There is a great deal of research that supports the idea that working for longer than 16 hours will affect your studies. You can work as many hours as you like in the holidays but not whilst you study.
You have entered in to an agreement with your university to make your degree your main focus and to give it your full attention and to get the best degree you can.

V_Chic_Chick

I've also heard the 16 hour limit too.

I very much work on an ad hoc basis, when it's mutually convenient for me and my employer. Sometimes I don't work that week, sometimes I'll do a full day. In the holidays, however, I work almost full time.

skivenov

They told us that when we startted, and they also said that if we put 36 hours a week into our studies, we would almost certainly get a 2:1.

I figured a 2:1 was good enough, so I put in those 36 hours.

I've worked 50+ hours a week my whole life, and when you're young, it's easy, so adding 18 or so hours a week working was no hardship. Most of my peers spent longer than that on the lash anyway.

alyth

I work 18, from 5pm Friday until 6pm Sunday evening - it works out perfectly for me, I'm a little obsessed with my studying, being a mature student, it means I don't study Saturday or Sunday night and as I only have uni classes for 4.5 hours a week, at the moment I have three full days off in which to study/write.

A friend studying at another uni has been told that they should give up their part-time work when they go into third year - as she says, how the hell is she supposed to pay the rent!

w211

I did at least 28 hours - 4 evenings a week (5 hours per evening) in one job, and had a Saturday job where I worked 8 hours. Plenty of extra work if I wanted it was available for both jobs. I worked these long hours to ensure that I didn't get into debt.

Needless to say, I failed my second year. Didn't matter too much, continued my studies with the Open University, they gave me credit for the successful completion of my first year, managed to work even longer hours - one job was at a restaurant (the evening one), and the other was in a shop, so I was able to to do one after the other.

Sometimes when the workload wasn't too great (usually when you're just starting a new course/module), I was working 50-60 hours during those weeks.

However, I managed my time well, successfully completed my Open University course, and got my degree without incurring any debt.

Dunroamin

DannyWhoWorks wrote: »

Just wondering if I am doing too much/too little compared to everyone else.

I do on average 18 hours a week working in a local shop.

What are you studying?

System

I worked between 8-25 hours on average whilst at uni. Though gve it up in my final year and lived off loan and savings. I wouldn't have been able to afford to live if i hadn't of had that job.

quavering

I'm in my 3rd year and at the moment I'm averaging 35-40 hours a week at 2 different jobs. Lectures are two days a week, with a 45 minute commute each way.

I'm not going to lie, it's killing me, but I simply can't afford not to work. But I'm doing something about it, as we speak I'm photocopying all the documents I need to apply for the Access to Learning fund.

I just don't want money to get in the way of finishing my degree! At the moment, it is, or at least it's stopping me focussing on my dissertations.

Dunroamin

quavering wrote: »

I'm in my 3rd year and at the moment I'm averaging 35-40 hours a week at 2 different jobs. Lectures are two days a week, with a 45 minute commute each way.

I'm not going to lie, it's killing me, but I simply can't afford not to work. But I'm doing something about it, as we speak I'm photocopying all the documents I need to apply for the Access to Learning fund.

I just don't want money to get in the way of finishing my degree! At the moment, it is, or at least it's stopping me focussing on my dissertations.

Don't you get a loan?