Working long hours while studying: a higher risk for First-in-Family students and students of particular fields of study?

ABSTRACT Student employment has become widespread across many European countries, eliciting the question of how working while studying affects student retention. Previous research mostly agrees that it does by arguing that firstly, students who work long hours (i.e. more than 10 h per week) are more likely to leave university early, and also shows that students without academic family backgrounds (i.e. First-in-Family students) are more likely to enter term-time employment. However, little attention has been paid to investigating the factors predicting students’ decision to enter time-consuming employment while studying, and little differentiating between fields of study. Our study, which is based on a sample of 47,228 university students in Austria, reveals that the risk of working long hours differs considerably among various groups of students. Besides financial necessity, the results show that seeking work experience and not coming from an academic family background are also strong predictors for entering time-consuming employment, especially for business students. We suggest that higher education educators should effectively address this issue by working more closely with employers, industry representatives, professionals and students. We stress that universities should support their students in building networks, gaining insights into entry-level work and bridging the gap to graduate employment.