Working while studying: students in higher education – main conclusions of two pieces of research carried out with a theoretical focus

Abstract

The phenomenon of paid employment among students in parallel with their studies is an increasing worldwide tendency; an ever growing number of economic analyses (see e.g. OECD) are focusing on this subject and its importance on the labour market. Certain studies attribute highly innovative features to future labour markets, and today's younger age group is considered to be an important player in the forthcoming fourth industrial revolution. At the same time, these research and studies pay little attention to certain characteristics of young people, such as the reasons behind 'early' part-time work and other background characteristics, although the understanding and exploration of these drivers can have an impact on the causes - such as employment characteristics and their correlation with studies, and the appropriate balance between learning and work. However, first and foremost, we should investigate the underlying characteristics.

In our study, we illustrate particular employment characteristics of students at two Hungarian-speaking higher education institutions, partly in a comparative way, but by presenting the important results. The data records of both large-sample youth surveys represent a specific crisis period, thus the research samples are comparable in terms of their representative assets and sample size. We can have an insight into the correlations between socio-demographic characteristics and student employment, that young people can be classified into different work value factors, that social capital endowment and its characteristics can be related to paid student employment, that the social activity of young people is basically low, although students in employment are more active and have significantly stronger attachment to their institutions than their non-employed counterparts.

In the future, higher education policy decisions are expected to facilitate young people's access to employment during their studies - as an alternative leisure option - to an increasing extent not least because of the tensions in European labour markets, the shrinking potential labour force on our continent and the increasing age and extent to which young people are expected to enter the labour market at an earlier age while continuing their studies.