Research Blog 7

Does Working Part-time affect a college students academic, social and everyday college success?

My Case:

In short, yes I believe that working has affects on a students life in college. Students either work and attempt to work either for monetary reasons or for social ones (i.e to build relationships, network and/or gain experience). Based off of some of the research I found, having a job doesn't DIRECTLY influence a students academic success but may do so indirectly. Having a job means having less hours of free time that may have been used to student. It is then up to the student to manage their time and effectively organize themselves so that they can get their work done.

One article, "Exploring the Impact of Work Experience on Part-time Students's Academic Success in Malaysian Polytechnics," by Norhayati Ibrahim uses six factors to measure "perceived influence" of work related experiences: positive belief, negative belief, intrinsic motivation, learning orientation, deep learning approach, and surface learning approach. The article suggests that the success of a student could vary on the quality of their learning strategies, their classroom environment and the quality teaching from their teachers.

In addition, my personal experiences, through either myself and friends, further expand on the claim that working doesn't directly influence your academic performance and/or "social life." However, having a job requires much more planning and organization on your part. Or else it can be very easy to lose tract of things and time.