Term is half over and you are way behind with your studies. Never mind –reading week offers the chance to catch up. Or does it?
While some use the mid-term suspension of formal teaching to swot – or slack– many hard-up students have no choice but to use it to earn extra money.
With Barclays estimating that students graduate with average debts of £13,500,six out of ten students now work to survive.
They spend an average of 14 hours a week in part-time jobs.
But 59 per cent of working students believe that it has a negative impact on theirstudies. Lectures are regularly missed by 39 per cent while 21 per cent are latewith coursework deadlines due to the pressures of part-time working.
Gemma Tumelty, secretary of the National Union of Students, says: ‘Manystudents are doing two jobs – they are studying full-time while workingto cover their costs. If they have a week when there are no lectures, they stillhave to use the time to do their part-time jobs.
‘This means there is an inequality in one student not having to work, andtherefore having an academic advantage over another, who has to spend hours eachweek in a job.’
Reading weeks, or semester breaks, are not available on all courses. Humanitiestraditionally favour them, while science students are rarely given a break fromthe lab.
This can also put scientists who are short of cash and time at a disadvantagewhen balancing degree and part-time work commitments.
Sarah Winter, 18, from Littlehampton, West Sussex, would like to use her forthcomingreading week at the University of Southampton to catch up on her languages degree.
She is in her first year studying French, Spanish and Italian and has found thatworking 11 hours a week at a local branch of Superdrug means she cannot spendthe required 40 hours on her studies.
‘Other people catch up on studying at weekends, but I have to work to paymy way,’ she says.
‘It is tempting to use reading week to earn more cash, but I have to usethe time to focus on my degree for once.’
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