Term‐time employment and the student experience

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which term‐time employment influences two specific aspects of the student experience in higher education: working collaboratively and preparing for entry into the graduate labour market. The paper also aims to consider the extent to which the students are able to appreciate the inter‐relationships that exist between activities such as these.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on three research projects: an ongoing piece of action research into the factors influencing student engagement in collaborative activities for examination preparation; a related study into attitudes to group work; and a study into how students make career decisions.Findings – In all of these studies term‐time working was identified as a factor influencing student engagement in collaborative/group activities and career planning and preparation. However, the research found that term‐time is often “blamed” by the students for their failure to engage in these a...

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