To Help students Obtain part-time employment, UK Universities offer a Three-day workweek.

Undergraduates who are tight for cash will be able to balance employment and study thanks to condensed teaching schedules.

Universities are lowering the number of days that students must be on campus in order to allow them to work part-time as they battle to make ends meet in the face of the rising cost of living.

Numerous schools are implementing condensed teaching calendars, where lectures and seminars are arranged over two or three days rather than scattered throughout the week. The change will make it simpler for the increasing number of undergraduates who must work part-time jobs to support themselves. Over 50% of students now also work outside of school, growing from 34% in 2021 and 45% in 2022.

Young people commencing their degrees in the autumn suffer financial instability due to insufficient maintenance loans that barely cover living expenses and poor families who struggle to pay parental contributions. According to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), two-thirds of new students anticipate working a part-time job to make ends meet. Students talk of needing to work overtime, miss meals, or use credit cards to make ends meet.

Compact timetables were tested at De Montfort University in Leicester in half of its courses last year, and they will being implemented across the board this autumn. Undergraduates study one module for seven weeks rather than four modules at a time with roughly two hours of instruction per week.

Vice-chancellor Prof. Katie Normington stated that the adjustment “allows for more compact timetables and this sits around students’ lives better.” “It is easy to organise because many students work and have other responsibilities. Students gave us excellent reviews the previous year. According to internal polls, block-teaching participants were 10% happier than non-participants.

Due to increased rent and living expenses, commuter students who opt to live at home or are unable to leave also benefit from the policy. “Students with a Leicester or Leicestershire postcode rose from 42 to 47% last year,” claimed Prof. Normington. It is simpler and less expensive for them to travel to campus a few times per week rather than four or five times for an hour here and there.

Student life at Sunderland, the London campuses of Anglia Ruskin universities, and the University of Law, which has 16 campuses around England, is also characterised by two- to three-day itineraries. Students get instruction over a two-and-a-half-day span each week at the Coventry University sites in Dagenham and Greenwich.

John Dishman, pro-vice-chancellor and CEO of CU Group, claimed that the model was solely responsible for the cost of living problem. The poorest borough in London is Barking and Dagenham. People rely on having part-time jobs, and their primary sources of income are part-time employment and maintenance loans. Over the past two years or so, it has become more and more prevalent. If courses are not designed to be taken alongside employment, people simply won’t have access to them. Some of our students work nearly five days a week while also studying with us. It’s more of a full-time position than a part-time one. Their commitment is incredible. Every year, we hold our graduation ceremony at the O2, and the amount of effort required to get there is just incredible.

In keeping with its dedication to “life-shaped learning,” lectures and seminars are conducted either five mornings or five afternoons a week at the Coventry and Scarborough campuses. The new timetables at Roehampton University also enable students to plan ahead, making it simpler to fit in paid jobs. In order to enable students “combine study with work, caring, and other commitments,” most of its undergraduate degree courses will only have first-year instruction scheduled for no more than three days per week beginning this September.

In this year’s student experience survey, conducted by Advance HE and the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), cost of living concerns came in first place.

Over 75% of the 10,000 respondents stated it had an impact on their education, and it was mentioned as a key reason why some students considered quitting.

According to Nick Hillman, head of HEPI, “the proportion of students who feel driven to work so many hours for pay that their studies may suffer is on the rise. “Those in charge should immediately take a fresh look at the maintenance assistance provided to students. A fee increase, according to the minister of higher education, is “just not going to happen” because families are already under financial strain. But in terms of the expense of living, it’s not the fees that are causing students problems. They are impacted by rising rent and grocery store prices, and if ministers genuinely cared, they would increase maintenance loans.

Keir Stamer said this week that he wouldn’t have been able to afford to attend college today. He explained how he managed to pay his way through his time at Leeds University by working, utilising maintenance grants, and “carefully calculating rent, bills, and food.”

The Conservatives eliminated maintenance aid for the poorest students in 2015. Although Labour has not yet announced reforms to student loans, the leader’s remarks imply that student aid packages are being discussed.