Earn while you learn, at university

In a poll in January by the Sutton Trust, 27% of students said they had been forced to take on jobs or work longer hours as loans became stretched and other forms of income, such as parental support, dried up. A Ucas survey in April estimated the number of students working part-time was 43%. Graeme Atherton, director of the National Education Opportunities Network at the University of West London, said students working had become the “norm” in some institutions, meaning “ostensibly full-time students are actually part-time because they are working half the time”.