Patterns of student employment in Russia†

This paper analyses the factors of combining study and work and the factors explaining intensity of work during study in Russia, based on cross-sectional survey data. The issue of how Russian students combine work and study is analysed through the set of financial, academic, social and demographic predictors, quality of university and quality of students. These factors may have an effect on student employment and student labour supply, and help shed light on what motivates students to enter the labour market. We discovered that 64.7% of Russian students combined study and work and most of them begin working during their third year of study. Our results indicate that factors associated with the quality of students, such as studying in a top university and participating in research activities, positively affect the probability of student employment, but negatively affect the intensity of employment. Financial motivations for student employment are also significant. We found that students receiving financial support from their families are less likely to be employed during their study and work less hours. However, we found no evidence that combining study and work affects students’ academic achievements.     

The impact of term‐time employment on higher education students’ academic attainment and achievement

Term‐time employment among Britain’s undergraduates is a growing phenomenon but it has received scant attention from government and policy makers. Although there are numerous studies on the subject, few have explored the impact of term‐time employment on students’ actual attainment and those that have are limited. This article attempts to fill that gap. Using data derived from 1000 students in six UK universities, it quantifies the impact of students’ paid work on their actual marks and degree results, while controlling for their academic attainment on entry to higher education and other factors including their hours of work. It shows that irrespective of the university students attended, term‐time working had a detrimental effect on both their final year marks and their degree results. The more hours students worked, the greater the negative effect. Consequently, students working the average number of hours a week were a third less likely to get a good degree than an identical non‐working student. Some of the least qualified and poorest students are most adversely affected perpetuating existing inequalities in HE. The 2006/07 changes to student finances may help some of them, but term‐time employment is likely to remain part of the HE landscape.     

UK institutional responses to undergraduates' term-time working

In the UK, there is currently considerableinterest in the nature and extent of full-timeundergraduates' term-time working. Thisinterest stems from at least two perspectives.First that as the system of student financingin the UK has changed, so has the extent towhich students need to boost their incomethrough employment. The second perspective isthat, in addition to financial benefits,students may be able to derive learningbenefits from term-time working: hence,institutions have developed processes by whichstudents might be helped to recognise in anexplicit way learning derived from experiencesof working.Behind such institutional responses tostudents' term-time working may well liequestions of equity and access: are certaingroups of students more or less likely toundertake paid employment during term-time. Andwith such questions comes an interest in theimpact of term-time working on the studentexperience and on academic performance.The paper looks at recent research findings inthe area and considers to what the extent UKinstitutions' own activities are a pragmaticresponse to the realities facing the currentgeneration of undergraduates, and to whatextent they may be damaging the overall studentexperience.     

Great Expectations? Variation in Educational Plans of Students in Post-Socialist Eastern Europe

Using all available waves of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from 1995 to 2011, this study examines the factors influencing educational expectations of students in five Eastern European countries (Hungary, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, Romania, and Slovenia). We consistently find across countries and waves that parental completion of a college degree, better material well-being of the family, and being a female are positively associated with students’ expectations to complete college. Furthermore, we find that students who come from more advantaged families are more likely to have formed their academic plans by the eighth grade compared to their disadvantaged peers.     

Confusion about collusion: working together and academic integrity

An increasing emphasis on developing students' transferable skills, such as group working and IT, is creating challenges in ensuring the academic integrity of individually assessed coursework. This study investigated the frequency with which students engaged in a range of study behaviours for individual assignments, with a focus on the extent to which they exchanged information or worked in informal study groups. Over 1000 responses were gathered from students at pre‐ and post‐92 universities engaged in either business or psychology degrees. Four behavioural factors emerged from the data: trust, cooperation, use of IT and conscientious practices. Results indicated that students engage in practices relying on trust and cooperation less often than other practices, implying a concern with avoiding issues of academic misconduct. This was supported by focus group discussions where students described their strategies for working together whilst ensuring the quality and integrity of their own work. Comparisons between academic disciplines revealed that business students were more likely to engage in sharing and group‐work behaviours than psychology students, as were students at the post‐92 university. Comparisons between years found no significant differences. Recommendations are made for improving student understanding of collusion whilst still encouraging the development of skills important to employability.     

Students and Universities in Italy in an Age of Reform

Recent developments of the Italian student body are marked by an increasing diversification of prevailing student profiles. The presence of ‘new’ student groups is surveyed next to the groups which are the ‘traditional’ target of national policies for higher education and student welfare. Examples of such traditional target groups are, amongst others: males or females; students from well‐off and well‐educated families or from lower social backgrounds; resident or non‐resident students; undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate students (first, second or third cycle of university studies); students from different fields of study. Working students are to be quoted in ‘new’ profiles. They may either work regularly or take occasional jobs during terms; in both cases they no longer seem to be full‐time students and should be considered as de facto part‐time students. Although student work is not a novelty, what has changed in recent times is its development: working students are reported to be a majority in the university student body. Their emerging needs and expectations as university customers point to inadequacies and delays in the prevailing academic attitudes and in higher education policy‐making. The Italian Euro Student Survey is a monitoring of students’ living and study conditions in Italian universities. It is carried out in the framework of the Euro Student Report project, which involves many EU countries. Euro Student attaches great importance to the analysis of the impact of the diversification issue on the students’ living and study conditions, on their personal experiences and on their relations with academic institutions. Some of the most relevant emerging trends will be dealt with in this article, e.g. the demand for support and interaction with teachers and students (the ‘solitude’ issue), the increasing demand for better conditions in the study environment (the ‘quality’ issue), the differences in average academic achievements of different student groups (the ‘performance’ issue). Based on the updated available data, some ideas and theories will be explained as a conclusion about the possible impacts of the most recent reforms in the higher education sector in Italy, i.e. the design of new courses according to the ‘Bologna process’ and the planning of a new student welfare system.     

An empirical study on the determinants of international student mobility: a global perspective

This paper, based on the data of 48 countries and regions from 1999 to 2008, studies the economic and educational determinants of how countries of different types attract international students. The study finds that: the volume of merchandise trade between countries facilitates international student mobility across borders; international students from developing countries put the same weights on educational and economic factors for peer developing countries as potential destinations, while only economic factors are taken into consideration for developed countries as potential destinations. On the other hand, international students from developed countries often value educational factors more for developed countries as possible destinations, while equally weigh educational and economic factors for developing countries as possible destinations. Therefore, countries aiming to attract talents from other countries should pay more attention to attract international students and encourage them to seek working opportunities in local employment markets after finishing study.     

Working while studying: the impact of term-time employment on dropout rates

There are many possible reasons why students leave university prior to degree completion, and one of the more commonly cited is being employed while studying. This paper analyses the impact of employment status on dropout rates using survival analysis. It finds that employment status does have an impact on dropout rates; students who work full time alongside studying full time are less likely to complete their programme than students working short part-time or not working at all. However, it seems as if there is a threshold to how much students can work, as working more than 20?h a week (long part-time work) increase the risk of dropout as much as full-time work. Integrating employment status into the analysis does not change the effect of variables known to have an influence on dropout, such as grades, gender and social background, but it contributes to further explain who are at risk of dropout. This implies that models for dropout and retention must also take such external factors into account, not just consider what happens at university, as in model of student departure.     

The academic value of internships: Benefits across disciplines and student backgrounds

While student benefits from internship experience have been frequently documented in research, the emphasis has been on internship effects on employment and career indicators. This work is concerned with effects on academic outcomes and focuses on the robustness of such effects across academic disciplines as well as for different achievement levels of students, student gender, and ethnicity. We present findings from a longitudinal sample (n > 15,000) that covers an extensive range of subjects and disciplines for large undergraduate cohorts. Main effects and interactions for student background characteristics were investigated showing stable academic benefits for advantaged and disadvantaged students. Further, using ordinal logistic multi-level modelling, we explored the impact on the probability of attaining a higher degree classification for different student scenarios, thus illustrating the practical significance of these internship effects. Effects are less likely to stem from maturation or self-selection. Findings are therefore discussed against a background of motivational approaches suitable to integrate both direct and indirect paths from internship experience to academic outcomes to career indicators.     

消除女大学生“贫困心理”影响的策略研究

大学生心理状况总体呈现健康稳定的发展态势,但女生的心理问题呈增长趋势,其中贫困家庭女生的心理问题更为突出。其诱因既有显而易见的教育失衡、学业纷扰、就业压力等,也有贫困问题。通过＂唤醒教育＂来解决大学生与贫困关联的心理困顿是笔者研究的焦点,其研究有助于推动高校学生政治思想工作的深入开展。     

高职院校学生职业选择调查分析——以深圳职业技术学院为例

问卷调查发现,高职院校学生在职业选择时普遍将发展前景、收入、工作稳定性等作为优先考虑的因素,其月薪期望值较为合理,但普遍没有把专业学习作为自身就业的重要因素,且在面对就业压力时有逃避的倾向;学生性别、年级、是否担任学生干部、学生家庭及所处地域都对其职业选择具有一定影响。为此,高职院校应把就业指导工作贯穿整个工作过程,努力帮助学生树立良好的职业选择观念,通过多种形式促进学生就业。     

中国西部农村留守儿童学业心理特点及其学校管理对策研究

Left-behind children refer to those left behind by parents working away from home and taken care of by only one of the parents or relatives because one or both of the parents go out to work in the city. By using questionnaires, this study involves 8 627 rural pupils chosen from 10 provinces to examine academic psychological characteristics, containing academic self-concept, teacher-student relationship and the student attitudes towards school; and then it discusses the school management countermeasures. The results show: (1) children living with parents have the best academic performances; (2) children left behind with both parents working out show better than those living with one of the parents on academic psychological performance; and (3) children left behind with only one of the parents working out performs the worst, especially when only living with the father. Therefore, much more attention should be paid to those children. __________ Translated from Jiaoyu Yanjiu 教育研究 (Educational Research), 2008, (2): 33–38     

Social Justice and Job Distribution in Japan: Class; Minority and Gender

Japanese schools have a mechanism for helping their students to find jobs, rather than leaving this function to market forces. The system embodies three principles. First, it tries to ensure that every graduating student within a school obtains a job. Second, it gives special assistance to students who are seen as "vulnerable" in the job market. Third, it takes into account individual merit (i.e. academic marks, school attendance and extra-curricular activities). The system recognises that a young person's initial full-time employment is crucial in obtaining an adult identity; that high school graduates are still immature and vulnerable, needing professional adult assistance to find "suitable" employment, and that they have unequal access to such assistance in their families. A key role is played by the teachers, who strive to obtain what they consider to be the most suitable employment for all their graduating students.     

Europe and the Crisis in Scientific Vocations

During the 1990s, the number of students enrolling in science subjects at universities was declining each year in Germany, France, Italy, amongst other countries. These decreases are too readily attributed to a general disaffection caused by the image that younger generations have of scientific studies: they are seen as being the most 'difficult'. This explanation is true but not sufficient. Over and above the similarities that can be seen between European countries — which stem from the fact that they are simultaneously experiencing strong growth in and democratisation of their student populations —, profound differences continue to exist, resulting in apparently similar effects, but with very different causes. Not only do higher education structures taken as a whole remain very different despite the Bologna process, but more fundamentally, the very meaning of the higher education system within each national society, its relationship with employment, and its position in individuals' personal career paths all vary. A comparison between Germany, Italy and France shows three ideal types of relationship between training and employment and three ways of explaining symptoms that appear similar.     

Advanced Placement Academy: Case Study of a Program Within a School

The focus of this study was the first year of implementation of the Advanced Placement Academy (APA), a program within a high school providing honors and Advanced Placement coursework for high-ability African American students with previously limited access to rigorous courses. The qualitative investigation explores practical solutions from perspectives of school, classroom, and individual students. Data included document review; administrator, teacher, and student interviews; and classroom observations. Themes identified were academic, guidance, and social and emotional supports. Constructing this rigorous program required time, resources, and expertise coupled with strong leadership, a person in charge. APA created a small, caring community, building student belonging. The community included key persons intensely focused on students and what they need to achieve; e.g., culturally responsive, differentiated instruction. Students from bleak educational backgrounds require more time to develop academic talent and skills and confidence of likely success. Exposure and enrichment builds student motivation for hard work.     

The academic achievement of students in a New Zealand university: Does it pay to work?

There is growing concern about the detrimental effect of term-time employment on university students’ academic success. We report results from an online survey of 1837 students of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, whose responses were later matched to their academic records for a semester. The majority of employed students reported working out of financial necessity. There was no difference in grades between employed and non-employed students, but hours worked had a direct negative linear effect on the grades of employed students. Subsequent analysis suggested that employed students might have had significantly higher grades than the non-employed subsample if they had not worked. Mediating and moderating effects on the relationship between hours worked and academic performance were identified, and a model of the work–achievement relationship developed. Universities could do more to accommodate the reality of part-time work by their students.     

The development of peer networks and academic performance in learning communities in higher education

In learning communities, students share their knowledge which might contribute to academic performance. This study disentangles peer selection from influence processes in modelling first-year students’ academic performance after the transition to university. Longitudinal peer network data were obtained from 95 bachelor students at two time points in a social sciences study programme with eight learning communities. Using co-evolution modelling in RSiena, we found that students help each other more often when they are already friends and students who help each other academically are more likely to become friends. The higher a student performs, the more often the student is selected as a friend or as an academic helper and the more often this higher-performing student initiates friendship and academic help relationships. Although learning communities are often implemented to enhance academic performance, we did not find evidence that peer relationships in learning communities influence academic performance.     

高职院校学生管理工作中存在的问题与对策

目前,高职院校学生管理工作尚未能很好适应高职大学生的管理要求,存在着思想政治教育与学生管理工作脱节,职业规划、就业指导与学生管理工作结合不到位,学生网络思想政治教育与学生管理工作未形成合力,学生自我管理机制不够完善等问题。要解决这些问题,需要高职院校从切实提高思想政治教育课教师的积极性、加强学生工作队伍的专业素养提升、深化职业规划和就业指导在学生管理工作的渗透、完善学生网络管理和教育与学生管理的工作机制、重视发挥学生自我教育、自我管理、自我服务的作用等方面入手,提升高职院校学生教育管理效率,推动高职院校学生管理工作更科学、更健康、更深入地开展。     

The Relationship between Students' Achievement and their Self-perception of Competence and Rigour of Mathematics and Science: A cross-national analysis

This study applies theory linking students' self-perceived competence with academic achievement, using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Within-country data generally show a positive relationship between student achievement and self-perceived competence in mathematics and science. However, when one examines this relationship between countries, the opposite relationship occurs, i.e. countries with higher student self-evaluations usually performed poorly on the TIMSS tests and vice versa. Similarly, countries with a high proportion of students perceiving the subjects as being easy performed poorly on the TIMSS tests and vice versa. This pattern exists for both mathematics and science at grades 3, 4, 7 and 8. The authors suggest that this pattern may reflect low academic expectations and standards in low performing countries and high academic expectations and standards in high performing countries.     

From ‘financial considerations’ to ‘poverty’: towards a reconceptualisation of the role of finances in higher education student drop out

While the role of financial considerations in higher education student dropout is being recognized increasingly, the dominant international literature fails to reflect the extent of socio-economic deprivation among students in countries where many people live below the poverty datum line. This article draws on a study of student retention and graduate destination at seven HE institutions in South Africa, focusing on the University of the Western Cape which caters for a large proportion of impoverished students. The study found many students left before completing a qualification because they were too poor to stay. A model of student departure is presented which draws on the very influential work of Vincent Tinto but also allows for greater emphasis than he did on students’ ability to pay (real or perceptual) and demarcates the times in the academic calendar when finances present their greatest challenge to retention. The model also invites consideration of the national and international factors which impact on the social/economic/political milieu in which students’ persist-or-depart decisions are made.