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Original poster

1990s/2000s working while at uni?

209 replies

Sleepeatcrochetrepeat · 15/09/2025 17:22

Eldest niece has just gone off to uni, and the cost of it all really does seem astronomical now. DBIL was saying how they are planning to cut down on holidays, spending etc to fund her on top of loans. I made the mistake of saying oh, she can always get a part time job just like I did when I was a student. It turns out that none of DH family or their partners worked while at uni, parents all paid.
I know this was before tuition fees came in (for me at least) but most people I knew at uni also had a weekend or evening job.

DH and his siblings all went to RG uni’s and apparently couldn’t possibly have worked as well, due to all the sports clubs they were in.

I am now being looked down on because I ‘obviously’ don’t get it.
Surely students working alongside studying is hardly weird?! Even more so now given the cost.

If you were at uni in the late 90s/early 00s, did you also work? Make me feel less of a freak…

OP posts:
bapples1 · 15/09/2025 17:33

Lots of people saying they only worked during holidays, it's so much harder to get those holiday only jobs now.

TimetoGetUpNow · 15/09/2025 17:33

Easily to mid 90s for me. I worked in the summer holidays but not in term time. None of my friends did. Some people I knew worked in the student bars but that was it. Had no fees and I had a full grant. Working all the summer holidays was enough for the extra money I needed.

MrsMoastyToasty · 15/09/2025 17:33

I didn't go to university but I was working in a university city at the time and many of my colleagues were students on part-time contracts. There was always work for them and it was a 24/7 business so the employer liked people who could work outside normal office hours. It was also next door to the main campus.

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Higher education
chipsandpeas · 15/09/2025 17:33

i worked while at uni from 95-2000 done a stint in mcdonalds then a mobile phone shop

bapples1 · 15/09/2025 17:34

My medical student friends didn't work at all.

Lovelynames123 · 15/09/2025 17:35

A few of us definitely had jobs in maybe year 2 and 3, not so much in first year. I worked in a pub on campus, but also had a full time job in a hotel at home in the holidays. Those who didn't work in term time definitely did in the holidays! Although tbh I've had some sort of job since I was 13 and I don't think that's the norm these days either (my 13yo is working though!)

OctopusFriend · 15/09/2025 17:36

ShanghaiDiva · 15/09/2025 17:32

I had a full grant back in the 1980s and it was extremely rare for anyone to work during term time. I don’t know anyone who did. I did work in the holidays and saved the money to supplement my grant.
my DCs only work in the university holidays.

I was on the minimum grant then and my parents didn't top it up. I worked all through uni with a part time job, full time in the holidays. Same for the others in my situation.

GiddyDog · 15/09/2025 17:36

Yeah, in Starbucks and bartending a nightclub. Most of my colleagues in both were also students.

Keepingittogetherstepbystep · 15/09/2025 17:36

I went to uni in 1997 last year of maintenance grants. It was about £3k a year and another £1k of loans. Had no choice but to work as rent was £80 a week.

I did some really crappy jobs via an agency. Potato grading was the worst job ever, 8 hours of pulling odd shaped potatoes off the conveyer belt.

Roserunner · 15/09/2025 17:36

I went to uni in the early 2000s and I had a part time job and so did all of my friends. One actually worked full time hours as her parents earned too much on paper for her to qualify for full loans but didn't have enough to help her pay for it.

WhenIAmKing · 15/09/2025 17:36

I was at oxbridge and technically we weren’t allowed to work during term time (terms are very short and the workload is heavy). Some people still did. Most people worked during the long holidays and saved up, I certainly did. I think I would have looked down on anybody who didn’t bother to get an actual job (both for independence and work experience) during their degree.

Bloodyscarymary · 15/09/2025 17:37

I had a job as a receptionist, essentially full time but they would let me duck out to lectures which I barely managed. I definitely would have done better at uni had I not worked but didn’t get financial support from family.

SidNut · 15/09/2025 17:38

I worked in uni until my final year. I was doing teacher training too, so sometimes working full time teaching in the week on placement and then 16 hours at a weekend too. 2008.

Woompund · 15/09/2025 17:39

Yes, but quite a few people in my friend group didn't, they were funded by parents and loans. You could live on a student loan and a few £1000 a year back then - my parents didn't have a few £1000 to give me but seemingly plenty did. I don't see why students wouldn't get a job though - certainly for my course we weren't in university that much of the time.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 15/09/2025 17:39

Yes, from second year until graduation part time although I did have a year abroad. Worked there informally as well!

CMOTDibbler · 15/09/2025 17:40

I was at uni at the start of the 90’s and I can’t think of anyone who worked in term time. I worked full time for the whole of all the holidays

DJSteves · 15/09/2025 17:40

Worked in Boots during my undergrad and in a hotel function suite during my Postgrad. Everyone I knew had a part time job. 1995-2000

Ereshkigalangcleg · 15/09/2025 17:40

And my course was much more full time than many of my peers who were more like your DH.

IlFestivaldelGelato · 15/09/2025 17:40

I went to a RG university early-mid 2000s and had a term-time job as a waitress at university and a full-time job back home in the holidays. My husband even had 2 term-time jobs, so was working pretty much full time on top of a demanding course. We had no choice as the student loan didn’t cover anywhere near the basic living costs and we had no parental financial support. Thankfully my holiday job was reasonably well paid!

The university was quite popular with wealthy students so we were probably in the minority there, but most of my friends from home had part-time jobs alongside their studies.

I suspect it might be harder to get term-time jobs these days, as there was a lot of casual work back in the day.

Comedycook · 15/09/2025 17:40

I worked in the holidays doing temp office work...but not during term time. I had a uni boyfriend and he worked in a bar in the evenings. Most people I knew didn't work during term time but tried to get work in the holidays

ToraMama · 15/09/2025 17:41

I worked part time while also juggling a toddler as a single mum.

recreatingthephoto · 15/09/2025 17:41

I studied dentistry in the mid 90’s and couldn’t possibly have managed a job during term time. From our second year onwards we were in clinics pretty much 9-5 every day actually working. It was a tough slog. Add to that the studying/exams etc there really wouldn’t have been time. We also had reduced summer holidays as well ( yup, back in the dental hospital gaining clinical experience ) so it was impossible to get a summer job unless you could persuade someone to hire you for a short few weeks. We were the paid ushers for the uni graduations, and I’d occasionally do a bit of babysitting but it was really tricky

Ereshkigalangcleg · 15/09/2025 17:41

LividYosemite · 15/09/2025 17:29

Late 90s/early 2000s.

25 hours a week at Blockbuster 🍿

Russell Group. First in family to uni. No parental financial support at all. Tell a lie, mum bought me a set of saucepans before I went. I bought literally everything else I needed from the shop job I had in my A Levels. Didn't occur to me at the time that it wasn't actually a level playing field and that others were getting money from home.

Edited

Similar here, and similar hours.

Squirrelsnut · 15/09/2025 17:42

Graduated 1994, had part time jobs from age 16 continuously.

CapriceDeDieux · 15/09/2025 17:42

91-96 worked all the way through and every holiday for BA and MA and voluntered - which helped massively in career. Actually got told at the end of my MA I had worked too much, which was a bit harsh as I needed to eat, but like Oxford and Cambridge term time working was frowned upon then as now.

DD has had a job through her degree (just graduated) - doing bits of childcare - so less than a day a week, but it paid for her food. She has worked each summer and raised enough for holidays and most of what was needed beyond her loan. We have helped a bit, but couldn't really afford much.

OTH my brother at Univ in 2015 never had to get a job in term time or summer and parents covered everything.