1990s/2000s working while at uni?

[Sleepeatcrochetrepeat]

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…

I was at uni from 1998 to 2002. Didn't work during term time as I was doing science and it was 9-5 every day plus substantial homework. I did absolutely work like a dog during holidays though, sometimes up to 60 hours per week at 2-3 jobs at one time. Friends at uni doing arts degrees sometimes picked up a bit of work during term time but on the whole people studying pretty hard.

I worked every holiday (mid 90’s), usually to pay off my overdraft

I was a postgrad during the 1990s and I did work part time tutoring at the same uni. While doing my masters I also taught at an FE college, and that work provided the data for my studies (human cmputer intereaction). I worked for the whole of my first degree, usually in a call center of some kind doing sales or market research. The only time I didnt work was the last 3 months before my first degree finals when I concentrated on revision because I needed a 1st.

Working while studying isnt just for the income - although that undoubtedly comes in useful. It shows that you are able to manage your time and teaches responsibility and life skills. It can also provide some useful references. The type of experience does not matter greatly. Most students work in hospitality or retail which requires communication skills and teamwork. When graduands begin their job search many employers are more empressed if they have some work experience. As an employer I would always prefer applicants who worked rather than those who sat on their ass and let mummy and daddy pay for everything.

I’m in Ireland…it’s totally the norm to work part time and during the summer here! Always was when I was in uni 20 years ago and all my nieces, cousins etc still work.

A knew quite a few girls who worked at the strip club as it was les hours for more money. I felt lucky i never got anywhere near that desperate!

Yes I was at uni around 1997-2000 and worked in bars and nightclubs. It wasn’t unusual at all for me and my friends?

I went in 1996 and worked at Pizza Hut the whole way through. I worked at the one near my uni during term time and the one at home during the holidays.

1998-2002, I worked 20 hours a week in retail during term time, and through the holidays if I could get something.
There was no money to give me, so the options were work or come home. I wasn’t going to go home.

I was at a RG uni in the mid nineties. With the semester system and longer Christmas and Easter breaks factored in, it meant I worked full-time for 5 months a year and attended uni for the other 7. I had to work; I was one of those kids who would now get a contextualised offer but back then I was definitely an outlier at a 'posh' uni, and people were always surprised that I took a year out between school and uni to work for a year and earn some money first.

A real mix, as expected! Not unusual to work though, which is what I thought.

The only reason I said about DN getting a job was because DBIL was complaining about only 1 foreign holiday a year now. He gets on my last nerve at the best of times, this just highlighted the differences between us yet again.

I was the first to go to uni, from a very working class family, no grant but DPs couldn’t afford to pay much. Not working would have been viewed very badly. I was pretty frugal and only worked Saturdays, I still had loads of time for socialising, studying etc.

I can appreciate that there isn’t the casual work out there now like there was when I was a student. Not a reason to be looked down on for though.

I was at uni 2003-09. We weren't allowed to work in term time, but I had a job every summer holiday and some Christmases.

Late 90s and yes, from term 1, all the way through, and so did all my housemates. Local cafe, soho bar, ticket sales, retail, restaurant kitchens. All sorts. I got a small grant, plus loans and I paid my own rent. No parent top ups at all.
It’s really hard to get a part time job now though, then it was easy. Also easy to get holiday temping although I worked in my industry in the summers (don’t think they would even pay for that now as it would be classed as “ work experience” and only done by rich kids.
Much better time to be a young un sadly.

I worked all through uni. Primarily babysitting and in a shop for a while. Not UK for part but worked while in the UK and while doing my masters. Graduated top of my class with high honors not UK. RG unis. Worked up to 30 hours/week and also played 1-2 sports year round.

Coming from not in the UK, I found it a little bit pathetic how UK students seem unable to work and juggle course work. Where I grew up, virtually everyone worked during secondary school, played sports, were in clubs etc. All of my friends went to good unis (think Ivy League or similar). We grew up in a very affluent area so work was more parents wanting us to have good work ethic than economic necessity. Having gone to a UK uni, unless you’re doing a lab intensive science or engineering, I am unclear why students can’t manage to work at least a few hours a week.

I will say now in the working world, I am honestly baffled at some of my younger colleagues inability to juggle their workload and have often wondered if dealing with so much through school is why it feels like a breeze…

I worked all the way through. I’d have had to drop out if I didn’t as my parents couldn’t afford any financial support at all.

1990s RG university. Worked 2 jobs in holidays and worked weekends during term. Except during year abroad when I only worked during holidays.

I had two part time jobs for my first two years and then in my final year I stupidly took on a full time job because I was bored of studying and wanted more money 🤣 That was a tough year!! Managed it though! Although my degree was English Literature and it was nowhere near as labour intensive as some of my friends degrees, I think my actual contact time was about 4 hours a week, the rest was home studying which I crammed in the evenings after work. I actually moved back home and lived 100 miles away from my university in my last year. Looking back, I was an idiot really 🤣

I went in 1997 and worked full time all through the holidays with bits and pieces in term time - we had a really good job board in the students union. It was a bit of a culture shock when I queued up in the bank to pay my battels about three weeks in and the person in front was on the phone to their father casually arranging for him to pay off their £2000+ overdraft, all spent during Freshers week (yes I was shamelessly listening in). I'd never met someone my age with a mobile either. Almost 30 years on I still remember it vividly!

I had a full grant, did a lot of sports, studied the hardest of the hard sciences at one of the reliably top 3 universities in the UK and worked in the union bar.

2002 fresher. I worked so did everyone else in my house share/ friendship group.

DD and DS both work whilst at uni at the moment.

Although DD is the only one who does in her non RG house share. Which really surprised me. It’s good for work experience and CV and I encourage it.

I was at Cambridge in the early 2000s. We weren't allowed to work in term time, but the terms were so short and so busy that there really wasn't time anyway. I did do a few hours a week in the theatre bar though. I worked full time in the holidays, which were long.

Looking at my immediate family...
I went in 1990, didn't work, nor did either of my brothers. My brothers were at unis with a higher than average proportion of privately educated (rich) kids, where working was not normal. We were rich kids, so didn't need to, but also, my subject was a full time all day contact type of course, including some night times in later years. DH didn't work because he had a military cadetship which funded him.

DS doesn't need to work, because we are fully funding him, but he has chosen to because he is at a uni where most students do and he is one of the very few rich kids. He wants to fit in.

Yep, I always had a part time job through sixth form and then uni as did many of my friends (apart from the v rich ones, or the ones doing full-on courses like medicine)! Probably did something along the lines of 12 hours a week at uni, over one weekend day and then one evening. I got a full grant, (which by the late 90s was not very much) but literally no support from my parents, other than a very occasional £50 if I was absolutely on the bones of my arse, so I needed to work! I went to a RG uni (wasn’t known as that then, mind you). I look back now, and sort of can’t believe in some respects that I didn’t have any support, but my parents didn’t have much money, and I’d always had Saturday and holiday jobs, so why wouldn’t I continue that?

My teenage DD now has a part time job, in a local cafe, despite us being fairly comfortably off. I know part time jobs are harder to come by, but they do exist and quite a few of DD’s friends now have a weekend job.

I didn’t work at all during term time (before tuition fees were a thing) but always worked in the holidays . Middle son is at university in the Netherlands and whilst cheaper than UK he has to work to pay for his living costs . No student loans available so we are funding (with help from grandparent)

A very few people worked during the term, none of the richer kids in the nicest accommodation worked. It varied during the summer from travelling all summer to working about half/two thirds of it.

I had three jobs. Early 2000s.
Part time at a lettings agent. Part time at a band agency and part time at a pub.
I actually bought a flat with my income as it was 100 percent mortgage times and my flat was 80k. So i was paying my own mortgage and bills. I traveled in the summer. Did the whole thailand austrailia route between 2nd and 3rd year. Paid for by myself.
I got a high 2.1. Was on track for a first but in the last year I went out a bit too much and got marked down for late hand ins. Which didnt affect my job prospects at all tbh.
I did business as my degree. I think some degrees are actually tougher. Law and Medicine I think would require some more dedication to study as there is a lot more rote learning and its more book heavy. But I would think most degrees can be completed with a part time job alongside.