Part time job during university years

[Silverfoxlady]

Hi all,

My daughter is looking to go to university next year for maths. My DH gets a good wage but we have lots of children (5DCs) so this doesn’t mean much for day to day spends.

She currently has a part-time retail job, and we are hoping that she can carry on while she is at university to cover her food and spends (around £400 a month minimum).

We both worked when we were students ourselves (a long time ago), but all the university students we talked to said it wasn’t advised. We are very perplexed, as we couldn’t have gone ourselves if we didn’t work.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Do your children work while at university?

We have another DC starting the year after, and so this is a tough problem. I might have to get a second job at the weekend while DH looks after our toddler.

Would love to hear anyone’s opinions.

I did a STEM degree a million years ago and pretty much everyone worked despite high contact hours. More recently (10 years ago) I did a healthcare degree - high contact hours plus placements - about 2/3 people worked alongside it. Dc has 2 flatmates who are medical students (4th years) one works, one doesn’t. Friends dd is doing maths at Bath - she works.

DC’s worked in events (Hydro/SEC). Brilliant job, paid and saw many amazing shows.
Another worked at The Kings Theatre, again paid and great shows.

One was a steward at the football and later a host in the VIP area at Wembley.

I worked at uni but it was a humanities degree that didn’t have that many contact hours.

My dd is studying medicine and that’s a whole different ballgame.

My 3 have all worked hard during the summer (plus causal work at Xmas and Easter breaks) to avoid working during term time. They've all managed to save about £4-5k from jobs. Nearly all the jobs have come from word of mouth and working contacts (i.e. make it known at the rugby club that they're looking for work or asking directly at activity centres, bars, restaurants, etc if they need anyone).

mine worked

They had £50 a week for food. Anything else they had their own money.

Most unis are 2 days a week at most.