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IMPACT OF PART-TIME JOB ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A CASE OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
(IMPAK KERJA SEMBILAN TERHADAP PENCAPAIAN AKADEMIK:
KAJIAN KES PELAJAR UNIVERSITI)
1Ch’ng Hui Sze
2Goo Xin Rong
3Rosshairy Abd. Rahman, Ph.D
4Ku Hushaini Ku Aris
1-3School of Quantitative Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia
3Institute of Strategic Industrial Decision Modelling (ISIDM), Universiti Utara Malaysia.
4Kolej Matrikulasi Kedah, Kedah, Malaysia
1 Corresponding author:[email protected]
ABSTRACT
Part-time work refers to flexible work arrangement with working hours less than full- time hours. Recently, the number of university students taking up part-time jobs has escalated due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as classes are conducted via online platform. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of part-time jobs on the academic performance of undergraduates in a public university located in the Northern Region of Malaysia. The data was gathered by using a questionnaire via Google Form, from 379 undergraduates in the university. Descriptive analysis such as percentage and Chi-square (𝑥2) test were conducted to achieve the objective of this study. The result of 𝑥2 test was 2.0726 with the p-value of 0.5575. Since p-value > α, null hypothesis was unable to be rejected. The findings indicated that the academic performance of the respondents was unaffected regardless of part-time job. In fact, part-time jobs were sought mainly to gain experience and to enhance students’
personal skills. Therefore, this research can be as an indicator to any undergraduates who are interested on doing part-time jobs, provided they are able to fulfil university requirements.
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Keywords: Part-time job, academic performance, undergraduate students, CGPA, motives.
ABSTRAK
Kerja sambilan merujuk kepada penyusunan kerja yang fleksibel dengan waktu bekerja kurang daripada waktu bekerja sepenuh masa. Kebelakangan ini, bilangan pelajar universiti yang mengambil kerja sambilan telah meningkat disebabkan oleh wabak Corona Virus (COVID-19) kerana kelas dijalankan melalui platform atas talian. Oleh itu, kajian ini menyiasat kesan kerja sambilan terhadap prestasi akademik pelajar sarjana muda di universiti awam yang terletak di Wilayah Utara Malaysia. Data yang dikumpul dengan menggunakan borang soal-selidik melalui Google Form, dikumpulkan di antara 379 pelajar sarjanamuda di universiti tersebut.
Analisis deskriptif seperti peratusan dan ujian Chi-square (𝑥2) telah dijalankan untuk mencapai objektif kajian ini. Keputusan kajian dari ujian 𝑥2 ialah 2.0726 dengan nilai-p 0.5575. Disebabkan nilai-p > α, hipotesis nol tidak berjaya di tolak.
Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa prestasi akademik responden tidak terjejas tanpa mengira pekerjaan sambilan. Malah, kebanyakan responden mendakwa bahawa kerja sambilan dicari terutamanya untuk menimba pengalaman dan meningkatkan kemahiran peribadi mereka. Maka, kajian ini boleh menjadi petunjuk kepada pelajar yang berminat dalam melakukan kerja-kerja sambilan, dengan syarat mereka mampu memenuhi keperluan universiti.
Kata kunci: Kerja sambilan, prestasi akademik, pelajar sarjana muda, PNGK, motif.
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INTRODUCTION
Part-time work, also known as part-time employment, is a flexible work arrangement with working hours less than full-time hours. Working less than 30 hours a week is commonly considered as part-time. Meanwhile, full-time workers work for 40 hours a week on average (Woodhouse, 2017). Academic achievement and assessment test results have always been linked to students’ intelligence quotient (IQ), while dismissing other personality traits (Noemy, 2017). To date, it is crucial to understand the factors that influence students' academic performance. Academic performance is the result obtained from learning process based on assessment and test evaluation.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of university students taking up part-time job after class. Students typically seek part-time jobs at canteens, perform direct sale, or become an insurance agent. Gil (2014) reported that 59% of 2,128 students doing part-time with the intention to pay for their education fees. Besides, 45% of students had a part-time job, with most of them doing it during the school year. Due to financial problems, most students worked, in which 58% of the respondents spent money on socialising while 55% spent their wage on food and household bills.
The increase in university student jobs can be attributed to a variety of factors. They earn money to cover basic necessities or associated costs; relieve the financial burden of parents; strengthen network with managers, workers, and consumers; earn work experience and practical skills; promote a particular lifestyle or as a reaction to peer influence; as well as socialise and meet people (Tessema, 2014).
Some students want to gain work skills and experience from their jobs, while others believe that working part-time will divert their attention away from their studies and can lead to poor academic performance. The effect of part-time work on students' academic performance is determined by the balance between work and study
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(Ali, 2007). Students must understand the extent to which work can help them learn new skills while remain unaffected by their academic performance, which is often measured as Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). They should find the balance between the number of hours of work and the time needed to study in order to gain high CGPA.
Problem Statement
Part-time job for students is a frequent phenomenon nowadays. Students who have time to study do well in their exams, perform better academically, compared to their non-working counterparts students. However, some students may become tired after work, thus reducing their study time. Finding a balance between part-time jobs and assignments is extremely difficult. Some students consider assessments as challenging to complete and they end up skipping classes. In most cases, students who work part-time have poor academic performance, but in recent years, students who work part-time have been able to maintain good academic performance. For instance, online classes conducted during pandemic Covid-19 resulted in an increased number of students having part-time job. This can be seen with the increment in the number of students whom unable to attend class or submit assignment their assignments on time. Hence, the issue of part-time students ability to secure high academic achievement is discussed in this study.
Research Objectives
The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of part-time jobs on the academic performance of undergraduate students. Thus, to achieve this objective, there are three specific objectives to achieve as follows:
i. To find out how many undergraduate students in the University are doing part time job.
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ii. To determine the average working hours spent by undergraduate students for part time jobs in a week.
iii. To investigate whether there is any relationship between the working status of undergraduate students in part time job and current GPA.
Research Questions
i. How many undergraduate students are doing part-time job?
ii. How many working hours does each undergraduate student spend in a week?
iii. Is there a relationship between undergraduate students with or without a part- time job and their GPA score?
Research Hypothesis
H1: There is a relationship between undergraduate students with or without a part- time job and their GPA score.
Research Scope
This research involved undergraduate students from a public university located in the Northern Region of Malaysia aged between 19 to 23 years.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A study by Muluk (2017) revealed that university students who worked more than 15 hours per week had poor academic performances, had lower attention span on academic, and faced issues completing assignments. This eventually led the students to drop out of school and are less likely to pursue tertiary level education. On the contrary, some studies reported that the academic performance of part-time students was unaffected, as they could still achieve good academic achievement (Santoso, 2020; Rijavec et al., 2017; Andemariam, 2015). According to Rijavec et al. (2017),
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in terms of academic achievement (CGPA), there was no difference between non- working and working students. Working students did not experience any negative effect from their part-time employment. Having a part-time work was not linked with poor academic results. Andemariam (2015) also established that student employment had a beneficial impact on CGPA, as working students had slightly better CGPA than those who did not work. Furthermore, self-management can help students in reserving time so that they can complete their assessments, as well as maintain a balance between part-time job and academic work. Many students had a study schedule and practised good time management to divide their time for study and work. In fact, Maquiling (2018) claimed that there are some advantages when students have a part- time job. Students may develop personal skills, such as teamwork, time management, and communication skills, which are beneficial for their future personal development.
METHODOLOGY
This study investigated the number of undergraduates students doing part-time jobs, the average working hours in a week, as well as the relationship between undergraduate students with or without a part-time job and their GPA score. Research activities were adopted, namely: problem definition, data collection, data analysis, as well as results and discussion. Table 1 represented the research design with lists of the phases and techniques implemented in each phase of the research activities.
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Table 1
Phases of the Research Activities
Phase Techniques
Phase 1: Problem Definition 1. Observation 2. Review of literature Phase 2: Data Collection
1. Identify population and sample
2. Design questionnaire and perform pilot study 3. Collect data using Google Form
Phase 3: Data Analysis
1. Data Cleaning 2. Descriptive Analysis 3. Chi-square Test
Phase 4: Results and Discussion The results are discussed, interpreted, and concluded
In phase 1, was conducted using observation and review of literature. Then, data collection was conducted by identifying the population and the sample. Next, the questionnaire was designed and a pilot study was conducted and finally, data was collected using Google form. Then in phase 3, data was analysed by the following these three steps. First, data cleaning. Second, descriptive analysis and third, Chi- square test. Finally, in phase 4, the results were discussed, interpreted and concluded.
Population and Sample
As the total population of undergraduates in public universities across the Northern Region of Malaysia is 23,907 students, a sample of 379 students were selected for this study using the voluntary sampling method. Since this study is related to part- time work, therefore, all respondents in this study answered the questionnaire on voluntary basis with no compulsion.
Data Collection
Primary data used in this study, in which original thoughts of the respondents were gathered using questionnaire. The questionnaire used in this study was designed to meet the research goals by referring to previous studies. Pilot study was implemented on 30 respondents to ensure that the questionnaire was indeed relevant and suitable
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for this study. The final questionnaire was disseminated to potential respondents via Facebook and WhatsApp, within 3 weeks via Google Form.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire used in this study is consists 18 questions in five sections. Section A is on demographic information of the respondents. Section B determined if the respondents had a part-time job or otherwise. Sections C and D sought details of the respondents’ part-time job and their academic performance. Lastly, Section E captured the advantages reaped by the respondents by having a part-time job while studying. Sections B and D looked into the possibility of students with part-time job achieving good academic performance. Some minor revisions were made according to the feedback and outcome pilot study to ascertain content validity.
Section A: Demographic Information
The questions listed in the questionnaire were in the form of multiple-choice questions, whereby the respondents were required to choose only one answer for each question. Gender, race, religion, semester and college are the questions listed in this section.
Section B: Situation
The status of undergraduates with (Yes) or without (No) a part-time job was determined in this section. Multiple-choice questions with only one answer were used here.
Section C: Part-time Job
The number and the type of part-time jobs, as well as the average working hours in a week, were identified in this section. All the questions were in multiple-choice form which required one answer, except for the ‘type of part-time job’ where more than one answer may be selected.
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Section D: Academic Performance
The current GPA of the respondents and their average study hours in a week were determined in this section. Five multiple-choice questions were presented, with each just one correct answer.
Section E: Motives of Doing Part-time Job while Studying
The reasons for taking up a part-time job while studying was identified in this section based on five-point Likert Scale (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree). In total, this section contains a total of five questions for the said purpose.
Data Analysis
Pre-data analysis was performed to ensure that the data were indeed clean and ready to be analysed. Next, descriptive statistics and Chi-square Test were conducted to analyse the filtered data. Data gathered via Google Form were saved in .csv file that could be viewed and analysed in Microsoft Excel. The descriptive analysis method was deployed to assess the demographic details of the respondents (to meet objectives one and two of this study). Next, Chi-square Test was applied to determine the relationship between dependent and independent variables because the variables used were categorical, ordinal, and non-parametric. The independent variable refers to the status of undergraduates with or without a part-time job, while the dependent variable is their GPA score. Besides, the Chi-square Test was used to assess the hypothesis formulated for this study; to determine if it is possible for students with a part-time job to obtain good academic performance.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The total number of undergraduates who participated in this study was 379 students, with 69.92% (n = 265) females and 30.08% (n = 114) males. The respondents were Malays (46.97%) and Chinese (42.22%). The questionnaire was completed mostly by
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Semester 6 undergraduates (n = 217 respondents, 57.26%). Most of the respondents were from college B (49.08%), followed by colleges A (39.05%) and C (11.87%).
Table 4 displays the demographic information of the respondents.
Table 2
Demographic Information of the Respondents
Demographic Information Frequency Percentage (%)
Gender Male 114 30.08
Female 265 69.92
Race Malay 178 46.97
Indian 33 8.71
Chinese 160 42.22
Others 8 2.11
Religion Muslim 186 49.08
Hindu 32 8.44
Buddhist 140 36.94
Christian 20 5.28
Others 1 0.26
Semester 1 0 0
2 37 9.76
3 14 3.69
4 54 14.25
5 31 8.18
6 217 57.26
7 16 4.22
8 10 2.64
College A 186 49.08
B 148 39.05
C 45 11.87
In addressing objective 1 of this study (total undergraduates with a part-time job), it was found that 61.74% (n =234) of the respondents had no part-time job,
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whereas 38.26% (145) had a part-time job while studying. Therefore, Objective one is achieved. Figure 1 illustrates the working status of the undergraduates.
Figure 1
The Working Status of Undergraduates
Next, objective 2 of this study sought the average working hours of undergraduates in a week. Figure 2 displays the summary for the average working hours of undergraduates in a week. Apparently, the highest average working hours of undergraduates in a week is 30-39 hours (n = 43, 30%), followed by 20-29 hours (28%), and 1-9 hours (16%). Besides, two undergraduates had more working hours;
54 and 51 hours per week.
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Figure 2
The Average Working Hours of Students in a Week
Next, the Chi-Square test was employed to achieve the main objective of this study. Table 3 shows the observed frequency (fₒ) of the status of undergraduates and their GPA score, whereas Table 4 shows the expected frequency (fₑ) of the status of undergraduates and their GPA score. Next, Table 5 presents the results derived from the Chi-Square test. The hypothesis testing (H₁) based on Chi-square test related to the link between status of undergraduates and their GPA score appeared to be dependent. The result of Chi-square test (𝑥2) is 2.0726 and the level of significance (α) is 0.05. Besides, the degree of freedom (df) is 3, the critical value (cv) is 7.8147, and the p-value is 0.5575. Since 𝑥2 < critical value and p-value > α, we failed to reject Hₒ. In conclusion, the status of undergraduates with or without a part-time job and their GPA score is independent and unrelated to each other. Hence, there is no relationship between the status of undergraduates in terms of having a part-time job and their GPA score. As such, Objective 3 of this study is met.
1-9, 16%
10-19, 14%
20-29, 28%
30-39, 30%
40-49, 11%
Others, 1%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
1-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 Others
WORKING HOURS IN A WEEK
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Table 3
The Observed Frequency (fₒ)
Observed (fₒ) 2.00-2.49 2.50-2.99 3.00-3.49 3.50-4.00 Total Without part-
time job
3 16 86 129 234
With part-time job
2 11 63 69 145
Total 5 27 149 198 379
Table 4
The Expected Frequency (fₑ)
Expected (fₑ) 2.00-2.49 2.50-2.99 3.00-3.49 3.50-4.00 Total
Without part-time job 3.09 16.67 91.99 122.25 234
With part-time job 1.91 10.33 57.01 75.75 145
Total 5 27 149 198 379
Table 5
The Calculation of Chi-square Test
Chi-square 2.00-2.49 2.50-2.99 3.00-3.49 3.50-4.00 Total Without part-time job 0.0025 0.0269 0.3906 0.3729 0.7930 With part-time job 0.0040 0.0435 0.6304 0.6018 1.2797
Total 2.0726
Finally, the reasons for taking up a part-time job were determined. Table 6 lists the questions on the reasons for undergraduates having a part-time job, while Figure 3 displays the related responses obtained from the respondents. The result shows, most respondents strongly agreed with reasons 2 (44%) and 4 (50%), respectively; taking up part-time jobs to gain personal skill and experience. In fact, these reasons 2 and 4 also received high percentage of agreement with 43% and 36%, respectively. This results in reasons 2 become the highest total of agreement that contributed to 87%, while reason 4 contributed to 86%. Besides, the total of 72% and 58% respondents agreed with reasons 1 and 3, respectively; claiming that having a part-time job can cover their living expenses at the university and expand their social
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network. Lastly, 46 respondents selected reason 5 in neutral condition; and 51%
agreed that the wage they received from their part-time job can help their parents to lower their financial burden. Hence, a significant number of undergraduates were motivated to gain personal skills and experience via part-time employment.
Table 6
Reasons Undergraduates to Take Up Part-time Job M1: I work to cover my living costs in the university.
M2: I work to gain personal skill.
M3: I work to expand my social network.
M4: I work to gain experience.
M5: I work to help my parents lower their financial burden.
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Figure 3
The Responses on the Reasons Undergraduates have Part-time Job
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
Undergraduates nowadays are not regular students who attend lectures and other academic matters, but undergratduates choose to work since they need earn some money. As a result, 145 out of 379 undegraduates sought part-time jobs. Most of them spend an average of 30-39 hours each week on their job. They also do online sales, while becoming part-time promoters and insurance agents.
In order to achieve the main objective, Chi-square test was deployed performed to assess the academic performance (CGPA) of the working undergraduates. Based results, no link is identified between undergraduates’ working status and their academic performance. This result answers objective 3. It was also found that working undergraduates usually devoted 21-30 hours per week to their studies, such as studying for exams, completing assessments, and attending classes.
Besides, a majority of the undergraduates strongly agreed on the importance of
3,
2% 0,
0%
0, 0%
0, 0%
2, 1%
16, 11%
0, 0%
3,
2% 2,
1%
22, 15%
42, 29%
19, 13%
37, 26%
19, 13%
46, 32%
48, 33%
62,
43% 57,
39% 52,
36%
34, 23%
36, 25%
64, 44%
48, 33%
72, 50%
41, 28%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5
Reasons of Students having Part Time job
Stongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Stongly agree
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developing personal skills and gaining experience. The study findings concludes that part-time job does not affect undergraduates’ academic performance.
To better understand the effect of part-time job on academic performance, future researchers should conduct an in-depth discussion on the issue. It is important to illustrate the need for further study and its preceding variables. Moreover, other research methods, such as interviews and case studies, may be employed to verify the outcomes reported in this study. The mixed method approach using both qualitative and quantitative techniques may contribute to richer data. Qualitative data, such as from interviews, offer more information about the topic area.
REFERENCES
Ali, E. (2017). Impact of part time work on the academic performance of international students. Journal of International Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship, 2(1), 17-22.
Andemariam, K. (2015). Work participation and academic achievement. European Journal Of Business And Social Sciences, 3(11), 15-32.
Gil, N. (2014, August 11). One in seven students work full-time while they study.The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/aug/11/students- work-part-time-employability.
Maquiling, A. P. (2018). Working students: Their benefits, challenges and coping mechanisms. Social Science and Humanities Journal, 2 (3), 358-369.
Muluk, S. (2017). Part-time job and students’ academic achievement. Jurnal Ilmiah Peuradeun, 5 (3), 361-372.
Noemy, M. S. (2017). Exploring academic performance: Looking beyond. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 5(7), 1105-1112.
Rijavec, M., Golub, T. L., Jurčec, L., & Olčar, D. (2017). Working part-time during studies: The role of flow in students’ well-being and academic achievement.
Croatian Journal of Education, 19 (3), 157-175.
Santoso, P. B. (2020). Working while studying at university in the self-management . International Journal of Control and Automation, 13 (2), 299-308.
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Tessema, M. T. (2014). Does part-time job affect college students’ satisfaction and academic. International Journal of Business Administration, 5(2), 1-10.
Woodhouse, A. (2017, October 27). What is a part-time job?. Retrieved from https://www.kashflow.com/try-hr/
