Students working too hard to pass exams

Published on Wednesday 10 June 2009 22:02

STUDENTS are putting their studies at risk because they are spending too much time working in part-time jobs, according to one Scottish university.

Senior academics at Abertay believe 80 per cent of its students have to work to survive and are calling for more aid, especially for the poorest.

The Dundee-based university was responding to a Scottish Government consultation on how an extra 30 million being made available for higher education support in 2010-11 should be spent.

The SNP administration wants to replace student loans with means-tested grants.

Ministers have suggested beginning the move by extending bursaries and Abertay broadly welcomed that.

But an Abertay spokesman warned: "The university believes the issue of student debt is not purely related to the replacement of loans with grants.

"The major issue is the levels of funding students have access to, which the university believes are inadequate.

"The number of hours students need to work in order to earn enough to support themselves has a detrimental effect on their ability to devote enough time to their studies, and thus grades suffer."

The umbrella group Scotland's Colleges wants to introduce full bursary or grant support for students on all college higher education courses.

Abertay has told ministers it believes it would not be fair to do so if university students did not have the same funding, because such a move would polarise the rich and the poor.