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Wonkhe SUs · The 2026 webinar box set

Students at work

Students are earning while learning – here's how to help.

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We chart the "death of the full-time student" as paid work becomes a necessity, what the data tells us about hours, attendance and outcomes, and the HEPI/UCLan Student Working Lives findings that job quality matters as much as hours. We cover the Employment Rights Act 2025, zero-hours reform, and what a student jobs strategy and a good employment charter could do.

What we cover

  • The death of the full-time student – why work is now a necessity, not a choice, creating time-poor students.
  • Why students work – living costs, supporting family, paying fees, and saving for the future.
  • The hours that harm – why health and outcomes suffer beyond 15 hours, and who works the longest.
  • Where students work – retail, hospitality and care, supplying large volumes of labour to society.
  • Student Working Lives – the HEPI/UCLan study linking real attendance and performance data to working patterns.
  • Job quality over hours – why a good manager matters more than the number of hours worked.
  • The Employment Rights Act 2025 – guaranteed hours, shift notice and the end of "one-sided flexibility".
  • Zero hours – why 38% of students are on casual contracts, and the unresolved term-time carve-out.
  • What would help – knowing your rights, flexible timetables, recorded lectures and a student jobs strategy.
  • Earning and learning – making work co-curricular, and celebrating students who work.

Things to read

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