B.C. post-secondary students work more, owe more
Survey shows many spend significant hours working while earning a degree
That post-secondary students in B.C. work more and owe more in loans comes as no surprise to Caitlin McCutchen.
The Kwantlen University student who is in Year 5, part-time, of her degree, worked two jobs while studying for what was nominally a four-year degree: Every week, she pulled three eight-hour evening shifts at a café and sometimes a graveyard shift or two as a care aide at a seniors home on weekends.
“It definitely tires you out,” said McCutchen, 29. “There’s definitely extra stress. It puts so much pressure on you” to meet rent and living expenses.
She isn’t a rarity. Moonlighting by students has become more common. Almost two-thirds, 64 per cent, of B.C. post-secondary students worked while at school in 2015, compared to 59 per cent nationally, according to a survey called Earning While Learning by Vancity.
Nationally, that was up from 54 per cent in 2003 and 27 per cent in 1976.
The number of hours worked also climbed. In 1985, university and college students worked an average of 14.1 hours a week nationally. In 2003, in B.C., it was 16.4 hours a week, and by 2015, it had jumped to 19.3 hours, compared to 18 hours nationally.
And that had repercussions on academic performance, said Sophie Salcito, a Vancity financial planner.
Students who worked 10 hours or less a week had slightly higher grade point averages than those who didn’t work, but those who worked 31 hours or more had lower GPAs.
And, the study said, “From 2009 to 2015, the number of B.C. students reporting a negative impact from working while attending university rose to 44 per cent from 29 per cent, while those reporting it having a positive effect declined to 22 per cent from 30 per cent.”
The Vancity data also showed B.C. students carried more debt upon graduation than students in other provinces, averaging $30,856 in 2015. That was 52 per cent more than in 2000. For Canada, the jump over that 15 years was 32 per cent, to $26,819.
McCutchen declined to disclose her debt except to say compared to the average, “I wish it was that low.”
She started at Kwantlen at age 24 after working as a care aide, for which she carried a student loan, and lived on her own by taking out another loan until she was forced to move in with her mother in third year.
Salcito said it wasn’t surprising students relied on debt to fund their educations, given the minimum wage in B.C. is $11.35 an hour while the cost of a living wage in Metro Vancouver is calculated at $20.62.
And B.C. tuition fees rose steadily from 1996 to 2016 by an average of 4.1 per cent a year, more than double the provincial inflation rate of 1.9 per cent, the study found.
Salcito said more should be done to ensure families take advantage of government funding for their children’s education as early as possible.
Vancity advocates having an automatic Registered Education Savings Plan opened in a child’s name as soon as they start receiving Child Benefits cheques instead of relying on parents to open the account.
She said education grants are available to students, including up to $2,000 in the Canada Learning Bond for low-income families with no contribution required, and $1,200 for a provincial grant available to all children born in 2006 or later as long as parents apply before they turn nine, under the B.C. Training and Education Savings Grant.
“People are missing out on free government money,” Salcito said.