BALANCING WORK AND HIGHER EDUCATION: ANALYZING THE ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES OF PART‑TIME STUDENTS-A CASE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LORALAI
Keywords:
Academic Performance, Mental Stress and Fatigue, Part-Time Employment, Scholarships and Resources, Student Coping Strategies, Study-Work Balance, University Support ServicesAbstract
This study explores how university students balance academic responsibilities with part-time work, focusing on their strategies, challenges, and institutional support. Drawing on qualitative interviews with students from the University of Loralai, the findings reveal that time management is primarily achieved through timetables, prioritization of academics during exams, and sequential scheduling of study and work. Despite these efforts, students face significant challenges including overlapping deadlines, transport shortages, mental stress, fatigue, and health impacts. These pressures often compromise academic performance and highlight the instability of how students manage stress. Universities provide essential support such as buses, medical facilities, libraries, scholarships, and teacher guidance, yet students consistently call for improvements. Suggested reforms include expanding transport services, flexible deadlines, ensuring fair scholarship distribution, and improving hostel facilities. Generally, the study emphasizes the need for practical, student-driven policies to ease the burden of balancing study and work, thereby enhancing academic success and well-being.
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