In cooperation with the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Franziska Lessky is conducting research at the Education Sciences Group at WU Wien on the situation of working students who are the first in their family to study (first-in-family students).

The question of how to balance work and study is of particular interest from the students' perspective, as working while studying has become part of the student experience for almost all students. However, research shows that first-in-family students tend to be more likely to have regular jobs during their studies and to work 20 or more hours per week than students whose parents have a college education. As a result, these students are particularly confronted with the question of how to balance their work and study.

Therefore, the project team would like to investigate the following research questions:

1. How do students experience the potentially conflicting demands of studying and working, and how do they cope with them?

2. What factors influence the academic progress of working students? The data is based on qualitative interviews with students from different fields of study and the current Austrian Student Social Survey.

 

Initial results are expected at the end of 2018.