Effect of students' job on their educational output

Abstract

Introduction: University students are among the most talented members of a society who make the future. Nowadays, university students as manpower and spiritual resources of a nation, in addition to study, have to work part-time or full-time due to different reasons. Recent researches showed that part-time or full-time job can bring about better results among the students. Meanwhile, some may drop the education. This study was carried out to assess the roles of part-time and full-time jobs on students' grade point averages and also to investigate other possible contributing factors.

Methods: This was a descriptive analytic cross-sectional study in which the whole research population was chosen as the subjects. The main group included 200 male and female students from 7 schools of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences all having the inclusion criteria. There were another 200 students as controls who were not working selected from the same school. The grade point average before starting to work was compared with the present semester grade point average. The subjects were classified into three groups of grade point average of 12-14.99, 15-16.99 and ≥17 in study and control groups.

Results: The findings showed that the mean grade point averages in study and control groups had no significant difference and students' part-time and full-time job played no role in students' educational output.

Discussion: Students are responsible for providing public health in different groups of medical sciences as a part of health and treatment ministry. Since students' part-time or full-time jobs played no role in their educational output except for the students with grade point average ≥17, the programs for students' counseling and reinforcing their motivation towards promotion of education quality are highly suggested.