Student employment and study effort for engineering students

The aim of this paper is to examine which factors effect student employment and study effort in a setting where engineering students are financially supported, such that their education is free of cost and that they receive financial support for living costs while studying. In addition, we wish to answer if the full-time student is under demise in these settings as opposed to settings without financial support [1, 2]. The research consisted of a web-based survey amongst all students at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The students in this survey had fewer employment hours and studied more than those in studies from e.g. UK and US [3, 4, 5]. A similar trend was seen in a study from Norway [6]. Government financial support seems to limit the amount of hours spent on paid work but not the percentage of students who take on paid work. Thus, full-time studies with benefits of increased capabilities and experience gained through employment could be aided by proper policies. Additionally, one of the highest impacts on study activity was the perceived study environment. As the engineering students have four hours per week of interaction with an instructor for each five ECTS, it is to be expected that the students generally spend a majority of their studying hours at the university. This study is to our knowledge the first to study student employment and study effort for Danish engineering students.