I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Finance for receiving me. I am the president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ). We represent 13 university student associations from all over Quebec, which means 125,000 students from all levels.
My presentation will focus on the research conducted by the FEUQ in 2009 on paid work and university education, based on results from the surveys administered in 2009 to 15,000 students in Quebec. I will therefore be looking at the employment situation among university students in Quebec.
It is important to paint that picture. The employment situation among students is not often studied, given that their main job is to study, not to work. However, working while going to university is increasingly the norm; it is no longer an exception today.
Scientific literature indicates that the decision to work is highly influenced by financial needs. A study by Quebec's department of education, recreation and sports states that 70% of student income is used for housing, food and tuition fees. You can see that students cannot ignore those expenses.
Between 1980 and 2009, the student employment rate while studying full time went from 25%, at all levels combined, to 58% among men and to 69% among women in undergraduate studies. During that period, the summer employment rate did not change much. The rate is higher than the average Canadian employment rate for working while studying.
In 2009, the FEUQ study showed that full-time undergraduate students were working on average almost 19 hours a week, with more than 42% of students working more than 20 hours a week. Their average income was estimated at $10,500 a year. The average among graduate students was 21 hours a week with an average income of $12,500 a year.
There is a strong correlation between working and student debt. The FEUQ survey and its subsequent report on debt showed that having a job was one of the main solutions to debt. Students working less have a higher debt rate, regardless of the source of the debt. We are talking about government loans and bursaries, private loans, lines of credit, credit cards and household debt.
However, we see that, in most cases, working has a negative impact on students’ academic progress. We see that 55% of undergraduate students feel that their jobs do not complement their fields of study, 44% say that their jobs have a negative impact on their school performance, and 32% state that they have to extend their studies because of their jobs.
A number of factors contribute to the fact that students have no choice but to work. That is the situation for women; significantly more women are working and studying at the same time. The same is true for first generation students, students whose parents do not have a university degree or who come from modest means. The same goes for student parents who are trying to achieve an education-work-family balance, which can have a negative impact on their school performance. Over 62% of them say they have to extend their studies.
Overall, students who do not have scholarships to assist them financially, or whose summer income is lower, must work more while going to school. Their academic performance and progress are affected the most. The students who choose debt are the least likely to go to graduate school or to buy a house, start a family or a business.
Graduate students, researchers, work more than their undergraduate counterparts. As a result, they experience tighter academic constraints, thereby delaying their official entry into the labour market.
In light of those findings, the FEUQ strongly recommends an increase in funding for the Emploi-Québec summer program so that students can work only in the summers, avoiding over-indebtedness and the negative impact on academic performance, and speeding up their entry into the labour market.
For graduate students, who must juggle education and work, and, often, education, work and family, funding from various granting organizations must be increased to ensure that more students and researchers focus on their studies and research projects.
Still today, too many deserving students do not receive grants for their projects and must quit their graduate studies, especially when they accumulate a higher than average student debt.
Thank you.