Lack of thorough preparation among modern college students is a serious problem that affects their academic performance. There is a general tendency among students who work and study at the same time consisting in the fact that students tend to spend more time at work instead of devoting their time to studies.
The research study looked at how academic performance is affected by both work and study. In addition, the impacts of motivation and individual student ability in terms of academic performance were examined in this research study.
Most importantly, the study thoroughly investigated how academic performance is affected by the overall time allocated to students for studying.
After carrying out the empirical observation, it was evident that academic work consumed about 6 hours of the total available time throughout a week especially among freshmen students who entered college not long time ago. 413 students were involved in the survey out of a total of 276,449 sample size.
When data obtained from the 1987 survey was examined, it was found out that about 48% of college students spend less than 8 hours per week on academic work outside class (Nonis & Hudson 2006, p.153).
As a matter of fact, the time spent on academic work has been reducing over the years. Therefore, academic performance has been most affected by poor time management skills among students.
In addition, it is also worth to mention that the number of students who are employed either full or part time, has been increasing over the years. For instance, the latest employment index statistics reveals that since 1993 the number of working hours has increased by four percent.
In addition, over 16 hours per week are spent by college freshmen who are working. Needless to say, such a situation has affected academic performance in variety of ways. In most instances, some students have to work as they study so that they can meet their daily needs.
Universities and lower level colleges will have to deal with the students who find it difficult to manage their study time well. A long term strategy should be put in place because it would be futile to reward minimal effort by lowering academic standards.
Although other factors such as individual student ability and motivation are known to affect academic performance, it is worth to mention that time spent on academic work outside classroom environment matters a lot in determining the overall academic performance.
As a matter of fact, there is lack of adequate research study on how student ability and motivation influence academic performance.
One of the hypotheses presented in this empirical research study is that students who spend additional time on academic work are more likely to perform better than those who spend the same time doing other non-academic work.
For instance, a study carried out in 1991 by Pascarella and Terenzini observed that the GPA obtained by college freshmen in their first year of study largely determines their study habits in the subsequent years.
In addition, the anticipated course grades are largely affected by the total study time. Hence, good time management especially when out of classroom environment significantly determines academic performance.
In the second hypothesis, the researchers unanimously established that academic performance is directly proportional to the duration of working hours. Students who spend more time working than studying are likely to be distracted by other external influences that relate to their commitments at work.
On a final note, the researchers observed that time spent on academic work especially outside classroom environment tends to boost individual student ability to perform well (Nonis & Hudson 2006, p.155).
In addition, college students are more likely to be motivated if they perform well in their academic work as a result of securing enough time for their studies.
Reference
Nonis, S. A. & Hudson, G I 2006, “Academic performance of college students: Influence of time spent studying and working”. Journal of Education for Business, vol. 81 no. 3, pp. 151-159.