Students who work during term time to support themselves at university are far more likely to graduate with a poor degree, according to a government-funded study published yesterday.
Undergraduates with part-time jobs are a third less likely to get a first or upper second-class degree than other students, harming their career chances. Students from the poorest backgrounds were most likely to take jobs during term because they could not depend on help from their parents.
The report, commissioned (委托) by the Department for Education and Skills, also found a clear relation between fear of debt and employment in non-graduate jobs. Students from poorer backgrounds are known to he more unwilling to be in debt than those from middle class families.
The study of 8,600 people who graduated in 1999 was made by Peter Elias, of Warwick University, and Kate Purcell, from Bristol Business School. They found that twice as many first-class degrees were awarded to students who did not work during term compared with those who did. Between 35 and 38 percent who worked during term achieved a lower second, compared with about 28 percent of those who did not.
Professor Elias said that the increase in school fees next year to ￡3,000 would have to be monitored (监控) carefully for its effect on poorer students. "Higher education is going to be a harder struggle for those who do not come with all the advantages," he said.
He suggested that universities could get in touch with employers to provide work experience on good salaries to choose students during holidays, so that they did not have to work during term.
小题1:What's the main idea of the passage?
| A．Students at university like to take part-time jobs to support themselves, |
| B．Term-time jobs at university lead to poorer examination results. |
| C．The school fees are becoming higher and higher at university. |
| D．Students at university have much difficulty getting first-class degrees. |
小题2:Why did lots of students take term-jobs at university?
| A．No one would lend them money to continue their study. |
| B．They wanted to improve themselves by taking part-time jobs, |
| C．Their families were poor and couldn't afford the high expense. |
| D．They thought earning money was more important than studying. |
小题3:Students who took term-jobs at university ____.
| A．had no possibility to study better than those who didn't |
| B．couldn't graduate from school normally in the future |
| C．might have trouble in finding a job in the future |
| D．were more independent than those who didn't in the future |
小题4:Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Poor students can't take part-time jobs all the time at university. |
| B．Employers have the duty to help poor students solve the money problem. |
| C．First class degrees couldn't be given to the students whose families were poor. |
| D．High school fees are one of the important reasons why students have to take term-jobs. |