Willingness to Engage in Part-Time Employment Among Undergraduates: A Case Study Based on the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study investigates the factors that influence part-time employment intentions of students at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), University of Ruhuna. This study explores the effects of gender, academic level, cost of education, and household income on students' willingness to engage in part-time employment. This research followed a quantitative approach and used a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was assessed among 156 undergraduate students, and selection was made using the proportionate allocation technique which is a stratified random sampling technique. Data analysis used the independent chi-square tests to test the formulated hypotheses. The results show that a minority of students (7.7%) are already engaged in part-time employment, indicating that the desire for financial independence is stronger than financial reasons. Among the remaining students, the majority (92.3%) indicated a high desire to engage in part-time employment. The statistical analysis indicates that there are no significant associations between gender, academic level, household income and cost of education on the intention to work part-time of the students of the faculty of HSS. Overall, the results suggest that the intention to work part-time of students in the Humanities and Social Sciences faculty at the University of Ruhuna is independent of gender, academic level, household income, and cost of education. Financial factors do not appear to be the primary motivation for students to decide to work part-time in this faculty.