Hayley Myatt is a dedicated journalism student who speaks her mind and is a fast talking girl who always has something to say. 

We are all in the same boat: College, assessments, course work, and of course extra projects.

No matter what course you are doing, there is always mountains of work to go along with it. We have to get through it to get to the top, don’t we?

But how much stress does an average student feel on a weekly basis?

Let’s take my week for example; college 9am until 4pm Monday-Wednesday, then 9am-1pm on Thursdays as well, to do the school newspaper.

I’m constantly going through my week being given work that’s to be completed during the week and the next, but with that I need to write a story for the college paper, study for assessments and do my work.

Let’s step away from college.

Spare time is important to everyone, being able to socialise is what makes us human. What does my spare time involve? Well it’s virtually non-existent. I work part-time Friday-Sunday, which as much as I would love to take that time to complete my college work I can’t. I need to pay for the college.

We all do. There are very few people without part-time jobs these days, especially those of us in college. Anyone who doesn’t have one will most likely be looking for one soon.

This is the norm as they call it for students these days. More and more people are getting jobs at 16 right through until they end up in the job they want to be.

Is it fair that we have to sacrifice full weekends for college and work? Fitting it in during the week is harder that you would expect. Even after a full week of college I still have more to do which leads to my work being completed during my 45 minute break in the paid job. So the question is should colleges be considering the working lives of students or should employers be considering their staff’s studies? A lot of work places do this, but not everywhere.

A lot of people might say why not just cut down your work hours? I agree with this but that’s often easier said than done. Workplaces are looking for part time staff for three days and often with extra hours thrown in during holidays. They are not always concerned about your college work and that is their right.

We need to find a healthier balance between the workloads we are given and how we manage that. Otherwise, students will go through their course feeling they cannot perform as they would like, feeling like they are constantly at the call of the college to be able to do the job.