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This paper explores the social and academic effects of term-time working on undergraduate students at an English university. Data initially collected via a survey of student social relationships were enhanced by the inclusion of endof-year academic performance. Various inferential statistical techniques were used to identify these effects. Path analysis was employed to disentangle significant variables and to show that term-time working had direct and significant effects on the two factors shown to be affected most significantly by term-time working: end-of-year average grade and participation in university societies. A major finding was that almost all students who worked came from state schools rather than from independent privately financed schools. The findings are discussed within the context of the recent history of funding policy regarding higher education in England. A key conclusion is that structured inequality, an inherent feature of a divided secondary education system, is being pulled firmly into higher education.

Is contemporary student life stressful? And if so, what factors are associated with stress among students? This paper attempts to provide answers to these questions in reporting a research project that explored physical and mental health among students studying at Newcastle University in 1995. Forty-nine per cent of a stratified random sample of students (956 students) completed a postal questionnaire which, as well as addressing questions of health, covered numerous aspects of student living conditions and lifestyle. Stress was measured by the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, which was converted into a 36-point scale. The analysis identifies various factors that were associated with stress, and culminates in the construction of a multi-variate model that explains 25 per cent of the variance in student stress. The findings are discussed within the context of the changing nature of higher education in Britain.

The paper examines the impact of the transformations in doctoral education in the arts, humanities and social sciences in the United Kingdom over the past decade. It focuses on the introduction of formal research training and codes of research practice and in the first longitudinal candidate cohort study examines their impact on doctoral outcomes, especially Ph.D. submission rates. Results from this quantitative study show that engagement with research training, completion of a project outline and plan and appointment of a supervisory team were statistically positively associated with submission of the thesis within four years. It is concluded that the professionalisation of doctoral education by research training and codes of research practice has had a positive impact on doctoral educational outcomes.

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