The project will investigate the long-term impact of student employment on the lives of university students.
The postdoctoral fellowship, from the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, has awarded €215,500 to the GROW project to investigate the impact of student employment on student’s life courses. The project will be led by postdoctoral researcher, Mijail Figueroa González.
“Across Europe, 11 million university students combine their studies with paid employment. However, existing segmented research has failed to provide a comprehensive approach to assess the implications of student employment for students later in life,” says Figueroa González.
“It remains unclear who gains and risks when working while studying, and under which conditions.”
The multidisciplinary GROW project will take a holistic approach, jointly analysing the positive and negative effects of student employment on educational and labour market outcomes.
“We will make use of high-quality longitudinal data from four carefully selected European countries: the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Finland,” says Figueroa González.
“The topic is very timely, something that comes up in both public and policy debates. But there is so little existing research on it and hardly any previous studies comparing it across countries. This is a great opportunity to do breakthrough research with huge social impact potential,” says Jani Erola, Professor of Sociology and Director of the INVEST Research Flagship Centre at the University of Turku.
The GROW project will start in September 2025 and last for two years. The project is affiliated to the INVEST Research Flagship Centre and the host institution is the University of Turku.
