Student Jobs

“Jiyun, Bershka is hiring now!” When Jiyun came to the Netherlands, her buddy suggested to Jiyun to have a part time job. Jiyun was so shocked when she heard from her buddy that there is only one guy who doesn’t have a part time job in her class. Because in Korea it is not common to work as a student. Thom and Jiyun discussed the differences between the Netherlands and South Korea.

Especially in Korea, focusing on studying is regarded as the most important duty of students. This is why Jiyun’s parent didn’t allow her to have a part time job when she graduated at high school. They didn’t want her to spend a lot of time working and only wanted her to focus on her studies. Finally she started a part time job as a private tutor but there is no need to do it. Because she is supported financially by her parents for living. Despite of support from her parent, the reason she wanted to have a part time job is just for experience and more allowance and not for living.

Of course a lot of students in South Korea have part time jobs as in the Netherlands. According to the statistics from an employment company, 65.9% of University students is have a part time job in 2018. The rate of it is continuously increasing about 10% percent every year. Among them, 66.6% responded that they have a part time job for more allowance which is the top reason. And the next reason responded by 27.9% of respondents is to buy something they really want. The average cost of living for students in South Korea is almost 400 Euros.

A lot of Dutch students have a part time job to support themselves during their studies. As a student you do not have a lot of income, that’s why a lot students have a part time job. Most Dutch students have a part time job, out of all Dutch students 70% has a part time job. The average time that a Dutch student spends on his part time job is around 17 hours a week (Nibud, 2017). Since the abolishment of the basic rant it is almost necessary for some students to work to not get into debt to much. 

Research done by Nibud in 2017 shows the average costs of a Dutch student. On average a Dutch students spends €867,- a month, with students living at their parents at €577,- a month and students living on their own at €1248,- a month. These costs contain: Tuition fees, rent, groceries, leisure expenses (including holidays) and insurance. With all these costs you can understand that a lot of Dutch students have a debt as well. Around 73% of all Dutch students are in student loan debt. 44% of these students have a debt of €10.000,- or more. 39% of these students have  debt between €2500,- and €10.000,-. The other 19% of these students have a debt of less than €2500,-. Having these amounts of debt might sound really bad, but a lot of Dutch students use the regulations on a student loan as a cheap variant of a loan. The interest rates on the student loan are really low and can be paid back in 15 years for MBO-students and 35 years for HBO+ students. Around 54% of the students that have a student loan state they use it as a cheap variant of a loan. ​

 

 

Knowing the situation in both the Netherlands and South-Korea we can take a look at the similarities and differences. The main difference that we see is the independence of the students. In South-Korea it is a regular thing that parents support their children's financially during their studies. Of course this financial support is also given in the Netherlands but not as much. Another difference is the cost of living, the average cost of living is higher in the Netherlands. In South-Korea you have the possibility to get a scholarship to pay for some of the expenses, in the Netherlands we don't really have something like this. Most of the scholarships in the Netherlands are meant for students outside of the European Economic Area.​

Looking at the raise of students with a job in South-Korea we are wondering if there still will be this much of a difference in the future. 

 

 

 

Bibliografie

M. Werf, G. Sonewille, R. Stoof (2017). Studentenonderzoek 2017. the Netherlands: Nibud (Nationaal Instituut voor Budgetvoorlichting).

노연경. (2018). 청춘의 덫. “브릿지경제”. retrieved on January 10th 2019 from http://www.joongboo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1314372 배진솔. (2018). 알바실태조사. “스냅타임”. retrieved on January 10th 2019 from http://snaptime.edaily.co.kr/2019/01/%ed%94%bc%ed%81%ac%ec%8b%9c%ea%b0%84%eb%8c%80%eb%a7%8c-%ec%95%8c%eb%b0%94%ec%93%b8%ed%85%90%eb%8d%b0%ec%97%85%ec%a3%bc-%eb%8c%80%ed%95%99%ec%83%9d-%ec%97%87%ea%b0%88%eb%a6%b0-%ec%8b%9c