Abstract:

Today's undergraduates belong to a generation that is often referred to as millennials, or even Generation Y. This generation has a number of distinctive features, such as the use of information and communications technology (ICT) since early childhood. However, they may have some difficulty entering the labor market. In recent years, the number of undergraduate students who are working during their studies has been steadily increasing. Not only is the number of working students rising but also the extent of their involvement. Some students work only a few hours a week, some even full time. The aim of this article is to find out whether there are differences in attitudes to studies among the working students. Based on the Mann-Whitney U Test and the Kruskal-Wallis test, it was shown that there are statistically significant differences (n = 333) according to the level of university studies. The undergraduate students (i.e. the first to the third year of studies) are more likely to claim they work but only after school. The school and their studies remain a priority. On the other hand, for the students of a Master’s degree (that is, the fourth and the fifth year of studies) the primary motivation is to gain experience during their studies so that they do not have a problem getting a job later. Master’s students also claim more often that they work because they learn more at work than they learn at school. Some of the previously published studies have shown some concerns that involvement in work could negatively affect the successful completion of university studies. However, the findings of this study show that the students are not afraid of study failures in this context. The optimistic expectation of successful completion of their studies is statistically significantly higher among students of master's degree.

Keywords:

University students, full-time, part-time, y-generation, graduation.