An analysis of the employment among the undergraduates of the Arts Faculties of the University of Kelaniya

Abstract

The university system is facing a lot of new challenges as many other governmental, non- governmental and semi-government institutions in Sri Lanka. The economic crisis is one of the main issues faced by the university community i.e. university staff and undergraduates. As higher education system was adequately funded by the government and non-governmental sources before the economic crisis, the financial input was sufficient for the sustainability of the higher education systems i.e. UGC, state universities and Higher Educational Institutions etc. The most affected group within the higher education system of Sri Lanka during this financial crisis is the undergraduates. Hence, a study was conducted in June 2023 to quantitatively analyze the employment among the undergraduates of the Arts faculties of the University of Kelaniya. Fifty responses were collected randomly for a questionnaire. From the sample, 68% of the undergraduates were females while the rest i.e. 32% were males. As the income from scholarships and the money provided by the family are not sufficient for the studies, 44% of the respondents are engaged in some kind of employment. From them, 18% are involved in full-time employment while 28% are involved in part-time employment. Only a 10% are working on weekends. The majority (62%) of the respondents who are engaged in employment receive an income of 20,000-40,000 LKR per month from their employments. Only a 12% receives an income less than 20,000 LKR per month from their employments while 26% receive income of 40,000-60,000 LKR per month. According to the results, a considerable number of Arts undergraduates are facing financial difficulties and hence, engaged in employment during university education even though they want to spend much time on studies. This unnecessary employment causes an extra pressure and stress on the students and affects their success in education and productivity negatively.