Australian Social Work Students Balancing Study, Work, and Field Placement: Seeing it Like it Is

ABSTRACT

Completing tertiary studies can involve personal and financial sacrifices for some students. Equally, past and more recent research has highlighted financial pressures for students undertaking courses with compulsory field placements, although larger national Australian studies appear to be limited in number. In a recent study, a sample of 2,320 social work students from 29 Australian universities completed an online survey on the impact of low levels of income on students’ lives and study success. Here students’ qualitative responses reveal the burden of compulsory field placement, including significant financial constraints and changes to paid work hours that, in turn, adversely affected students’ wellbeing and jeopardised the completion of their degree. The purpose of this article is to illuminate social work students’ complex study realities in order to help inform future education, policy, and practice.

IMPLICATIONS

• These findings provide insight for national bodies, universities, educators, practitioners, sector partners, and researchers into the study realities of Australian social work students.

• Reviewing policy, practice, and education in light of the findings can help contribute to a healthier, diverse social work profession.

完成高等教育对于一些学生来说意味着个人和经济上的损失。尽管缺少全国性的研究，过去和最近的调查都指出田野必修实习课对学生造成的压力。本研究就低收入水平对学生生活及学习成绩的影响，对29所澳大利亚大学的2320位社工专业学生做了在线调查。学生的回复显示了田野必修课给学生造成的负担，包括经济上对挣钱时间的限制和改变，那又对学生的生活造成负面影响，妨碍他们完成学业。本文意在揭示社工专业学生复杂的学习现状，希望能为将来的教育、政策及实践所参考。

KEYWORDS:

• Tertiary Study
• Social Work
• Field Placement
• Paid Work
• Poverty

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the organisations and the partnership that supported this research, the social work students who completed the survey, academic and student champions, and the valuable guidance of the study reference group.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.