Part-Time Jobs for Students: 10 Jobs That Fit Around Your Timetable

Before you take on a job alongside your degree, check one thing above all: who sets your hours? Work you can plan around lectures and scale back during exams won’t hurt your studies. Fixed shifts that clash with your timetable will catch up with you sooner or later.

What to look for in a student job

Your timetable changes every term, and during exams you have very little free time. Before you say yes, check three things:

• Who plans the shifts. The best jobs let you enter your own hours or build the rota around your timetable.

• How short the shortest shift is. A two-hour gap between lectures is only useful if you can work in short blocks.

• What happens at exam time. Ask upfront whether you can work fewer hours or take a break for a few weeks.

10 jobs that fit around your timetable

1. Tutoring

You agree the time and place with each pupil, often online. It suits you if you know a GCSE or A-level subject, or your own degree subject, really well. You can tutor through an agency or find pupils yourself.

2. Student ambassador or research assistant

Universities hire students to help at open days, collect research data or support teaching. The work is planned around the academic year, so your supervisors already know your timetable. You also get to know staff who may later supervise your dissertation.

3. Library or student services

University departments offer short shifts between lectures, for example on the library desk or during enrolment. There’s no commute, because you work in the same buildings where you study.

4. Hospitality

Shifts are spread across mornings, afternoons, evenings and weekends, so they’re easy to fit around lectures. Expect more hours to be needed around Christmas and in summer.

5. Retail and shelf stacking

Shops mainly look for staff for evenings and weekends. Rotas usually come out one or two weeks in advance, which you can match to your timetable.

6. Customer service

Call centres and live chat teams often offer evening shifts, and some let you work from home. Speaking another language is a plus.

7. Food delivery

You work when you log into the app and stop when you like. Most platforms treat riders as self-employed, so check how you’ll be engaged before you start.

8. Freelance writing, translation and design

Projects run to a deadline rather than set hours, so you can work in the evenings or at weekends. If you earn money this way, you may need to register for Self Assessment with HMRC.

9. Social media for small businesses

You can prepare and schedule a whole week of posts in advance. Small businesses value it if you can also take photos or edit short videos.

10. Promotional and events work

These are one-off shifts at trade shows, festivals or in shops. You only take the dates that suit you, with no commitments in between.

What to check on pay, tax and your visa

• Minimum wage: every part-time job must pay at least the National Minimum Wage for your age. From age 21 you’re entitled to the National Living Wage. Our guide to the minimum wage and National Living Wage 2027 has all the new rates.

• Tax: you don’t pay Income Tax on earnings up to your Personal Allowance. If too much tax is taken from your pay, you can claim it back.

• Contract type: many student jobs use zero-hours or casual contracts. They’re flexible, but there’s no guaranteed number of hours.

If you study in the UK on a Student visa, read our guide to working in the UK on a Student visa before you accept any job.