Music students’ experienced workload, livelihoods and stress in higher education in Finland and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Neoliberal education policiesviewing students' life as human capital, economic investment for the labour market and consumer powermay increase students' workload in higher education. In this mixed methods study, we examined music students' experiences of workload in Finland and the United Kingdom in connection with stress and livelihoods. We used Bayesian mixed effects ordinal probit regression modelling to estimate effects of countries and livelihoods as predictors for music students' experienced workload in relation to their main subject of study (or principal study) and stress. We analysed music students' lived experiences of workload to find further predictors for the developmental work in universities and educational policies. Results indicate that where neoliberal university culture impacts on music students' livelihoods alongside their studies, this is likely to increase stress but not necessarily impact on the workload associated with their main subject of study. However, stress has a notable effect on students' experiences of workload. We suggest paying attention to certain aspects in universities in relation to workload, such as the gap between well-off students compared to low-income students who need to work, and stress, particularly with female and non-binary gender students. Furthermore, we propose alternative ways to navigate neoliberal university culture.

Music students’ workload, stress, and coping in higher education: Evidence-based policymaking

“…6. Third empirical study: Attention should be paid to certain aspects in higher music education in relation to workload, such as the differences between study programs and the gap between well-off students compared to low-income students who need to work, and stress, particularly with female and non-binary gender students (Jääskeläinen et al, 2020). 7.…”

“…In the third empirical study (i.e., Jääskeläinen et al, 2020), Figure 6 shows the full model of music students' experienced main subject workload, which indicates that, when connected to these characteristics of livelihoods, stress was the strongest predictor of workload. There was also an effect for funding, such that music students with partial funding or no funding at all were less likely to report experiencing workload than students with full funding.…”

“…Next, all the coded expressions were grouped into four categories and three overarching themes based on the context of the music student's experienced workload, and for the empirical studies, we continued the analysis with the extracts linked to each of the overarching themes: (1) student in Jääskeläinen et al (2022a), (2) environment in Jääskeläinen et al (2020), and (3) teacher in Jääskeläinen and López-Íñiguez (2022). The Finnish participants' quotes were translated from Finnish into English by the author, who speaks both languages, and refined in English by a native language editor.…”

“…The data were collected in seven higher music education institutions in Finland and the United Kingdom. Over 4 years, a total of seven studies were conducted in the MSW Project (see study characteristics in Table 1): (1) a theoretical study scrutinizing diverse higher music education systems in connection with equality and cultural reproduction (Jääskeläinen, 2021); (2) a systematic review mapping international research on music students' workload (Jääskeläinen et al, 2022b); (3) a methodological study discussing the transcendental phenomenological approach as a method for obtaining a meaningful understanding of music students' experiences in higher education (Jääskeläinen, 2022b); (4) a qualitative study exploring music students' workload experiences in connection with their meaningful engagement in music (Jääskeläinen, 2022a); (5) a mixed-method study shedding light on music students' proactive coping styles in connection with workload and stress (Jääskeläinen et al, 2022a); (6) a mixed-method study examining music students' experienced workload, stress, and livelihoods (Jääskeläinen et al, 2020); and (7) a qualitative study exploring teachers' ways of supporting music students' workload and stress (Jääskeläinen and López-Íñiguez, 2022).…”

“…Recommendation 2: Find solutions to the unequal workload and stress experiences between low-income and well-off students, different genders, and different study programs (Jääskeläinen et al, 2020(Jääskeläinen et al, , 2022a. • Recommendation 3: Ensure teachers' continuing professional development, particularly in the learnercentered pedagogical approaches (Jääskeläinen et al, 2022b;Jääskeläinen and López-Íñiguez, 2022).…”