In business education, academicians strongly believe that more time spent by the

students on academic activities outside of class rooms (e.g., reading the text on
internet, completing assignments, studying, collaborating with friends and
preparing reports) higher will be the academic performance. There are many
researches in support of this belief such as, Pascarella and Terenzin (1991)
investigated that the study habits of college students significantly affect the
cumulative grade point average (GPA). McFadden and Dart (1992) identified that
total study time influenced expected course grades. In contradiction, Mouw and
Khanna (1993) did not identify the relation between study habits and first year
cumulative GPA of college students. Ackerman and Gross (2003) have investigated
recently that students with more time spent on study activities have a significantly
higher GPA. Because of such conflictive empirical evidences, there is a need to
reinvestigate this relationship. Thus, our first hypothesis is
H1: There is a positive relationship between time spent studying outside
of class and academic performance.
Along with the present trend of students spending less time on academic related
activities, a growing number of college and university administrators are concerned
that todays postsecondary students are working more hours than their
counterparts were years ago (Gose, 1998). It can be reasonably assumed that
working more hours per week will leave students less time for studying outside of
class and that this will negatively influence their academic performance. Although
working more hours per week can be one key reason for a student to be in
academic trouble, available research does not seem to support this hypothesis.
Strauss and Volkwein (2002) reported that working more hours per week positively
related to a students GPA. Light (2001), who interviewed undergraduate students of
all majors, found no significant relationship between paid work and grades.
According to Light, students who work a lot, a little, or not at all share a similar
pattern of grades (p. 29). Because empirical evidence to date has been
counterintuitive, testing this hypothesis using different samples and different
methodologies is important before generalizations can be made. This led to our next
hypothesis that
H2: There is a relationship between time spent working and academic
performance.

Ackerman, D. S., & Gross, B. L. (2003, Summer). Is time pressure all bad?
Measuring between free time availability and student performance
perceptions. Marketing Education Review, 12, 2132.
Gose, B. (1998, January 16). More freshmen than ever appear disengaged
from their studies, survey finds. The Chronicle of Higher Education, A37
A39.

Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (1991). How college affects students.

San Francisco: JosseyBass.
Mouw, J., & Khanna, R. (1993). Prediction of academic success: A review of
the literature and some recommendations. College Student Journal, 27(3),
328336.