Student Financial Aid

This report provides information on jobs funded through the College Work-Study Program, which provides part-time employment to students needing financial help to meet college expenses. Over a one-year period, 95 percent of students' earnings from the program derived from on-campus jobs. College officials indicated that these jobs, such as telephone answering and filing, were often not directly related to the students' fields of study. While only five percent of the program earnings nationwide resulted from off-campus employment, officials said that these jobs, such as tutoring elementary school students, were often more directly related to the students' fields of study. Nationally, only 0.2 percent of program earnings went to students working in Community Service Learning program jobs, which serve the needs of low-income people. Although many institutions did not have such a program, some of their work-study jobs seek to help low-income individuals.

GAO found that: (1) during the 1989-1990 award year, almost 95 percent of students' CWS earnings nationwide were from on-campus jobs; (2) students earned $642 million from on-campus jobs and about $37 million from off-campus jobs for the 1989-1990 award year; (3) the off-campus earnings were almost entirely from jobs in the nonprofit or governmental sector; (4) 14 of the 20 educational institutions surveyed estimated that at least 50 percent or more of their on-campus jobs were clerical or low-skilled in nature; (5) off-campus jobs were more often directly related to students' fields of study than on-campus jobs; (6) only about 0.2 percent, or $1.3 million, of CWS 1989-1990 earnings nationwide went to students with Community Service Learning (CSL) jobs which served the needs of low-income individuals; (7) only 4 of the 20 institutions surveyed had CSL programs during the 1989-1990 award year; (8) institutions that had CSL programs devoted between 1.1 percent and 3.6 percent of their available federal CWS funds to CSL earnings; (9) 15 institutions stated that they did not establish CSL programs primarily because providing 90 percent of earnings from their federal allocation in CSL jobs would diminish the amount of CWS aid that they could provide to other students; and (10) 16 institutions estimated that some of their CWS jobs provided service to low-income individuals, and 2 institutions stated that none of their CWS jobs aided low-income individuals.