Shane Andersson is studying to become a primary school teacher and says he has to work 15 hour days during his degree's practical work placements to make ends meet.
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A mature age third-year student at the University of Wollongong, he said this is "a lot of pressure," but counts himself lucky to have a flexible employer who accommodates shift changes when he has to be on prac.
"During placement it is long hours and there is certainly a lot of pressure to fit everything in," he said .
"Through the day, between 8am - 3:30pm I'm at primary school, then I start work maybe finishing at 11pm."
Though tiring, the arrangement means he's under far less pressure than a lot of other students, who often have to give up their usual source of income during practical placements.
"I'm in a unique position," he said, of his job at a cafe and catering company on the Wollongong university campus where he has worked for 15 years.
"My boss is very lenient with working hours, while I'm on my placement, she's more than happy for me to change my shift, and do the clean-up shift instead of my usual day shift in the cafe.
"That is very convenient for me, in terms of payment."
Despite moves by the federal government to address the growing issue of "placement poverty," Mr Andersson says he believes more needs to be done to support the many education and health students who face placement poverty.
He said the recent budget measure to give $320 a week to teaching, nursing and social work students during their prac from mid-2025, who make a little dent for most people
"The way inflation and rent and things have gone up, particularly in Wollongong, that might cover their rent for the week, but there's not any extra money to replace lost wages," he said.
"A lot of those people will normally be on $900 a week."
The issue of "placement poverty" is a big one for universities and the government, with new University of Wollongong research finding that nearly a third of health and teaching students across Australia say they have had severe food insecurity during their practical work placements.
This means they may be not eating enough, skipping meals and experiencing chronic hunger as they are unable to afford food.
A further 32 per cent of the more than 500 students studying health and education surveyed were moderately food insecure, and overall only one in five did not have some level of food insecurity.
Study authors Associate Professor Kelly Lambert and Dr Anne McMahon said they had heard "harrowing stories" of students plunged into poverty.
"For many, these are people that want to work in health, and the irony is that they are basically putting themselves at personal health risk through to get through their degree," Dr McMahon said.
"There are people talking about having massive panic attacks at night and trying to calm themselves because of their fear about their financial situation."
'I'm still trying, financially, to recover nearly five months later'
Master of Social work student Milhara Kankanamge is studying part time while working as a consultant specialising in social outcomes within the infrastructure sector.
Her job allowed for flexibility - letting her drop a day of work - so she could manage to study and do a six-month placement last year.
But this meant a loss of income, and a huge time burden.
"My week was broken into two days at work, two days of placement, and then to one and a half days of uni," she said.
"That doesn't really allow for any other things. I wasn't socialising, I pretty much kept to myself."
"It was still very hard going down to two days income and being a solo person. I'm still trying, financially, to recover from it nearly five months since my placement ended.
"I had to go into my savings to pay rent, and other things. It is not just the financial burden; it is the psychological and emotional cost of it as well.
Ms Kankanamge, who welcomes new that the government will bring in a placement payment, has now delayed her final placement because she can't afford to take any more time off work.
"I think the expectation from society is poor," she said.
"If social workers are needed, if nurses are needed, if allied health frontline workers are needed you have to treat them better. You need to treat the education system that trains them better."
While the "poor student" stereotype is not new, Prof Lambert said the situation for today's health and education students - the majority of whom are women - was worse than ever.
"The food costs are more, the rent costs are more, and the actual cost of studying is more in proportion to the income that these students can get," she said.
"It is different times and the expectations are different on students."
Dr McMahon said had huge implications for the future of the health and education workforce.
"What we're hearing in the research is that this is really leading to burnout - and burnout before they even start," Dr McMahon said.
"You've got health, mental health and teaching professionals exhausted before they actually go into their professional practice, and that probably underscores why you see so much loss in the healthcare workforce and also the teaching workforce in that first five years.
"If you've come out burnt out and then you go into a space that's already challenged because of resourcing you're not going have the resilience to keep going."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
