Low-income students describe institutional time pressures in Israeli higher education

Updated Sep 07, 2026

Updated, 7 September 2026: We reviewed the complete paper and added recruitment and interpretation limits.

What the study examined

Adi Sapir and Roni Strier interviewed 70 low-income students or recent graduates in Israel. Recruitment used social media and snowball sampling, with financial disadvantage explored through screening and interviews. Participants included 36 university and 34 college students.

The original interviews covered broader experiences; time and institutional barriers emerged during analysis. The authors describe teaching-related pressures from timetables, attendance and deadlines, alongside administrative pressures from fee payments and expected degree duration.

Participants reported conflicts with paid work and care, penalties and emotional costs. The authors interpret these accounts as institutional time structures reproducing inequality. The study does not estimate prevalence, quantify a causal attainment penalty or test whether a policy change improves retention. Its Israeli context requires care when applying the interpretation elsewhere.

Questions for a local review

Our suggestion is to ask students which institutional requirements are hardest to combine with work, travel and care, then examine the specific process involved. Distinguish a reported barrier from assumptions about why a particular student missed a deadline.

If a team changes a timetable or procedure, define the intended benefit and assess it directly. Include students who could not attend consultation, while avoiding assumptions that every absence or brief comment reveals financial hardship.

Our NSS methodology explains how we handle descriptive comment evidence. Such analysis cannot diagnose an individual’s income or prove that time pressures will lead to withdrawal.

Reference

Sapir, A. and Strier, R. (2026). Time as privilege: exploring the intersection of social class and temporality as sources of invisible inequality in higher education. Higher Education. Open paper, published 13 April 2026.