Flexible working request for students

Short answer

Yes. If you are legally an employee, you now have a statutory right to make a flexible working request from your very first day of employment, and adjusting your hours or working pattern to fit around a university timetable is a legitimate use of that right. Since 6 April 2024 the old requirement to have 26 weeks of continuous service was removed, so you do not have to wait before asking.

Whether you qualify

The statutory right to request flexible working applies to employees. The key question is whether you are an employee under a contract of employment, rather than a genuinely self-employed contractor. Many student jobs (retail, hospitality, campus jobs) are employee roles even if part-time, casual or on a zero-hours basis, so you may well qualify.

There is a grey area for casual or zero-hours arrangements where each shift might be treated as a separate short engagement. If your arrangement is genuinely a series of separate assignments with no overarching employment contract, the statutory right may not clearly apply. In practice, though, even where the strict legal right is uncertain, you can still ask informally, and many employers accommodate students voluntarily.

Note that the statutory right is a right to request and to have the request properly considered. It is not a right to be granted the change automatically.

What you can ask for

Flexible working covers changes to when, where and how much you work. For fitting a job around lectures and seminars that would typically mean:

1. Changing your working hours or shift pattern (for example, only evenings and weekends, or specific fixed days).

2. Reducing your hours.

3. Changing your start and finish times.

4. Homeworking or hybrid working, if the role allows it.

You do not necessarily have to frame it as permanent. You can propose a pattern tied to the academic year, or ask for a temporary arrangement, though the statutory scheme itself contemplates a change to the contractual terms unless you and the employer agree otherwise.

How to make a statutory request

1. Put the request in writing and date it. State clearly that it is a statutory request for flexible working.

2. Set out the change you want and the date you would like it to start.

3. Say whether you have made any previous flexible working request and, if so, when. You may make up to two statutory requests in any 12-month period, and only one can be live at a time.

Since April 2024 you are no longer required to explain the effect the change would have on the employer or how it might be dealt with. It is still often helpful, in practice, to explain briefly that it is to fit around your timetable and to suggest how the work can still be covered, as this makes agreement more likely.

How the employer must handle it

Under the current rules and the Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working (in force from 6 April 2024):

1. The employer must deal with the request in a reasonable manner.

2. The employer must not reject the request without first consulting you.

3. A decision must be made and communicated within two months of the request, unless you both agree to extend that period.

An employer can only refuse a statutory request for one or more of the eight permitted business reasons set out in the legislation. These include the burden of additional costs, an inability to reorganise work among existing staff, an inability to recruit additional staff, a detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand, a detrimental impact on quality or performance, insufficient work during the periods you propose to work, and planned structural changes. The employer must genuinely rely on one of these reasons; it cannot refuse for an arbitrary reason.

If the request is refused or mishandled

The remedies here are relatively limited, so it is worth being realistic. If the employer fails to deal with the request properly, rejects it without consulting you, misses the two-month deadline, or bases a refusal on incorrect facts, you can bring a complaint to the Employment Tribunal. However, the tribunal cannot substitute its own decision and order the employer to grant the arrangement. It can order reconsideration and award limited compensation (currently capped at a set number of weeks’ pay).

More significant protection comes from other routes. If a refusal or a detriment is really connected to a protected characteristic (for example, disability or a caring responsibility linked to sex), a discrimination claim could be far stronger than the flexible working complaint itself. Being a student is not itself a protected characteristic, so ordinary study commitments alone would not usually engage discrimination law.

Practical strategy

1. Try an informal conversation first. Many employers of students are used to fitting shifts around timetables and will agree without any formal process. This is usually faster and preserves goodwill.

2. If informal discussion does not work, submit a clear written statutory request as above, with a sensible proposed pattern and, ideally, a suggestion of how shifts can still be covered.

3. Keep copies of everything and note the dates, so you can show whether the employer met the two-month deadline and consulted you.

4. If it is refused, ask for the specific business reason in writing and consider whether it is genuinely one of the permitted grounds. You can then raise a grievance, and only as a last resort consider a tribunal complaint.

5. Check your contract and any staff handbook, as the employer may have its own flexible working or availability policy that is more generous than the statutory minimum.

Key missing facts that could change the answer

The analysis depends on your precise employment status (employee, worker or genuinely self-employed), whether you have made any flexible working request in the past 12 months, what your current contract says about hours and availability, and whether any refusal might in fact be linked to a protected characteristic. If you can confirm your status and whether you have a written contract, the position on your statutory right can be pinned down more precisely.