Economy & Business ISSN 1314-7242, Volume 13, 2019 Journal of International Scientific Publications www.scientific-publications.net Page 258 THE CONSIDERATION OF STUDENTS’ AS WORKERS AND THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT ALONG WITH THE YEAR OF STUDY TOWARDS THE EXAMINATION OF BURNOUT Dimitra Ap. Georgiou*, Ioannis Katsenos, George S. Androulakis Department of Business Administration, University of Patras, Rio GR 265.04, Greece Abstract The role of the university department and students’ year of birth and year of study in relation to burnout syndrome has been examined thoroughly. In this paper it is assumed that students are considered as workers and that the studies are analogously their work. Correspondingly, the years of study are proportional to both the student's age and the characteristics of the workload to. In this regard, a structured questionnaire was answered by 582 students of the University of Patras whose answers were analysed via an exploratory factor analysis. The aim was to deconstruct the phenomenon of students’ burnout in its causal structural elements and to examine the impact of the university department and the year of study on each of these elements. The results showed that the university department affects the students' burnout syndrome via three channels: efficacy and self-accomplishment of studies, lack of interest in university studies and via the difficulty in collaborating with their fellow students and their tutors. Additionally, it appeared that the year of study had a significant effect on students’ burnout syndrome, mainly because of physical and psycho-emotional exhaustion· the greatest effect was found in the penultimate year of study. Keywords: students’ burnout, university department, year of studies, questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis 1. INTRODUCTION The basic characteristics of the academic environment are mainly common values, high level of autonomy, critical spirit, creation of new knowledge, educational experience, altruistic interest for students, application of logic, use of evidence, conceptual theoretical rigidity and selfless search for truth through academic freedom. Historically, (Sales and House, 1971), and until recently it was believed that university processes are protected from work-related stress mainly due to the existence of factors such as academic autonomy, clarity of roles, occupational safety and academic culture. These factors were therefore considered to provide a protective and supportive framework for academic work in future work-related stress situations (Gmelch et al., 1984). However, university space in many countries has experienced intense and wide-ranging changes. The current situation, based on large-scale surveys such as in Australia and Great Britain, shows that despite the increase in student enrolment in universities, the state's financial contribution is decreasing over time while student-tutor ratio is rising. The central picture is that requirements are increasing while resources and autonomy decrease mainly as a result of reduced funding and support (Winefield et al., 2003). An integral central factor in the academic environment is its students. In this sense, exploring the potential for the student community to experience the burnout syndrome becomes imperative. In particular the burnout syndrome and parameters of student emotional exhaustion, diminished satisfaction, insufficient dedication to studies, occurrence of anxiety, absenteeism, psychosomatic disorders and disruptive interpersonal relations are in need of clarification, (Navarro and Más, 2010). The burnout syndrome mentioned was initially approached as a phenomenon inherent in the anthropocentric professions. Subsequently, its interpretation has been extended to different occupational schemes, non-anthropocentric occupations and in different contexts such as university studies. Like working adults, students can experience the burnout syndrome as student activities are psychologically reminiscent of "professional" work such as completing tasks, exams and evaluation procedures,