Side-Hustle City: Where to Find Part-Time Work in Bath

A city built on hot springs and hospitality has never struggled to find work for people who can turn up on time and smile at strangers. Here, the whole economy leans on visitors, and visitors need feeding, guiding and checking into hotels, which is good news if you are a student trying to find part-time work in Bath. The harder part is knowing where to look first.

Where do University of Bath and Bath Spa University students find on-campus work?

Start closer to home. Bath Spa University channels most of its job-seeking support through MyCareer, its central listings board, backed up by a dedicated Jobs on Campus page, an annual Part-Time Jobs Fair during Welcome Week, and a Job Shop built specifically for international students working out visa-restricted hours. There is also a physical Careers Space in the Commons building, opposite the cafe, if you would rather talk it through with someone than scroll a job board alone.

At the University of Bath, the Students’ Union keeps its own listings live on thesubath.com. Recent openings have included Student Ambassador positions, Academic Community Organisers, Postgraduate Community Organiser and Student Voice Facilitator positions, alongside casual retail shifts on campus. Filter by “on campus” and you will see university and SU roles only, rather than every external vacancy in Bath.

Which employers in the city hire students?

Thermae Bath Spa is the name most people think of first, and for good reason. It is one of Bath’s biggest hospitality employers, recruiting through the YTL Hotels careers portal, with spa passes, referral bonuses, an apprenticeship route and a pension scheme among the benefits on offer. Availability changes regularly, so treat the portal as something to check directly rather than assume what is open right now.

Is Southgate Bath worth checking for retail shifts?

Southgate, the shopping centre at the heart of the city centre’s retail offer, keeps a dedicated jobs page covering shops, restaurants and cafes under one roof. At the time of writing, there were no live vacancies listed, though. So, it may be worth checking again before seasonal roles become available. Bookmark it and check back often rather than waiting for a single application window.

What changes once Christmas arrives?

The Bath Christmas Market opens on Thursday 26th November and closes on Sunday 13th December, and for those three weeks the city centre fills with a different crowd altogether. It is, by some margin, the busiest hiring window of the year for retail, hospitality and anything market-adjacent. If you’re planning on staying at university during the festive period, it’s perhaps the best way to find part-time work in Bath this year.

How many hours can you work?

If you are studying on a Student visa, the number to know is 20 hours a week during term time for a degree-level course, or 10 hours a week for anything below degree level, added up across every job you hold and counted Monday to Sunday. Once you hit an officially designated vacation period, set by your university’s own calendar rather than by how quiet your reading week feels, you can work full-time. In terms of pay, from 1st April 2026, the National Living Wage increased to £12.71 an hour for anyone 21 or over, £10.85 for 18 to 20-year-olds, and £8.00 for under-18s and first-year apprentices.

Others Would Tell You

• Apply to your own university’s job board first. On-campus employers tend to build shifts around lecture timetables far more willingly than outside businesses do.
• Work out your weekly hour limit before you apply anywhere, not after you have already agreed to a shift pattern you cannot legally keep.
• Southgate and the wider café and retail scene around the centre turn roles over quickly and don’t always advertise in one place, so a rolling check beats a one-off search.
• Hospitality employers such as Thermae Bath Spa tend to recruit ahead of peak season and the lead-up to Christmas, so late summer or early autumn applications land at a good moment.

Term starts, timetables settle, and somewhere between the two there is usually a shift that fits. Start with what your own university already has on offer, then let the city centre fill in the gaps as the term goes on. If you are still weighing up where to live next year among all of this, take a look at our collection of luxury student accommodation in Bath today.