영어 문장에서 becoming의 역할이 궁금해요

“About 80,000 students from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand can work as many hours as they wish and reduce their course loads with the approval of their schools, effectively becoming part-time students.”
다른 부분은 해석했는데, “becoming”이 어떤 역할을 하는지 잘 모르겠어요ㅠㅠ