Employment on campus as a full-time student

Full-time graduate students are expected to pursue their graduate degree on a full-time basis and make satisfactory progress toward timely completion of all program requirements. It is not possible, or desirable, for the University to monitor and enforce the employment activities of its graduate students outside the University. However, it is both possible and desirable for the University to ensure that it does not itself create a structural situation that jeopardizes the ability of graduate students to make progress towards the timely completion of graduate program requirements.

Normally, graduate student appointments in the roles of teaching assistants (TAs) and research assistants (RAs) are structured such that students average 10 hours per week. Students also engage in other, non-academic employment on campus (e.g., food services, retail services).

In total, students may pursue on-campus employment that exceeds 10 hours per week on average (but does not exceed 20 hours per week, on average, in each term) with the approval of their supervisor or Graduate Officer/Program Director, as applicable. The decision to approve on-campus employment above 10 hours per week will be guided by an assessment made jointly by the student and supervisor (or Graduate Officer/Program Director) of the student’s previous academic progress and the impacts that the increased employment activity are expected to have on future performance. Taking on additional employment does not reduce expectations for academic progress, nor would it typically be viewed as extenuating circumstances for which exceptions to academic rules are made.

For further information see the Guidelines for graduate student employment.