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University-Related Employment for Full-Time Graduate Students

In order to qualify as full time under ministry rules, graduate students must:

  • Be pursuing studies as a full-time occupation.
  • Identify themselves as full-time graduate students.
  • Be designated by the university as full-time graduate students.
  • Be geographically available and visit the campus regularly,  graduate students, while still under supervision, may be absent from their university (e.g. visiting libraries, doing field work, attending a graduate course at another institution, etc.) provided that, if any such period of absence exceeds four weeks in any one term, written evidence shall be available in the Graduate Studies Office to the effect that the absence has the approval of the chairperson of the department and the dean of Graduate Studies.
  • Be considered to be a full-time graduate student by his/her supervisor or equivalent (designated by the university).

A full-time graduate student at Laurier is defined as someone who works no more than 10 hours per week on campus (on average; 520 hours per year) in employment. 

From the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies: 

"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 the graduate student to make full-time progress towards the completion of graduate program requirements. Accordingly, OCGS is committed to the principle that full-time graduate students are employed no more than an average of 10 hours per week on campus."

Funding Opportunities

In order to be eligible for graduate student employment opportunities, domestic and international students must have a valid Social Insurance Number (SIN) and they must have a domestic bank account. Students who do not have a domestic bank account must verify that their bank can accept a Canadian cheque.