Graduate studies students restricted by jobs
As students begin to plan for the fall semester, seeking jobs on or off campus, new problems that some of us may not have never considered can also begin to arise. One of those new considerations for first time graduate students, or possibly even current graduate students, is the 10-hour grad rule.
The 10-hour grad rule is a stipulation provided by most institutions in Ontario. In short, graduate students are expected to work only an average of 10 hours per week so that they can focus on their research, thesis, and course work.
A current graduate student, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “Right now, I think most people are unclear on the framework behind it and how it works. More transparency is needed to increase the understanding of the rule and how it is enforced. ” The confusion they might feel makes sense—nearly every post-secondary institution in Ontario has some version of the rule, but the way they enforce it—and by whom the rule is enforced by—varies widely.
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According to the University of Guelph’s website, the university’s stance is that “Even though university-related employment may provide a significant portion of the financial support that enables a graduate student to pursue graduate study, and may provide experience that supplements the formal academic program in developing skills relevant to a future career, too much time spent on employment activities diverts time and energy from the program of study and research, and delays completion.” The university implemented the rule “in August 1994,” when “the Government of Ontario requested that the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies publicly confirm its position on the 10-hour rule (i.e. that every member university is committed that full-time graduate students should not be permitted to work more than an average of 10 hours per week on campus.)
The University of Guelph interacts with this rule quite frequently through Teaching Assistant-ships (TA-ships) via CUPE 3913. According to the graduate student we spoke to, “many departments pay their grad students through TA-ships which, through CUPE 3913, a grad student is only allowed to work 10 hours a week on that work. So if the department is enforcing the rule and you get paid through a TAship, well, then you can’t find additional work on campus.”
The problem for graduate students is the same as undergraduate students—how to pay for tuition. Although many grads do get large grants through the school, about “half of that goes to tuition, the other half to rent.” said one graduate student. “This usually leaves us with little money moving forward. So, if we needed money, and wanted to work, this rule limits how much we can make.”
CUPE 3913 is the organization that will negotiate Teaching Assistant placements (and sessional lecturers) with the university. According to their current collective agreement with the school, “a full GTA work assignment … normally require(s) an average of (10) hours per week, for a total of one hundred and forty (140) hours per academic semester.” In the case that a grad needs more or less time the time division will be “dictated by the needs of the Department” and “Employees shall not normally be expected to work more than seven hours in any given day.”
At the end of the day, it comes down to the department to enforce the 10-hour rule. According to some research done by Local PSAC 610 (Western University’s equivalent to CUPE 3913), if a department denies a student’s right to work, it has the potential to be considered a human rights violation. Since each department has the opportunity to determine how they enforce the rule, although, all do in most cases, if a student needs more work to support themselves, they are encouraged to talk to the graduate coordinator of their department to facilitate a work-around.
Recently there have been cases of graduates being asked by their advisor’s to cut back on their work hours—something that has the potential to be stressful if money is an object of concern.