International Students Temporary Work Hours Policy Update

On April 29, 2024

It has been announced that the temporary policy allowing students to work more than 20 hours per week off campus will end on April 30, 2024, and it will not be extended.In the fall the Government intends to increase the number of hours students may work off campus per week to 24 hours.

The lived experiences of International Students before the temporary policy demonstrate that this announcement will only lead to more exploitation of International Students Canada.

We are concerned that no safeguards or social supports are being funded by the British Columbia Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future or by Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship.

In the interim, Private and Public Post-Secondary Schools in Canada continue to charge exuberant tuition fees and pay undisclosed referral fees to foreign recruiters.

International Students rely on misrepresentations made by foreign recruiters and only to find out once they arrive in Canada that most of what they were told were false. By the time the students arrive in Canada, many face zero tuition refund policies and they have no choices; they are stuck in this exploitative system. 

Both levels of government need to do more to hold the schools accountable and be more transparent about their profits, zero-refund tuition policies, and the large sums of money paid to foreign recruiters.