International students in Canada will now be able to work only 24 hours in a week, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, Marc Miller announced Tuesday.
“When we lifted the 20 hrs/week work rule for international students, we did so to support the post-pandemic recovery. Today, I announced that this measure will no longer be extended and, this fall, off-campus student work hours will be limited to 24 hrs/week,” he tweeted on his official X (formerly known as Twitter) account.
The current rule where students were allowed to work more than 20 hours per week off campus came to an end on April 30. Students who have a scheduled academic break can continue working unlimited hours, the official order added.
Marc Miller believes that this change will help international students concentrate on their study. “First and foremost, international students come to Canada to study. This change will allow students to focus on their classes, while providing the option to work. We’ll continue to maintain the integrity of the program, while protecting students from vulnerability,” he said.
The Canadian government has claimed that recent studies conducted in the US and Canada have shown that there is a considerable decline in academic performance for students working more than 28 hours per week and that working more than 24 hours per week increases the chances that a student will drop out of their programme.