Overseas students say working hours cap ‘saves us from ourselves’

Most international students support limits on their working hours to protect them from unreasonable expectations, including from themselves, Australian research suggests.

A survey of more than 6,000 people has found that the vast majority want restrictions on the number of hours overseas students can devote to paid work during term time. Just one in four international students, one in 10 foreign graduates and one in 20 educational administrators said they would prefer no cap.

Australia has long imposed a 40-hour fortnightly limit on overseas students’ employment during study periods. The cap was relaxed and then abandoned altogether during the pandemic, with employers desperate for more workers, but is to be reimposed at 48 hours a fortnight from 1 July.

The survey was part of a government-supported project examining “good practices for international student engagement”. It found that the new limit was considered excessive by most respondents, with slightly over half of international students preferring a cap of 40 hours or less – a view shared by two-thirds of former foreign students and almost three-quarters of educational administrators and other stakeholders.

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Project leader Ly Tran said international students struggled with time management and tended to “work more” when permitted. She said “overworking” had been “one of the most cited reasons” for course failure since the cap’s removal, with students focusing on earning money until their exams approached. By then, “it was too late”.

Professor Tran, an international education researcher at Deakin University, said international graduates had been asked to reflect on their time as students. “Overworking affected not only their study but their well-being,” she said, with most considering caps of 30 or 40 hours appropriate. Educational administrators and other stakeholders were more conservative still, with most preferring limits of 20 or 30 hours.

She said full-time study normally entailed four subjects a semester, each requiring around nine to 10 hours per week, leaving perhaps 15 hours for paid work. Consequently, many former students and stakeholders favoured a 30-hour cap.

Professor Tran said students had reported pressure from their parents to take on more paid work in order to cover their own costs, while their bosses – cognisant of the cap’s removal – wanted them to “do more shifts. It’s very hard for them to say no to employers.”

Nevertheless, 27 per cent of students preferred no restriction. Eleven per cent thought the cap should be set at 50 hours, and 7 per cent preferred 60 hours. “They want the freedom to decide,” Professor Tran said.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com