A full-time student is expected to engage in his/her studies on a full-time basis. It is expected that a full-time student will limit paid employment unrelated to the student's research to a total of ten hours per week (average); students wishing to exceed this level should consult their supervisor and graduate coordinator. A student who fails to meet program requirements or who fails to maintain progress consistent with full-time status may be required to withdraw from their program. Under no circumstances will a student be permitted to register as a full-time student while maintaining full-time employment (more than 30 hours a week) elsewhere. Full-time students employed as teaching assistants are limited to a maximum of ten hours a week (average) in this capacity. This is the total time spent by the student in this position and includes time spent on preparation, reading assignments, and marking tests and examinations. Full-time students are expected to maintain geographic availability to the university so that regular interaction can take place between the student and supervisor and the student can effectively use the resources available at Queen's. Clearly, implementation of this guideline must be sensitive to the context of electronic communication, but the central notion is that a full-time student is participating effectively in the academic life of the community.

a. Full-Time Off-Campus Status:  Without forfeiting full-time status a graduate student may be absent from the university for the purposes of visiting libraries, undertaking field work or taking a course at another institution, provided that, if the period exceeds four weeks in any one term, written permission is obtained from the student's department/program and the School of Graduate Studies.  Students request this status and receive permission for it by completing and submitting this form: Request for Full Time Study Off Campus.

b. Access to Funding: Full-time students are eligible for a wide range of internal and external scholarship, bursaries and awards including Queen's Graduate Awards (QGA), international tuition awards for international students (ITAs), and NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR and OGS graduate fellowships. Normally, teaching assistantship (TAs) and research assistantships (RAs) are limited to full-time students.