King’s Teachers
GTA / TA working hour limits
As a student, by default you are limited to working no more than 20 hours per week, this is to protect your studies and to ensure that working is not distracting from your academic studies. Please refer to our GTA framework principles here for more information on student involvement with teaching.
You can request to increase your weekly limit depending upon your study mode and circumstances, including any visa restrictions. Please check our Visa & international student advice here for advice on working in the UK.
How to work more than your 20 hours per week limit
For PhD students only:
You are limited to working no more than 20 hours per week, and 312 hours a year. If you are a full-time PhD student and would like to work more than 20 hours per week, please follow these steps:
- Complete the annual leave form through your account which will send a request to your PhD supervisor to approve or decline your request. How to find the vacation leave form.
- If your request has been approved by your supervisor, the Help Team will update your King's Teachers profile with the start and end dates of when you can work more than 20 hours per week.
- Please note that your period of annual leave can be for a period of up to 8 weeks in the academic year.
If you are a full time PhD student and wish to work more than 312 hours per year, please discuss the hours that you would like to work with your supervisor. You will then be able to request an increase through your payroll menu. On the first page you will be able to see a button labelled "Click here to increase your annual working hours." This will take you to a form where you will be able to request this increase from your PhD supervisor.
If you are a part time PhD student and wish to work more than 312 hours per year, if you can provide a letter from your supervisor to King’s Teachers indicating that you are a part time student and the maximum hours per year that you can work while continuing your studies, this can be updated on your account.
For Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught students:
As an undergraduate or post graduate taught student, you are limited to working no more than 20 hours per week during King’s teaching dates (semesters). To check this year’s teaching dates please click here.
During holidays you are allowed to work full-time hours and so you can request to increase your weekly limit outside of the King’s teaching periods.
If you would like to work more than 20 hours per week, outside of King’s teaching dates, please follow these steps:
- Provide King’s Teachers Help Team kingsteachers@kcl.ac.uk with a letter from King’s Student Services, in PDF format, confirming when you are on leave from your studies. This letter must state your name, student ID, whether you are in full time or part time study and detail the start and end dates of your holiday period.
- Please email the letter as a PDF to kingsteachers@kcl.ac.uk.
- The Help Team will update your King's Teachers profile with the start and end dates of when you can work more than 20 hours per week.
If you are a part time postgraduate taught student and wish to work more than 20 hours per week, please discuss the hours that you would like to work with your supervisor. The letter from your personal tutor or supervisor to King’s Teachers, in PDF format, should indicate that you are a part time student and the maximum hours per week that you can work while continuing your studies.