A “Volunteer” is not the same as a “Voluntary worker”.

It is important to make a distinction between the two as there are visa limitations for students completing voluntary work. There aren’t any limitations for students who are volunteering.

               a. Volunteer: someone who is volunteering their time freely, without any contractual obligations or compensation. They are “volunteering”.

               b. Voluntary worker: may be either a worker or an employee. Voluntary workers would have a contractual obligation to personally perform work or provide services and carry out specific tasks. They are completing “voluntary work”.

Our volunteering projects fall within definition A. Students who volunteer on our volunteering projects are giving their time freely, without any contractual obligations or compensation. Our projects are student-led, and it is up to volunteers how much time they give, and they can consider this in line with academic and personal commitments.

All students can therefore volunteer as much as they like and there are no visa limitations on the number of days or hours students can complete.

Although there is no legal limitation, we recommend that students don’t complete more than 20 hours of volunteering and/or work a week. We consider this a healthy and reasonable amount for students to complete alongside their studies. Once you have registered as a volunteer through our website, and your application to volunteer on a specific project has been accepted, you will be able to log your volunteering hours through your profile. We recommend you make use of this function to help you manage your time and monitor the number of hours you are completing.