Internship Policies and Procedures

Purpose of the summer internship

In the summer before their second year, students are recommended to cultivate advisor and client relationships. Internships are broadly understood as including positions at companies, or Non-Governmental Organization (sometimes as volunteers), as well as research internships with faculties. Upon starting the internship, students must sign an internship agreement with their employer. If the student wishes to use data collected during the internship for his/her research or client-based MP, s/he should sign an MOU with the employer regarding the use of internship-related data for the MP, and the conditions of this use, including data transfer and storage on DKU’s protected network (see data protection).

Internship Agreement

Students should sign an internship agreement with the organization they will work at. This agreement should ideally contain the following information: location; end/start date; remuneration or stipend(if applicable); main tasks/projects the student will work on. This agreement should identify the tasks attributed to the students and the project s/he will be working on, as well as any relevant confidentiality issues.The summer internship should involve substantial contributions from the student, which cannot be limited to some translation or other purely administrative tasks.

Internship Report

As a reminder, an internship report is a very common feature of Masters’ programs, even when the internship is not strictly mandatory. Such a report serves multiple purposes, benefiting students’ personal development from different aspects. On the one hand, it could help the student develop both verbal and written communication skills. On the other hand, it serves as an archival record of the internship experience, giving the student an opportunity to reflect on the professional aspects of the internship experience and the skills that were learned.

Under such circumstances, iMEP students are encouraged to produce a 2-4 pages internship report by the end of the summer. Such a report should 1) describe what students have done and 2) reflect on their experience, including the skills and lessons learned. If relevant,students can also provide their reflections on how the internship contributed to their master projects or their understanding of environmental policy. Students are also expected to add their reports as well as the relevant pictures on social media like the mini-blogs about the memorable events, experience or individuals encountered during the internship, which might be used for iMEP student experience promotion.