Internship Course Guidelines

• Developing and promoting the academic research, writing and thinking skills of the students.
• Acquiring practical experience relevant to the “major” of the student.
• Encouraging students to make direct connections between practical work in the field and the intellectual work within their fields of study
• Connecting students to the host organizations relevant to their “major”.
• Assisting students in their future career development.

a) General conditions

• Prior requirement for enrolling to an internship course is that the student has moderated into a certain field of academic studies at the AQB college.
• Students enroll in the designated four-credit internship course, an elective course within the major.
• The number of required hours for the successful completion of internship is a minimum of sixty (60) hours.

b) Internship supervision

• There are four different positions involved in the supervision of an AQB internship. In some cases more than one of these positions may be held by the same individual.
• The student’s academic advisor is responsible for approving the internship as a course choice in the context of the student’s overall academic program, including an assessment of whether the student is well enough prepared to benefit from this experience.
• The head of the program that is giving credit for the internship is responsible for making sure that the internship will be a challenging practical and academic experience, and that all the requirements of these guidelines.
• The head of the program approves an internship course supervisor who works with the student to construct the academic part of the program, works with the student over the 3 course of the semester, and provides the grade for the transcript. Internship course supervisors will be compensated according to an AQB formula.
• Each internship must have a host organization supervisor to whom the student reports for the internship work and who verifies the student’s experience to AQB.
• Details regarding the responsibilities of each of these supervisors are below.

c) Requirements before the enrollment

• Student is required in consultation with the head of his or her program to select a host organization. AQB will maintain an approved organization list, but a student can also propose and find other organizations that are not on the list.
• After finding a host organization the student is required to submit a detailed internship plan to both the head of the program and to his or her academic adviser.
• The host organization should indicate in writing that they are willing to host the student’s internship, that they approve of the student’s internship plan, and they should indicate the name and title of the host organization supervisor.
• The student’s academic advisor and the head of the program (if they are not the same individual) should approve the plan before the start of the internship and the start of the semester.
• The student should identify a faculty member to serve as the internship course supervisor for the internship. If that faculty member is not the program head, then the program head should approve the selection of the internship course supervisor.
• The student and the internship course supervisor should together agree on a syllabus of academic readings to complement the student’s practical experience. The student 4 should provide a number of readings that are relevant to contextualize the anticipated work experience from a theoretical/practical perspective.
• The student’s academic advisor should not approve the student’s enrollment in the internship course until all of the requirements above in this section have been fulfilled.

d) Requirement during and after the completion of the internship

• The student is required to regularly inform his/her internship course supervisor on his/her progress.
• The student and the internship academic supervisor should meet approximately four times per semester to discuss the readings on the syllabus and their relation to the internship work.
• After completion of the required hours for the internship, the student should write a final essay of at least 1500 words about his/her experiences, what he/she has learnt and some conceptual aspects the student has worked on during the time spent in host organization. This paper should integrate both the “text” of the student’s practical experience and the texts on the syllabus. The exact scope of this essay should be determined with the internship course supervisor.
• The host organization supervisor should verify in writing that the student has completed the minimum sixty hours of work, and should be encouraged to submit a letter of evaluation emphasizing the student’s achievements and challenges.
• If all requirements are complete the internship course supervisor will indicate that the student has passed the course. All internships are graded on a pass-fail basis.

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