In the internship plan you describe your internship assignment and all other aspects relating to the internship. You do this using the faculty’s template. 

Get started 

1. First you write a draft of your internship plan. You discuss the internship assignment beforehand with your internship supervisor and your internship lecturer. You describe your internship assignment in your internship plan. 

2. Before you start your internship, the internship plan has to be signed by the internship lecturer, the internship supervisor and the faculty’s internship coordinator. 

3. Next, the Career Service will forward it to the Board of Examiners, who have to formally approve of the internship. Only when you have their approval, you can start your internship. 

Internship assignment 

Every internship includes an internship assignment at an appropriate academic level, for example conducting research or a project that can be carried out independently. The internship assignment is shaped in consultation with the internship supervisor and the internship lecturer. The internship organisation gives you the opportunity to spend time on completing the internship assignment and writing the final product discussed. 

Learning objectives 

Every student has their own reason for doing an internship, for example to explore the job market or to learn how to apply the knowledge and/or skills the student has acquired during their studies. The objectives are described in general terms below. 

Learning objectives: 

1. Increasing knowledge and understanding of their own discipline; 

2. Applying and expanding the skills acquired in the study programme in a professional practice; 

3. Developing and improving the competencies that are relevant to the future career path, preferably in relation to the study programme; 

4. Collecting and analysing data and/or sources to form an opinion based on the consideration of scientific, social, societal and/or ethical aspects; 

5. Applying and expanding the communication skills necessary to transfer knowledge and ideas to specialists and non-specialists; 

6. To be able to collaborate by providing insight into the contribution of their own discipline to the solution of a (scientific) problem;  

7. Exploring or familiarizing oneself with the future job environment; 

8. Getting familiar with working in a professional working environment; 

9. Developing professional contacts that contribute to a smoother transition from study programme to job market. 

In the internship plan you choose from the learning objectives listed above and motivate why you chose these. You decide on the aspects that you find important for your internship, and that you want to focus on during the internship. That means that based on the abstract learning objectives listed above, you include a number of personal, concrete and clearly formulated learning objectives in your internship plan. 

An internship as part of your study programme 

It is important that your internship fits in the bigger structure of your study programme. Make sure to indicate this in your study plan. 

There are three options: 

• as a compulsory component as part of the study programme, the internship plan has to be approved by the Board of Examiners; 

• as part of the elective credits, such as in the bachelor’s or an optional course in the master’s. If it is an individual plan of elective credits (so not an internship as part of a university minor), the Board of Examiners will always ask to see the intended plan for all the elective credits in total, together with the intended internship plan. To request a plan for all elective credits in total you go to your study adviser, to request the approval for the content of the internship you go to your internship coordinator. Sometimes the approved programme (see Prospectus) provides an option to fill a number of ECs with an internship. The internship then requires approval from the Board of Examiners as well; 

• as an extra-curricular component. In this case you also need approval from the Board of Examiners.    

Please note: an internship is not part of your thesis! 

The internship is not an (external) research thesis. An internship is a standalone educational component with predetermined guidelines and specific learning objectives. It is possible to use the outcome of the internship research as one of the sources for your bachelor’s or master’s thesis. The internship is assessed separately from the bachelor’s or master’s thesis, according to the internship guidelines. You cannot (partially) use the credits you have earned for an internship for your thesis. 

Include an intermediate evaluation in your internship plan 

During the second half of your internship, you set up a meeting to discuss your progress with you, your internship supervisor and your internship lecturer. Include this intermediate evaluation in your internship plan under meetings with the internship lecturer. This meeting can be in person at the organisation or by video call. 

At the end of your internship you write an internship report. This includes the attachment of the final product of your internship assignment that you completed during your internship. Writing the internship report is part of the internship, and is included in the duration of the internship. This means that during the internship, the internship organisation has to give you time to carry out your own internship assignment, produce your final product and write the internship report. 

Content of the internship report 

You include the following components in the internship report: 

1. A description of the internship activities; 

2. A description of the department and/or organisation; 

3. A reflection on the personal learning process/achieving previously set (personal) learning objectives; 

4. A reflection on a) the personal profile (knowledge, skills, competencies) in relation to the internship practice and personal performance during the internship, and b) the motivation; 

5. A reflection on a future study programme (NB only applies to bachelor’s internships); 

6. A reflection on the internship in relation to job market/career preparation. 

Additional requirements internship report 

Please take the following requirements into account when writing your internship report.  

• The internship report is written in Dutch or English, unless otherwise agreed in advance and recorded in the internship plan.  

• The internship report is separate from the ‘final product’ of your internship. In principle, by final product of the internship we mean the report of the internship assignment you carried out during your internship. Any additionally produced documents/products are added to the final product. In case of an immaterial final product (for example the organisation of a festival or congress), its nature and realisation is reported on in a separate report.  

• The final product of the internship and other relevant documents if applicable, are added to the internship report as attachments. 

Submitting your internship report 

• When you finish your internship report and final product, you ask your internship supervisor to read it first. 

• When the internship supervisor agrees with the content, you submit the report to your internship lecturer. 

• The final date for submitting the internship report is 15 days after the final internship day, unless otherwise agreed in the internship plan. After this time limit the report will not be assessed (and you no longer receive EC for the internship), unless the Board of Examiners gives you permission to submit the internship report at a later date.  

• The internship lecturer will review the report within 15 days. When the internship lecturer is not able to review the internship report within the set time limit, you will hear this from your internship lecturer as soon as possible. 

When you have fully completed the internship, the (external) internship supervisor provides the (internal) internship lecturer with input for the assessment via a standardised feedback form. The internship lecturer then decides on the final assessment of the internship, using a standardised assessment form based on: 

1. Preparing the internship: realising the internship plan and other preparatory activities; 

2. Performance during the internship: particularly based on the feedback from the internship supervisor;  

3. Internship report: the content and quality of the internship report. 

4. Final product: the quality of the final product resulting from the internship.  

If desired, the internship supervisor and/or internship lecturer can also have a final meeting with you, in addition to the written evaluation and assessment.  

To complete the internship successfully, you have to obtain at least a passing grade for performance and for the internship report. If your internship lecturer gives you an insufficient grade for the internship report, you are given one opportunity to improve this component based on the feedback from the internship lecturer. The grade will be registered as insufficient in uSis. You can write an improved second version, which is considered a resit. You have to submit this second version within 15 days. If you receive another insufficient mark, or if you do not submit the second version on time, you will receive an insufficient grade for the internship. 

When the internship lecturer has approved the internship report and assessed the internship, the internship lecturer submits the ‘assessment form’ to the education administration office of the study programme concerned. The student sends the final internship report to the internship lecturer. 

During your internship, you could decide that you would like to stay at your internship organisation for a longer period. You then have to submit a request for internship extension to the Board of Examiners. 

• This request has to be submitted a minimum of three weeks before the intended extension to the Board of Examiners via the Career Service. 

• In this request you set out the reason for your requested extension. An extension of the internship is only allowed on substantive grounds (for example if you need more time to complete your internship assignment, or if the project you are involved in is still ongoing). For a longer internship duration, any extra ECs could possibly be included as extracurricular on your diploma supplement. This is decided by the Board of Examiners. 

• You request an extension with the Board of Examiners by following the same procedure of the (initial) internship plan, including the same signatures.