General Guidelines to Internship and Project at the 9th semester

At the 9th semester, the students can either choose to study a semester at a foreign university, or they have the possibility to gain practical experiences and insights at a place of internship. Those choosing the internship have also to write a shorter project, which gives the opportunity to reflect upon some of the experiences. The work at the internship place is credited with 15 ECTS. In order to get the ECTS, the student has to present a written and signed paper declaration by the internship institution that the student has worked satisfactorily. The internship project, equally credited with 15 ECTS, is supposed to be problem-based, dealing with a problem of relevance to the fields of study in general, but where material and observations gained at the internship institution enter as empirical material to a high extent. Examples of possible subjects could be: (1) Is development aid effective, seen in the light of ( e.g. a Danida aid project in Nigeria)? (2) Can the European Parliament effectively control the Commission, seen in the light of (e.g. the work of XY, Member of the European Parliament)? In case the student is doing research work at the place of internship, then this research work can also enter the project. In most internship places there is little spare time for project writing. It is therefore of utmost importance, that the student, in cooperation with the supervisor, finds a problem formulation early on, so that precious time will not be lost. If possible, the problem formulation should be ready before departure. In case where this is not feasible, because the student has first to get acquainted to the type of work at the internship place, the problem formulation should be ready no later than two weeks after arrival. The maximum length of the project is 8000 words. The date of delivery is 15 January at the latest. The text will be evaluated by an examiner and an extern censor. Grade will be given according to the Danish scale. It is very important that the delivery date of 15 January gets respected, even if the student does not think that the text is of a sufficient quality. In case the student fails, there will be a possibility for a new delivery date and re-examination in February. However, re-examination supposes that the problem of the project will be substantially changed. The programme coordinator has to accept the change of the problem. Students who do not deliver a text at all until 15 January, have to wait until the next ordinary examination date with a completely new project. This way up to one year could be lost.