Student internships

Several departments in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Cameron School of Business offer students the opportunity to earn academic credit within a work environment. The purpose of the internship experience is to enhance, supplement, and integrate the learning that occurs in formal classroom settings.

Permission of the dean and department offering the internship is required to enroll, and the department places limits on the number of credit hours earned applicable toward graduation. Internships are graded on a pass/fail basis. These credit hours earned will count towards the number of hours required to graduate, but the grade of Pass (P) will be excluded from the computation of the GPA.

Internship courses are designated 498 and are established in the same manner that other academic courses are proposed and approved. That is, departmental proposals are processed through the curriculum review procedure for appropriate faculty and administrative approvals. Internships proposed initially as experimental (trial) courses require the same processing as regular internship proposals.

Procedure to enroll students in internships

Student enrollment in internships shall follow the same procedures as enrollment in other academic courses, with the following additional requirements:

• Academic credit awarded for each internship program shall not exceed six credit hours.
• Limits are placed by the department offering the internships on the number of credit hours earned in this manner which may be applied toward graduation.
• Prior to the commencement of any work or study, a contract shall be negotiated by the faculty supervisor between the university and the participating agency. The contract must be approved by the department chairperson and the appropriate dean, each of whom will retain a copy on file, and it shall include the following:
  • The time, duration, credit hours, and location of study for the student.
  • The internship objectives, i.e., the skills or experience required for the student to complete the course of study.
  • The evaluation techniques for assessing student achievement of internship objectives, e.g., tests, term papers, on-site examination, etc. Although the evaluation of student achievement may be a collaborative effort between supervisory individuals, the faculty supervisor has full responsibility and accountability for the assignment of a course grade.
• A copy of the approved contract shall be forwarded by the dean to the office of the Registrar for inclusion in the student's file.