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Preliminaries & general information

Searching, obtaining and finishing an internship is a very independent process and is an important preparation towards your professional career. Based on your personal preferences you will have to search independently for a research group within your field of research. Within the university there are many possibilities for internships.

During an internship you work (usually full time) on a topic supervised by  a member of the academic staff or a PhD student. Formal supervision (i.e. responsibility and assessment) can only be done by a member of permanent scientific staff: full professor, associate professor (UHD), or assistant professor (UD).

You will spend a long time on this internship; at least enough time for simple miscommunications to snowball into large problems. Like an insurance, being open and clear about expectations now, both you and your supervisor can avoid many problems in the future.

There are many things you could discuss with your supervisor. To help you along in formulating your own questions, have you considered the following:

  • How often will you meet your daily supervisor to discuss the progress of the project?
  • Does your supervisor provide you with a place to work (at their department)? If so, do they expect you to actually be there?
  • Your daily supervisor is not necessarily the assessor of your final work. Is this the case for your project and if so, who will be your daily supervisor? And how (often) will you keep in contact with the assessor?
  • Will you get feedback from your supervisor on your thesis, or do they expect you to get feedback from other sources (like friends and family)?
  • Do you have courses you still need to take and if so, does your supervisor know about your limited availability around that time?
  • Do you have a date you need to (or want to) be finished with your internship?
  • Does your supervisor find it important you are present at group activities like seminars, colloquia or outings? If so, when are these?
  • Will there be a moment to reflect on the progress and collaboration during the project (e.g. after 6 months)?

Please take time to discuss mutual expectations with your supervisor and to find common ground to build your internship upon.