General Internship Requirements

All students on the Semester-in-SEA exchange programme are required to undertake at least one (1) internship module - SE3550 Southeast Asian Studies Internship (4 Units).

Students may, if needed, undertake ISE3550 Extended Internship for an additional 4 Units.

Courses	Units	Internship Hours	Courses Classification
SE3550 Southeast Asian Studies Internship	4	120	Counted towards SE major requirements.
ISE3550 Extended Internship*	4	120	Can be counted towards Unrestricted Electives (UE) requirements only.

*ISE3550 Extended Internship must be undertaken concurrently with SE3550 Southeast Asian Studies Internship.

At the end of the internship, each student must submit a final report (maximum 3000 words) and journal to the Department of Southeast Asian Studies. The report and journal will be assessed by staff of the Department. Only one final report is required even if you do ISE3550 Extended Internship.

Arranging Internships

You can source your own internship or opt for your student exchange Partner University to source an internship for you.

Sourcing Your Own Internship

If you have sourced your own internship, submit the following using the SEA Internship Proposal Form to the Department SEP administrator for approval:

• Details of host organisation, including address, contact number, email and contact person.
• Scope and description of duties
• Intended learning outcomes from the internship
• Planned work schedule (based on 120 or 240 hours)

Once the internship is approved by the Department, please request the host organisation to issue an official acceptance letter with details of the agreed internship arrangements. A scanned copy of this letter must be submitted to the Department.

Partner University Sourced Internship

If you would like your Partner University to assign an internship for you, please submit your latest CV to the Department SEP administrator. Your CV should include your intended learning outcomes from an internship.

Internship Guidelines for Students

Please ensure you are clear about your work schedule and tasks early in the semester, after meeting and consulting with your host organisation. Please raise any doubts or concerns you have, and ask for clarification, as soon as possible.

The core tasks of your internship will be explained to you by your host organisation. In addition, you need to keep a written journal of your tasks and learning experiences, which you will use as the basis for your final report, which is to be submitted to the Department of Southeast Asian Studies when you finish the internship.

Journal

The journal should be completed during the period of your internship. The Department of Southeast Asian Studies suggests recording weekly entries.

• Each entry should be at least 300 words.
• Journal entries should describe the work done, what you learned, and your immediate observations/reflections.

The journal can be in the form of a diary entry, blog etc.

Report

The report is to be written towards the end of the internship and should include the following components:

• Description of the internship (its objectives, schedule and principal activities completed).
• Reflection upon the internship experience (the learning outcomes, including social, personal and any technical skills acquired).
• Closing remarks.

The report may be build upon your journal entries to draw some conclusions about what you have learnt as an intern, and how it does (or does not) relate to what you have learnt in Southeast Asian Studies but should not be copied verbatim from them. You may – if you want – include other items that are related to the issues you are covering: pictures, news clippings, or other materials, which you can use to illustrate the points you wish to develop. The report should be no longer than 3 000 words.

Assessment

Evaluation is based on 100% Continuous Assessment.

Your final report and journal for the internship will be assessed by a SEAD staff member with the following criteria in mind:

• Making sense of your internship experience. This means relating what you encountered to your knowledge of the country and to questions raised in the field of Southeast Asian Studies. These could include one or more of the issues, debates or problems that you have been presented with in the course of your other modules. In general, this criterion relates to being able to put the particular experiences you had in the context of a bigger picture.

• Reflection. This related to your originality and creativity in thinking about your experiences and in drawing connections, both among the experiences of the internship and with some of the larger issues to which they relate.

• Analytical skills. This refers to your ability to develop a coherent argument or line of interpretation, to build your case in a logical manner and support it appropriately (and to acknowledge issues on which you are uncertain, or for which you do not have adequate evidence).

• Clarity and organisation. This means expressing yourself clearly, using language precisely and accurately, and organising your material so that it forms an ordered, structured report that is easy to read.