Research Internship
Full course description
During the internships in the third semester, the students work as research assistants, supervised by an experienced researcher at the institute or university where they are 'employed'. This introduces the students to the specific challenges of contract research and research assignments in non-academic institutional contexts. There are two types of research internships: 1. Research internships in knowledge-intensive institutes or NGOs that are related to science, technology and culture 2. Research internships in universities and other academic research institutes. In both kinds of internships students are ‘employed’ as research assistants in projects that they have not primarily defined themselves. They do research in real-life settings on problems that typically have a clear external, societal relevance. At the end of the research internship, students hand in an internship portfolio, consisting of a reflexive report, various documents that document the output of the internship work, and including one substantial, single-authored piece of research, which can stand on its own as a finalized product of research.
Course objectives
The purpose is to learn to collaborate with other researchers and support staff, and learn to cope with (sometimes very different) national and institutional cultures. They learn to meet deadlines and to adapt their standards of completeness to what is reasonably possible within a given timeframe. They learn to balance ‘external’ demands of timeliness and relevance with ‘internal’ criteria of scholarly quality.
Prerequisites
Admission to 2nd year of CAST