Internship FAQ

No, you don’t. For admittance to the bachelor’s programme no pre-study internship is required.

You should submit your internship registration as early as possible (ideally several months) before the start of the internship.

At the time of submission, the minimum requirements according to your study and examination regulations (see also the formal requirements) should either be met or to be met in the current exam period.

The internship registration is to be submitted to the internship coordinator and must be fully completed and signed. It is delivered via the Dean’s office (to the coordinator’s pigeon hole) and must be e-mailed as scanned and/or PDF document in addition.

On 10 to 20 pages, the internship report should give an overview of internship activities you completed.  The aim is not to trace the chronology of activities, but to summarize the most interesting topics.

The report should be written in a professional style. This includes an organized structure, an understandable way of writing and, if necessary, graphs as well as tables for visualisation.

If you refer to other sources, a short bibliography is required.

This report is the basis for your presentation in the colloquium.

It is up to you how you structure the text.

It should contain the following:

• Introduction including a short outline (0,5 to 1 page)
• Introduction to your internship company (2 pages max.)
• Description of projects and tasks
• Summary

The summary may include a personal assessment:

• What did you (not really) like?
• What are the most important insights?

In any case, it does not suffice to simply list the tasks. If applicable, the source code of created programmes must not be part of the report, because the copyright for it is with the company!

The 6th semester sees the specialisation courses. You can take these courses only if you have earned 120 ECTS credits. In order to ensure that the successful completion of the supervised internship period as well as the booking of the ECTS credits can be determined in good time, you should submit a (possibly still provisional) report about one month before the start of the next semester. The exact date will be communicated via the e-mail distribution list.

The final report has to be submitted no later than at the final presentation.

No, the report is not graded.

The Department of Student Affairs (HSST) processes all your data including all grades. In terms of the practical semesters, the internship office processes all necessary data. In particular, it ensures that a properly completed internship module is entered to the grade sheet/transcript of records.

The programmes’ internship coordinators are responsible for conducting the internship period on the Faculty’s side. They also make sure that all parts of the internship module are completed successfully. Thus, they process the following personal data:

• Matriculation no., surname, first name, FHWS e-mail address (if required in connection to the internship seminar or to information for other organisational reasons)
• Semester and period, company/institution,
• Internship contract, submission and assessment of report
• Title and execution of the project
• Successful project presentation

A multi-level procedure ensures that third parties cannot access the computers and applications used to process personal data.

Groupings are not made publicly available. If lists have to be published, they only contain the matriculation numbers, not the names of the students.

Yes. Only if you declared your consent in writing, features of your internship period are stored in a database. You have reading access to the contents (please authenticate with your k-number and your windows domain password):

* When the declaration of consent is available, only surname, first name, FHWS e-mail address and matriculation number are stored.

* When the internship company is approved, the following information from your registration is stored: * Semester, period, internship company and title of your internship project

* As soon as the corresponding documents are available, the following entry is made to the database: Contract, project description, timeline for the project, interim report (if available), final report, certificate

* Final report: Submission and result (consultation required or report accepted)

* Result of the final presentation

* Information about a possibly required consultation

* Successful completion of the internship period

Data will be deleted once the examination committee has established that the supervised internship period has been successfully completed.

In accordance with the General Examination Regulations of FHWS an exemption from the internship period can only be made for specially justified cases. In particular, it must be guaranteed that the achievement that is to be transferred corresponds with the requirements of the supervised internship. This is possible, if the achievements that is to be transferred has been made after completion of a relevant vocational training during a relevant employment.

In accordance with the study and examination regulations currently valid, the application for the transfer of credits earned previous to the current studies must be made in writing parallel to the enrolment at FHWS, but no later than one month after enrolment  to the Department of Student Affairs (HSST).

If professional activities are only partially relevant for the internship period, the internship may be reduced proportionately.

Minor reductions (less than 6 weeks) are not granted. Moreover, you worsen your chances to get a placement for the reduced period.

Every time credits are transferred there are generally also study periods recognised. If more than 75% of the regular semester workload (30 ECTS credit points) are to be transferred, it will be rounded up to one full semester.

However, you will only be exempted from completing the supervised internship! In particular, you have to do the following:

• Present a report on the activities that led to the exemption from the internship;
• Specify a project you have worked on during the period on which the exemption is base;
• Do a final presentation on this project.

For the internship in the bachelor’s programme, a partly self-reliant participation in different phases of a larger project is mandatory. This project must be specified in the internship contract concluded between the company/institution and you and has to have the scope of at least 12 weeks. Additionally, a qualified supervision in the company/institution must be guaranteed.

For this, you must make an application for the approval of an internship placement. Please use the forms available for download (BEC, BIN, BWI) and hand the form together with your internship contract to the internship coordinator of your degree programme in due time!

Your study and examination regulations govern the formal conditions you have to meet to start your internship: You must have earned at least 91 ECTS credits from the first four programme semesters. Other conditions may depend from your degree programme and the time you took up studies. For further details, please refer to the regulations in the study and examination regulations valid for you.

The internship is deemed to be successfully completed if the following applies:

• The activity was completed in full time (at least 20 weeks full-time; proven by certificate);
• An accepted report is available;
• You presented the project conducted by you and the company/institution and the presentation was accepted.

The examination committee determines successful completion of the internship period after you delivered the last achievement.

All companies or institutions that fulfil the conditions in terms of content (see related question) and guarantee qualified supervision are generally suited for a possible internship. Additionally, there are contact information of companies in the section on internship companies.

Our University is proud (and rightly so!) of the fact that by integrating an internship studies focus not on theory only. If you do the internship at FHWS or a comparable institution/institution, the wrong impression may be created from an outsider’s perspective. This has nothing to do with the fact that no practice-relevant tasks might be offered at FHWS. But if you take only the factor “time pressure”, work in a company is to be assessed differently to work in a higher education institution.

Due to this, it is not possible to do the supervised internship at a higher education institution or a comparable institution.

Yes! The transcript of records lists all graded and ungraded assessments and their results. However, it also lists all failed attempts. Due to this, the Department of Student Affairs (HSST) issues a so-called grade certificate on request. This grade certificate lists all your successful achievements only.

In addition, every student receives a certificate for ungraded assessments that proves successful participation by awarding a grade.

Please follow the sample contract available when concluding the internship contract. In addition to general concerns under employment law, the contract specifies in particular the following:

• the obligation of the training institution
  • to train you for the agreed period in accordance with the internship plan and to have you supervised for this period by a qualified person;
  • to allow you to take an examination when required,
  • to review and sign the report that is to be produced by the student;
  • to issue a training reference in good time for the end of the internship.
• your obligation
  • to take advantage of the training opportunities and to carefully perform the tasks assigned in accordance with the internship plan;
  • to produce a report on the tasks and contents of the training during the internship in due time.
• the students’ insurance issues as well as
• the possibility of premature termination of the contract.

Furthermore, the contract must specify a "larger project" already. This project must have a timeframe of at least 12 weeks. In your own interest, please bear in mind that an approval or possible changes of the project happen in such timely manner that you don’t have a waiting period during the internship period. Work on a project that has not been approved may be classified as being no part of the internship!

The internship must have a duration of at least 20 weeks. A full-time activity is assumed. During the internship, you are not entitled to holiday!

You have to work at least 100 days full-time. In order to compensate for possible days of illness, the internship period should therefore even be longer than 20 weeks. 

The end of the internship should be before the start of the next semester so you can start your area of specialisation. Ideally, the internship ends at least 2 weeks before the start of the next semester.

As a student, you are subject to student health and nursing care insurance. You are exempt from unemployment insurance because you are not available on the labour market. Family insurance has priority over your own health insurance, but only applies if certain income limits are not exceeded.

You are exempt from statutory pension insurance if the internship is a mandatory part of your studies and lasts no longer than 26 weeks.

As proof, the company/institution needs the confirmation that the internship is a mandatory part of your studies. If you use the Faculty’s form (Stg. EC, Stg. Inf, Stg. WInf) to get approval of an internship placement, you will receive the required confirmation together with the approval by the responsible internship coordinator. Otherwise, you have to contact the internship office at HSST for this confirmation. 

As any other module/course, you can of course postpone the internship. A postponement like this may of course result in other problems (such as delays in admission to specialisation courses if the number of earned ECTS credits is too low). If you think of a postponement, please make an appointment with your programme’s internship coordinator to discuss possible consequences.

The supervised internship is not graded. The examination committee determines successful completion of the internship period after you delivered the last achievement. After this, the Department of Student Affairs (HSST) can record the ECTS credits earned for the internship.

• In summer semesters: usually between the last week of February and the first week of March
• In winter semesters: usually in the last two weeks of September

Detailed information will be provided by e-mail or poster.

Generally, the seminar takes place before the start of the supervised internship.
Apart from attending the block course during the lecture-free period, you can attend the seminar also in the 4th semester. Please note that your workload is correspondingly higher in the 4th semester!

There are no admission requirements for the internship seminar. 

No! As long as you meet the formal conditions to start your internship (see related question), you can attend the seminar whenever you like. 

Please note that postponing a course/module may result in problems with admittance to other courses/modules (such as specialisation modules)!

Here are the most important dates and deadlines:

• Submission of the application for approval of an internship placement: The application must be submitted in sufficient time to allow an examination of the company/institution before the start of the internship. The project description is part of the application. If this is to be specified later, documents must be submitted in time before work starts.
• Possible application for being exempted from the internship: This application is processed by the programme’s internship coordinator and approved by the examination committee. In accordance with the study and examination regulations currently valid, the application for the transfer of credits earned previous to the current studies must be made in writing parallel to the enrolment at FHWS, but no later than one month after enrolment  to the Department of Student Affairs (HSST).
• There is a separate registration procedure for the internship seminar. You will only be able to attend the seminar, if you register for participation in the respective period.
• The date for the submission of the internship report will be communicated via the e-mail distribution list. If the internship is still in progress, you have to submit a preliminary report (interim report). You have to submit the final report immediately after the end of the internship, but no later than at the final presentation.

Please note the following conditions:

• If your academic progress allows, you are entitled to start the internship (see related question on formal conditions). Examination results must be officially recorded about two to three weeks after the examination period.
• The internship placement must be approved (see related question on conditions in terms of content)
• The timeframe of the internship does not collide with the internship seminar or other courses. Accordingly, the end of the internship period must be scheduled in a way that the courses of the following semester are not affected.