The Australian National Internships Program provides students from any discipline with the opportunity to undertake a significant research project within a work place. Academic credit will be awarded towards the students' degrees.  All placements are in Canberra at national institutions (eg Parliament House, government departments and agencies), peak industry bodies, public policy-focussed NGOs, or international organisations (eg foreign embassies).

Admission to this course is selective due to the high academic standards required to successfully complete the course.  

Internship placements are for 11 weeks.  The research topic is agreed between the Intern and the placement and topics usually have a public policy focus.  During the Internship students attend workshops on campus to enhance their professional skills.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• 1: Demonstrate and apply a range of new applied research and professional skills;

• 2: Source,  analyse, synthesise, and interpret information from diverse sources;

• 3: Think, write, and argue about complex public policy issues and questions;

• 4: Engage professionally with stakeholders on policy-relevant topics. 

Assessment of the achievement of learning outcomes in this course will be undertaken through submission and grading of:

 • a research project proposal (5% of the final grade);

 • a brief mid semester (approximately) progress report (5%) (LO 3 and 4);

• a research report of up to 16,000 words (60%) (LO 1, 2, 3 and 4);

 •  an oral presentation on the research report (20%) (LO 1, 2, 3 and 4). and

 • a placement supervisor's report (10%) (LO 1, 2 and 4).

Total written workload for this course is approximately 17000 words (research proposal + research report).

This course involves the following workload:

• 4 full days per week for 11 weeks undertaking applied research and writing the Internship research report; and

• a 1 hour workshop each week of the semester, developing professional skills and dealing with course issues. 

All students must have successfully completed at least 2 years of an undergraduate program.

All students require departmental / school consent to enrol in this course.

All students must have standard Microsoft Office Suite and Internet access.