The Australian National Internships Program provides students from any discipline with the opportunity to undertake a significant research project within a work place, develop an understanding of public policy processes, and learn professional skills. Academic credit will be awarded towards the students' degrees.  All placements are 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.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will 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 stakeholers on policy-relevant topics

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

A 500-word research project proposal  (10% of the final grade) [LO 1]

A research report of up to 20,000 words (70%) [LO1, 2, 3 & 4]

An oral presentation on the research report (20%) [LO1, 2, 3 & 4].

4.5 days per week for 11 weeks undertaking an internship placement working on an approved internship research topic, plus a 3 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 (96 units).

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

Not Applicable

There are no prescribed exts for this course

n/a