Internship Environmental Engineering

During the internship, the student learns how a professional organisation operates with its clients and other organisations and demonstrates the ability to work in a professional organisation at an academic level. It is essential that the internship is performed within a professional working environment. This can for example be a consultant, a contractor, a governmental board or department, a ministry or similar. An internship may consist of an assignment or project completely carried out by the student, a contribution to a large-scale project or an analysis of for instance a construction process. The goals of the company are leading in the project, be it that the learning objectives of the internship must be met and the activities are of sufficient academic level. The work of the student resides within the field of environmental engineering and the student is mainly supervised by the company.

Please note the difference with the Research Internship (CIEM0120 and its extension ENVM0121).

The internship is arranged with:

1. Kick of meeting with company supervisor and academic supervisor

2. Academic supervisor joins in an activity that the student performs at the company (e.g. presentation at team meeting, workshop etc)

3. Performance interview at the end of the internship based on the documents provided with company supervisor and academic supervisor

The internship is assessed on the basis of a report consisting of three distinct sections: 1) a company reflection (30% of the final grade) 2) a personal reflection (40% of the final grade) and 3) a technical section (30% of the final grade).

During the academic year '23/'24, discrepancies were discovered between the quantitative requirements in the study guide and the internship manual. This had to be corrected. The corrections are two lower minimum requirements, namely 1500 instead of 4000 words for both the company reflection and the personal reflection. The corrected information can be found below.

Ad 1. Company reflection (min. 1500 words, equivalent to 4 pages). This part contains a description of the main function of the company and its position on the environmental engineering market. The role or concerns of other key stakeholders is addressed. The student describes the formal organisation of the company and provides an overview of the processes from acquisition of a project until the final product (project management). The student analyses strengths and weaknesses of the organization, in relation to the work done. The internal organisation of the department where the intern is working is analysed regarding cultural aspects or group roles (e.g., using the methods provided by Meyer, Hofstede and Belbin). The student is able to reflect on the ethical and societal aspects and consequences of the main project on during the internship, and relates the own role and actions to these aspects and consequences – with focus on the position of the academic engineers and own position as an intern with a university background.

Ad 2. Personal reflection (min. 1500 words, equivalent to 4 pages). This part contains the student’s reflection on the extent to which the personal learning objectives have been met during the internship and the professional experience gained (knowledge and skills). The student is able to identify and reflect upon at least three personal learning objectives specific to the internship before the start of the internship. The student is able to critically reflect to what extent these personal learning objectives are reached and define new learning goals. The student is able to reflect on own aspirations to have a similar role in a similar company after graduation.

Ad 3. Technical part (min. 20 pages, excl. appendices). This section contains a description of the project or assignment performed within the context of the internship (as defined in the internship proposal ) and the technical results achieved during the internship period. The student shows the ability to apply the relevant academic knowledge and engineering skills from the ENVM program in a professional setting in the field of environmental engineering.

In the case of major discrepancies between the findings of the internship supervisors, the responsible lecturer decides on the grading of the internship at hand.

Permitted Materials during Exam

N/A