Internship

Together with the thesis, the research master internship constitutes the individual trajectory of the student. The exact activities/tasks, mode of working, schedule and expected outcomes may vary across individual internship projects, but they are all always agreed upon prior to the beginning of the internship and spelled-out in the written Trainee Agreement form. To be valid, this form must be signed by the internal supervisors, the student and (if applicable) the external supervisor.

Trainees can participate in internships that take place i) in-house, ii) at another research institution in the Netherlands, or iii) abroad. Students are responsible for finding their own supervisor, but are strongly encouraged to consult with their programme coordinator on their choice. In all cases the trainee must have a first supervisor, who is responsible for filing the results in Osiris and is affiliated with the programme.

All internships, even those predominantly oriented towards application and valorization must have a clearly defined component of fundamental/basic research in it.  All internship projects must have two final deliverables: 

  1. Research Paper – a paper presenting the research question(s), relevance, theoretical framework, methodology, result(s), outcome(s), and conclusion(s) of the research project;
  2. Reflection Report -  a short report following the internship (2 A4 pages), reflecting upon the suitability and desirability of the research environment the internship took place in, be it for theoretical, experimental, or applied work. Both are submitted to the local internship supervisor, who bases the final grade on their combined content (in conjunction with a second, possibly external supervisor when applicable). 

The internship enables students to acquire hands-on experience with linguistics research in an ongoing project headed by a senior researcher. The aim is to practice research, academic, and communicative skills the students have been equipped with during the RMA programme, and to prepare them for carrying out their own research in the RMA thesis. Therefore, the internship follows the electives, and precedes the thesis. The internship may but need not be directly connected to the student’s thesis, by providing, for instance, a pilot experiment or preliminary data/corpus collection that will be improved and further worked out/analyzed in the thesis or a critical evaluation of theoretical background.   

Step-by-step plan (Research) Master's internship

The steps below will help you prepare for your internship. Please read these carefully together with the detailed HUM Internship manual – (Research) Master’s (pdf), which includes important information on finding an internship, internships abroad, writing the internship work plan, registering in Osiris, supervision, keeping a logbook and writing the final report and evaluation.

Please be aware that the corona pandemic may affect your internship. Read these guidelines to find out what you should keep in mind while the corona measures are still in place.