Internship and Exchange

An internship may be chosen as part of your Master Program. The internship is optional and not a required part of your program. The study load of an internship totals 15 credits. An internship can be carried out in academia or in industry, in the Netherlands or abroad. The objective of an internship is to gain experience in your future work field. Please note that this experience can also be gained during your graduation project.

An internship is supervised by an academic staff member at TU/e, called an Internship Supervisor. This ensures that the internship meets academic criteria. We strongly advise that you contact a supervisor at TU/e before you contact a company. Please note that you need permission for your internship before you start, as the internship needs to fit in your study program and contribute to the learning objectives of the Master. You can ask for permission by turning in the internship plan form (see bullet points below).

A set of rules and regulations applies to doing an internship. You will find these below. For students who started the program in academic year 2021, or follow the 2021 curriculum, new regulations on the internship and graduation project will become effective from academic year 2022-2023. These new rules are listed in italics below. We kindly ask all students who started the program in academic year 2021, or follow the 2021 curriculum, to take these into account when planning their program. Any student from the cohort 2021, who had already planned doing their internship, or was busy organizing it and feels these new rules unduly effect their study plans, may appeal to the exam committee to be granted an exception from these rules. Please note that appeals without motivation will not be taken into consideration.

• The Internship can be done externally (at a company or other university) or internally (at TU/e).
• The study load is 15 credits, corresponding to ca 420 hours of study.
• The Internship should fit in the study program and it should contribute to the learning outcomes of the Master’s degree program.
• Approval for an internship is asked in advance via both
  • the 'Internship plan'  form. (see “forms” tab),
  • a request stating what is to be accomplished in the internship and why it contributes to your study program (turned in with the Internship plan form).
• For all DSiE students, and for IST and CSE students who are following the curriculum of Academic Year 2020 or earlier, the Internship fits under the “free electives” part of the study program. For IST and CSE students following the curriculum of 2021 or later, the internship falls under “specialization electives.”
• Internship and graduation phase must be on clearly distinct topics.

• Internship and graduation cannot both be done in industry
  • So, if you did an internship with an external company you need to do your Graduation Project at TU/e
• Internal internship and graduation cannot both be done with the same supervisor
  • So, if you did an internship with one of the TU/e research clusters you need to find another supervisor for your Graduation Project.

Questions? Contact the Academic Advisors at mcs.academic.advisor.mcs@remove-this.tue.nl.

Students who have no (or insufficient) international experience are encouraged to obtain international experience worth at least 15 creidts. The international experience can be made up of courses, research,  internships, or the graduation project. International experience it not required.

Students should check the most up-to-date Covid regulations from the TU/e to see what is possible regarding exchange.

The scheduling of a student’s international experience depends on their master program, prescribed homologation courses (if applicable), as well as the availability of the local supervisor and a supervisor/contact person at the host institution (if the student is doing an internship or graduation project abroad). Under regular circumstances, the first quartile of the second year might be the most appropriate. For an internship, starting in the summer might be most appropriate because then the internship will end before the start of the second quartile.

International exchange will give the students the possibility to:

- Get experience working outside the home university and learn how international organizations work.

- Interact with and understand different cultures, languages, habits.

- Start an international network including young, and highly educated colleagues abroad.

Questions about exchange can be directed to mcs.exchange@remove-this.tue.nl.