Internship in a company

If you would like to do an internship in a company/organization, you will need a TU/e staff member in a suitable research group to supervise the project. You should find this supervisor before finding an internship. Often, contacts with a company have already been established by your supervisor. We strongly advise against contacting a company yourself first and then later looking for an appropriate TU/e supervisor. Together with the TU/e supervisor and the company, you decide on the description of your internship.

We strongly advise you to start making arrangements early (not weeks, but rather a couple months before the start of your project).

You will usually have to enter into an agreement (sign a contract) about the internship with the company.

The contract can be 3-party (between you, the company and the TU/e) or 2-party (between just you and the company). If you are a non-EU international student who is in the Netherlands on a student visa, you must use a 3-party contract. Please note that your supervisor cannot sign the contract on behalf of TU/e. See details below.

In the case of a 2-party agreement (between just you and the company), you should pay special attention to clauses related to liability, non-disclosure/confidentiality, and intellectual property. At the links in the previous sentence, you will find the university’s guidelines on those topics. Be sure to read those before signing a contract.

For a 3-party contract (between you, the company and TU/e), the TU/e prefers to use one of the two “standard agreements”.  These are either the model internship and graduation agreement, Parts A and C and Part B, or the Standard internship agreement for non-EU/EEA-students from Nuffic. See links on the Forms page. The company can choose which one they prefer.

If a company is willing to sign the TU/e model agreement or Nuffic agreement, then getting the signature from the TU/e side will be reasonably fast.

If, however, a company insists on having their own agreement, then the whole process might take considerably longer as the university education lawyer will need to be consulted first.

Signing and handling of the contract by the TU/e must always go via the Internship Coordinator. The Internship Coordinator is Nina van den Hemel (mcs.internshipcoordinator@remove-this.tue.nl). You can email her directly. It does not go via the TU/e supervisor nor directly to the Managing Director.

Questions about the contracts process can be directed to the Internship Coordinator.