Prospectus

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Master Internship: Heritage and Museum

Course
2024-2025

Admission requirements

Description

The Master Internship is an important part of the MA programme to consolidate your classroom learning, and a good starting point for your future career path.

You will apply and improve your previously acquired knowledge and skills in the fields of heritage and museum studies.
Additionally, you will be able to expand your predominantly theoretical classroom education with a practical component by working in a professional context of your choice. Your internship experience will be a good addition to your resume and an opportunity to develop your professional network.

You are free to find your own internship, either by applying to an internship job posting or by independently contacting an organisation or institution of your choice. Note that the internship should allow you to put your learned methods and approaches into practice and conclude with some tangible goal having been met (e.g. completing research tasks for a museum; organising a heritage outreach event; participating in an exhibition project; conducting a digitisation project; drafting heritage policy advice, etc.).
Merely attending staff meetings and taking notes is not sufficient.

The internship will be a small practical project of at least fifteen working days. It is possible to do an extended internship of at least thirty working days. In that case, the scope of the proposed internship should reflect why more working days are needed.

Before the start of the internship, you will write a feasible work proposal, which has to be approved by the course coordinator and internship provider before the internship can take place.
An essential aspect is learning to make your own decisions. Thus, for the report, you will critically reflect upon your practical activities and place these in a wider comparative framework (be it theoretically, methodologically or regionally), as well as contextualise the importance of the activities, and evaluate how this experience affects your own development in the chosen field.

Course set-up

Practical training of at least fifteen working days in a professional context,
OR
Practical training of at least thirty working days in a professional context.

Course objectives

  • Ability to write a feasible work plan, containing a methodological framework, clear research questions, and a demonstration of how to approach the research questions;

  • Learning how to apply advanced practical skills, including a critical interpretation and view on the chosen methods (if applicable to your internship);

  • Ability to understand and critically review the relevance of archaeology, museums, and heritage in present-day society;

  • Ability to understand and critically review the legal and social context and obligations of a project, company, municipality, governmental agency or museum;

  • Ability to critically evaluate the operationalisation of a research project;

  • Ability to successfully and independently carry out a project within a limited period of time;

  • Ability to write an academic report on the results, describing the activities and why certain choices were made, and critically reflect on the results and operationalisation of the research questions, also in a broader, multidisciplinary context and in the context of one’s own academic development;

  • Ability to work in a professional team;

  • Gaining experience (under supervision) in working in a professional environment;

  • Enhancing your employability by increasing practical skills needed for a future job.

Timetable

Course schedule details can be found in MyTimetable.
Log in with your ULCN account, and add this course using the 'Add timetable' button.

Mode of instruction

  • Before: one meeting with the coordinator to discuss the plans and expectations of both parties. The internship proposal and the internship agreement form need to be completed, approved, and signed before the internship can begin;

  • During: the employer/host will coach the student;

  • Halfway: the student checks in by email with the coordinator to evaluate whether the internship is progressing according to plan;

  • After: the employer/host will fill out the evaluation form;

  • After: the internship coordinator will assess and grade the proposal and the reflective report.

Assessment method

  • Internship proposal (10%);

  • Internship evaluation by the employer/host (50%);

  • Internship reflective report (40%).

A retake consists of an improvement of the internship report within three weeks after you received the grade of the first submission. This new grade will have a maximum grade of 7.0.

Please note: The guidelines for the internship reflective report indicate the requirements for the 5 ec or for the 10 ec internship.

Assessment deadlines:
The dates of exams and retakes can be found in MyTimetable. The deadlines of papers, essays and assignments are communicated through Brightspace.

The report needs to be handed in after 6 working weeks of the last internship day.

Reading list

Not applicable.

Registration

Enrolment for all components of your study programme through MyStudymap is mandatory. This applies to both compulsory elements and elective credits. If you are not enrolled, you may not participate.

General information about registration can be found on the Course and exam enrolment page.

Contact

For more information about this course, please contact dr. I.R. (Ian) Simpson

Remarks

Compulsory attendance during the internship.