Students feel internships deserve more credit - Administrators argue the academic value of internships equals one credit; many students do independent studies instead
Reporting about the SGA, not a record of it: The Johns Hopkins News-Letter published this and the SGA did not write it, file it, or approve it. The archive holds it because the article itself uses the phrase “student council”.
Summary
- This Johns Hopkins News-Letter article reports on the one-credit internship policy and students’ responses to it.
- The News-Letter reported that a committee appointed by Paula Burger and Andrew Douglas decided in May 2006 to cut internship credit from three credits to one, while requiring coursework equal to one University course.
- The paper reported that students seeking more credit often use independent studies, which provide three credits; senior Amanuel Alemu said, "There's no incentive to do an internship for one credit."
- The article adds that Student Council Vice President Andrew Gerba worked an unpaid internship for about 400 hours, received one credit and said, "It seems a little ludicrous when there are other kids in the same internship getting 9 to 12 credits for the summer,"
- The reporter writes that Dean Burger said credit should be awarded for academic work, not simply hours worked, and suggested that students could write a paper connected to their internship.
- According to the article, the Committee on Independent Work recommended keeping a three-credit semester limit for research, independent study and internships, with 40 hours of work generally counting as one credit.