Important points regarding internships

Internship supervision

The supervision and feedback provided by the company is very important to the students’ development and their preparations for the job market. Companies are obliged by law to appoint a supervisor to coach the student throughout the internship period.

The aim of internship supervision is not just to check that students are performing their duties as expected, but also to focus on the learning outcomes. The supervisor and student set out the learning outcomes together at the start of the internship. They should be in line with the degree programme. If a student is doing the internship as a course unit (as an elective or a research internship), the learning outcomes will be set by the degree programme and assessed at the end of the internship. It is important that your company is aware of these learning outcomes from the offset, that you agree to them and that you help and coach the student to achieve them.

Internship allowance

Companies are not legally obliged to pay a internship allowance, but it is normal practice. The average allowance for a full-time internship is between € 300 and € 500 per month, whereby some students from sought-after degree programmes receive up to € 1,000 per month.

Internship contract

When hiring an intern in the Netherlands, drawing up an internship agreement with them is required. In doing so, you show the student will be working on topics to enhance their study results, instead of having a disguised employment relation with your organization. When your intern is from a EU/EER country, it is legal to have a bilateral internship agreement with them. When the internship is done within a University course, it is desirable though, to have a tripartite agreement, so every organization and individual involved in the internship is on the same page when it comes to for instance guidance, information sharing and insurance. 

When the intern is from a non-EU/EER country and is in the Netherlands on a permit for study purposes, a tripartite internship agreement is always compulsory by law. In signing the internship agreement, University acknowledges that the internship is indeed done within the study programme of the student and therefor suits the purpose of the permit. Because of that, University of Groningen can only do so when the internship is actually done within a credit bearing course within one of our study programmes. University of Groningen never signs internship agreements for internships that are not part of a credit bearing course, this goes for both EU/EER- and non-EU/EER-students.

Since 2022, all Universities in the Netherlands work with the same internship agreement when their students do an internship in an external organization. This agreement has been developed in close cooperation with prominent businesses in the Netherlands and serves the goal of not having to check all individual internship agreements for every internship. The agreement covers both business interests as student and university interests in a very precise and elaborate way. In case your intern is part of a RuG course and therefore the tripartite agreement needs to be signed, it will be presented to you by them. In case you would already to have a look upfront and possibly read the accompanying explanation, we refer you to the website of Universities of the Netherlands. Thank you for your cooperation!