In the UAM Law Faculty we are strongly committed to providing our students with a training of excellence, allowing them to enhance and complement their academic education by undertaking internships. Internships are indispensable for improving professional skills, practising in the profession and preparing for the job market.
Both our undergraduate and postgraduate curriculums include compulsory internships, made possible by many educational cooperation agreements with prestigious public and private entities. Through our internship training schemes, students have the chance to acquire abilities and skills that are fundamental to future employability.
Internships are organised through the UAM Law Faculty Internship Office. As well as organising compulsory curricular internships, the Office also encourages students to undertake extra-curricular internships in law firms, in-house legal departments of companies, or in a range of public and private institutions (Offices of the Public Administration, associations, foundations, NGOs, trade unions). Up to twelve free-choice credits can be obtained or recognised or validated from internships and reflected in the European Supplement to the Degree (SET) and in the student’s academic records. The recognition or validation requirements and the procedure are set out in the Internship Regulations, approved by the Faculty Assembly.
UNDERGRADUATE INTERNSHIPS
1. Curricular Internships
The Law Degree and the Political Science and Public Administration Degree – as well as the Joint Degrees in Law and Business Administration and in Law and Political Science and Pubic Administration – include curricular internships which comprise the compulsory module called “Internships”. This is undertaken in the second semester of the final year of the Bachelor’s Degree, with the exception of the Joint Degree in Law and Business Administration, in which it is included in the second semester of the penultimate year (for more information please refer to the Curriculums for each of the Bachelor’s Degrees offered by the Faculty). Six ECTS are awarded for the “Internships” module, equivalent to a 120 hour internship in the institution assigned to each student. Internships are not paid in any case. The student is covered by academic insurance whilst doing the internship.
2. Extra-curricular internships
Aside from curricular internships, students may also undertake voluntary extra-curricular internships, which can subsequently be noted on their academic record, by the validation procedure, provided the number of hours amounts to or exceeds 120.
The Faculty offers various extra-curricular internship programmes with limited places throughout the year, but especially in summer. Additionally, students may put forward to the Faculty extra-curricular internships in institutions in which they have been accepted, by their own means and through objective selection procedures. The maximum number of extra-curricular internship hours that a student may undertake in one academic year is 750.
Extra-curricular internships may be paid or unpaid. The Law Faculty only processes unpaid internships or those in which pay does not exceed 300 Euros/month. Further, the UAM Internships Office (OPE) has a permanent job bank of paid internships that enrolled UAM students can apply for.
• Tutorship and grades awarded for internships
Each student is assigned a professional tutor and an academic tutor for both curricular and extra-curricular internships. The professional tutor is a person in the institution where the internship is undertaken and is responsible for direct supervision of the student and for ensuring the training aspect of the internship. The academic tutor is a member of the Faculty teaching staff.
At the end of the internship, the professional tutor must prepare an assessment report awarding a grade from 0 to 10 points. Likewise, the student must prepare a self-assessment report, stating the grade he/she considers he/she deserves. The academic tutor calculates the final grade taking the two reports into account, according to the scale approved by the Faculty Assembly.
• Internships for visiting students
Both curricular and extra-curricular internships are principally intended for students who are permanently based in the Law Faculty. Students who are studying in the Faculty for one academic year – or part of a year – by virtue of a mobility programme (ERASMUS, SICUE, etc…) may undertake a Faculty programme internship (either curricular or extra-curricular) only in so far as there are vacant posts not occupied by students permanently based in the Law Faculty. The student’s home University must also have a reciprocity relationship in this respect with the Law Faculty.
POSTGRADUATE INTERNSHIPS
The various Master’s degrees provided in the Faculty include specialised internship modules. For more information, please consult the curriculums of each Master’s degree, available on the web page of the Law Faculty.
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