Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales

Internship Grade

What are the grading periods for company internships?

Once the internship period is over, the Academic Tutor is responsible for evaluating and grading the student who completed the internship. The Tutor must communicate the final grade to the Internship Office before the deadline for submitting grades, so that it can be included in the corresponding semester of the student’s record.

For students in the Bachelor’s programmes in Economics and in Business Administration and Management, and the TMR programmes, there are three grading periods, two on the ordinary schedule (February and June) and one extra grading period (September).

For students in the Diploma programme in Tourism, there are two grading periods: June and September. Students should keep these dates in mind when they finish their internships.

There is a deadline for submitting the material (Memorandum, Professional Tutor’s Evaluation Form and Student’s Evaluation Form) that the Academic Tutor must have to evaluate the Internship:

• January gradind period: before January 23, 2013.
• May grading period: before May 21, 2013.
• July grading period: before July 4, 2013.

What are an Academic Tutor and a Professional Tutor for Internships?

During the internship, students are advised academically and professionally by two individuals responsible for evaluating performance of their activities and assigning them a grade once the internship is completed.

The Academic Tutor is a professor from the Faculty (or from other Faculties for students in Tourism) who is assigned individually to the student at the start of the internship. The Academic Tutor’s function is to monitor the student’s progress during the internship, as well as to evaluate and grade the internship course.

The Professional Tutor is a qualified company employee named specifically in the Appendix to the Internship Agreement signed by the company and the UAM. His or her job is to advise, guide and supervise the student’s work during student’s time at the firm. Once the internship period is over, the Professional Tutor completes and signs the Professional Tutor’s Evaluation Form.

How is the Internship course graded, and who assigns the grade?

Grading the credits earned is the exclusive task of the Academic Tutor, who evaluates the student according to the Tutor’s judgment throughout the internship period, based on:

• Personal interviews with each student assigned to the Tutor, generally held at the beginning, middle and at end of the internship.
• A system of periodic monitoring throughout the internship for each student (for example, via email or in office hours), which provides the Tutor with a fuller view of the intern’s activities and of his or her daily fulfilment of formal obligations.
• The content of the Internship Memorandum that the student prepares at the end of the internship period. The Academic Tutor monitors and advises the student’s memorandum to ensure that it is prepared and presented correctly.
• The judgment provided by the Professional Tutor from the company in which the student did the internship, based both on personal contact between the Academic and Professional Tutors and on the Evaluation Form for the student completed by the Professional Tutor at the end of the internship period.

Evaluation of company internships is the exclusive responsibility of the Academic Tutor, based on the Internship Memorandum, the judgment provided by the Professional Tutor and the follow-up interviews and other evaluation activities established.

The Academic Tutors and the Vice Dean of Internships have the exclusive authority to recommend that the internship student be evaluated and graded by an Internship Tribunal. This tribunal is composed of the Vice Dean of Internships, the Vice Dean of Students and the Academic Coordinator of the Internship in Tourism. The tribunal will alert the student in advance and according to the proper procedure in order to evaluate the student’s Memorandum, as well as the information provided by the student under examination in order to determine a grade for the internship.

What should the Internship Memorandum include?

The Internship Memorandum is not a company memorandum but rather a document that should contain the essential information on how the student has benefitted academically and in terms of competences (explanation of the relationship between the work performed and the knowledge acquired during the study programme in progress, tools acquired, evaluation of the student’s integration into the workplace as part of a personnel team, etc.).

Although the specific form and content of the Memorandum should be established by the student’s Academic Tutor to reflect the unique quality of the internship, we recommend the following structure:

• Cover page, table of contents, student’s personal information, and study programme.
• Introduction:
  • Procedure followed to find the internship.
  • Brief information on the company (name, location, activity sector, organigram, number of employees, position on the market, infrastructure of the workplace, existing support material, etc.).
  • Expectations at the start of the internship.
• Development of the internship:
  • Detailed description of the activities developed during the internship period, indicating any difficulty in fulfilling the tasks and taking into account, where relevant, any professional confidentiality that the student must respect. It is advisable to specify the duration of the internship, as well as the units or departments in the firm in which the activities were performed.
  • Training received (courses, computer programmes, etc.).
  • Level of integration and involvement in the department and relations with personnel.
• Conclusions:
  • Appropriateness of the instruction received at the Faculty to performing the internship and why.
  • Most significant positive and negative aspects of the internship.
  • Personal evaluation of the learning achieved throughout the internship. Goals fulfilled and/or not fulfilled. Abilities and competences acquired or reinforced through the internships, etc.
  • Suggestions or contributions on the structure and functioning of the firm itself.