The mandatory internships at Özyeğin University allow you to put your knowledge from your classes into practice, by doing internships in public or private institutions/firms in Turkey and/or abroad. These internships give you experience that contributes to your theoretical, practical and personal development.
An internship gives you the opportunity to:
- Gain valuable work experience before you graduate;
- Develop new skills and refine others;
- Apply knowledge gained from coursework to on-the-job situations;
- Reality-test tentative career choices;
- Meet and work with professionals, establishing contacts for letters of reference and networking;
- Experience new work environments.
Mandotory Internship
- Am I Eligible for an internship?
- What to do before the internship?
- What to do during the intenrship?
- What to do after the internship?
- Message to employers on internship(Internship Sponsors)
What is Mandatory Internship at OzU?
- Mandatory internships are a graduation requirement for the undergraduate programs in all programs. Like with normal courses, you receive ECTS credits for these internships. The specifics of credit arrangements, duration, procedures vary from faculty to faculty. Please see the table here. It should be noted that some departments have their own rules and regulations. Please refer the faculty web pages.
- Full-time or part-time employment is not counted as mandatory internship. The university pays for your social security premiums during your mandatory internships.
- It is your own responsibility to find an internship. The Professional Development Office may provide guidance on how to prepare your CV for internship applications. You may keep yourself posted about internship opportunities via Link Professional > Jobs/İlanlar
- Your internship(s)s should last at least as longs as the required business days determined by your program at the institutions/firms at home and/or abroad. Types of employers are defined by your faculty’s internship procedures. Employers not listed in the procedures are subject to approval before your internship begins
- You can do internships in a single organization, or in two or three different organizations.
- Internships are administered with different course codes in each faculty. You do not register for these courses. Instead, all grades and credits are entered by the Student Services upon the approval of the successful completion of the internships.
- The University covers social security premiums up to maximum 60 business days (12 weeks). In case the institution/firm asks you to extend your internship or approves your request to work for more than 60 days, the institution/firm is required to cover the social security premiums.
Am I Eligible for an Internship?
- You have to successfully complete SEC 201 and SEC 202 before you can start your mandatory internships.
- It is best to complete your second year core courses before doing the initial internship. The more knowledge you have, the more valuable the internship will be to you and to the institution/firm.
- In case of doubt, please contact your academic advisor or internship coordinator.
What to Do Before the Internship?
The specifics of credit arrangements, duration, procedures vary from faculty to faculty. It should be noted that some departments have their own rules and regulations. Please refer the faculty web pages. Please refer to following links to find more information about internship regulations/ internship implications steps / documents for internship in your own faculty.
- Faculty of Business
- Faculty of Engineering
- Faculty of Achitecture and Design
- Faculty of Law
- Faculty of Social Science
- Faculty of Aviation and Aeronautical Sciences
- School of Applied Sciences
What to Do During the Internship?
- Behave in a professional way; remember that you represent the university at the institution/firm where you are doing the internship; keep in mind that companies may be interested in offering you a job if you perform exceptionally well.
- Inform your academic advisor of any progress or trouble; in case things do not work out as you expected, contact your academic advisor.
- Keep an Internship diary
- Work on the internship report
- In case the end-date of the internship is changed, inform the faculty secretary immediately.
What to Do After the Internship?
- Two days before the end of the internship, you must request an “Internship Completion Document” from the institution/firm confirming that you completed your internship. Submit this document by email to the faculty secretary on the day the internship is completed.
- Kindly ask your supervisor at the institution/firm fill the intern evaluation form. This form aims to inform us about the institution’s/firm’s reflections on our intern student. Their feedbacks will help us understand your technical and personal capabilities, and thus further develop our applied education program. The form is comprised of 3 sections: Professional Competence, Work Attitude and Personal Competence.
- Submit your internship report to your academic advisor within at most 4 weeks.
- Your advisor may ask for revisions and may grant you a grace period of up to 1 week.
- Upon the approval of your academic advisor, you will get an «S» (Satisfactory) and pass the internship. If not, you will either have to improve your internship report or you will receive a «U» (Unsatisfactory).
Hints for Internship Report Format
After completion of your internship, you need to submit a report to your academic advisor, internship coordinator or internship committee. This document should be written in ENGLISH. This can be a written document, a video or a presentation. Whatever you choose, always provide a cover page with the following information:
- Your name and student number
- Duration and course code(s) of the internship
- What you will deliver (a document, a video or a presentation file)
- Name of the internship employer (complete with branch/location)
- Dates of the internship (when started-when finished)
- Your academic advisor’s/internship coordinator name and title
Questions to Answer When You are Writing the Internship Report
Here are some general questions: ( Please do not forget to consult your own program procedures)
- Describe the organization briefly; specifically include information on the nature of the business, products, customers, and competitors.
- Describe the main department/branch at which you did your internship.
- Describe the work that you have performed.
- List the courses and topics from your studies that were useful in your internship.
- Give specific examples of tasks in your internship and relate them to specific topics in your courses. (3 to 5 examples)
- State your major learning point from applying your academic knowledge to practice.
- Explain how the internship was useful in shaping your future career.
- Identify a (small-scale) organizational problem; this should be a problem in the area of your specialization (if any).
- Explain how your skills and concepts from the courses can be used to solve that problem.
Message for Employers on Internship (Internship Sponsors)
We would like to share with you the mandatory (credit) internship philosophy of Özyeğin University. We believe that mandatory (Credit) internships are interwoven among three stakeholders: the university, the intern, and the internship sponsor. Joint efforts of all these three stakeholders lead to a valuable experience provided that each party fulfills its responsibilities. In line with its experiential educational philosophy that is seamlessly ‘’integrated with sectors’’, Özyeğin University requires internships in all its programs. As per the effective legislations, our university undertakes the social security proceedings of each student whose internship is approved; and provides the necessary documents to the relevant institutions.
In order for OzU students to have their internship experiences approved as mandatory internships and earn academic credits toward their graduation requirements, the conditions stated below needs to be met:
- Students must have successfully completed the pre-requisite courses and ECTS credits defined by their respective programs,
- Before the internship, sponsors must complete, sign off and return the information form prepared by our university, containing questionnaires about the internship period, job description/internship content and the expected learning outcomes.
- After the internship is completed, the sponsor must provide an official letter affirming that the student started the internship after the university had approved the internship sponsor, internship content/job description, and internship period; that the university undertook the necessary social security proceedings on behalf of the student and that he/she completed the internship by performing the assigned duties within the framework of his/her job description during the internship period.
- Interns must complete the Internship report along with other documents specified by their respective documents.
- Sponsors finally need to fill in an Intern Evaluation Report.
The purpose of the mandatory (credit) internship program is to allow students to put their knowledge and skills gained in theoretical classes offered by their programs into practice through real business processes and choose an academic and professional career path for themselves based on their internship experience. Therefore, as mentioned in Item 2 above, the internship period, the internship content and expected learning outcomes are our critical pre-requisites for mandatory internships.
To this end, we expect the objectives and expected learning outcomes of the mandatory (credit) internship to
- help students gain experience in the line of business of the internship sponsor
- let students be part of a team and familiarize them with team working
- give students the opportunity to understand what is expected from a full-time employee
Internship programs that satisfy the aforementioned expectations will, undoubtedly, add value not only to the internship sponsors that give this opportunity to our students by accepting them as interns but also to the personal and professional development of our students who successfully complete their internships, fully aware of the fact that this opportunity comes with responsibilities. Please feel free to share your questions, comments and suggestions about the mandatory internship programs of Özyeğin University with us at quality@ozyegin.edu.tr. We would like to thank you for your interest and support.