Company project

When you do a company project, you spend a semester or parts of it at a workplace. It may be in a private company, a public or political organisation, the voluntary sector or another field of practice that you and your supervisor consider relevant.

You are part of the daily life of the workplace on an equal footing with the employees and solve the agreed tasks. This means that you basically follow the standard office hours, participate in staff meetings, etc.

However, a company project is not a regular employment. The goal is for you to gain a practical understanding of and analytical reflection on how you can apply your academic knowledge and skills under given organisational conditions, taking a specific problem in a specific place of employment as your starting point. Typically, you work one major continuous project and after an introductory period, you will typically also solve specific tasks ad hoc for shorter periods of time, by agreement with the company and your project supervisor. It is expected that you solve these tasks independently and on a scientific basis.

Quite a few company projects lead to a subsequent thesis collaboration – and in some cases also a job after graduation.

A company project forms part of your course of study as an elective and has a weighting of 10 or 15 ECTS.

• 10 ECTS corresponds to 250 working hours, including time spent on writing the project report and preparing for the oral exam. Thus, if you do a 10 ECTS company project, your stay in the project company will typically last 3 months (part-time).
  
  
• 15 ECTS corresponds to 10 weeks' full-time work or 375 working hours, including time spent on writing the project report and preparing for the oral exam. Thus, if you do a 15 ECTS company project, your stay in the project company will typically last 4 months (part-time).

A company project is part of your degree programme. It neither can nor should be considered an employment, and therefore, you must not receive any kinds of salaries or wages when doing a company project in Denmark.

However, the project host is allowed (but not required) to reimburse documented expenses related to your company project – for example travel expenses, telephone bills or double rent.

You are also allowed to receive a gratuity of up to DKK 3000 per month before taxes. This gratuity may not be a pre-determined, pre-agreed payment, and it is voluntary for the project host whether they want to give you a gratuity. Consider it a "thank you for your hard work".

Please also note that you are not entitled to any mileage tax relief during a company project.

Company project in the company where you work

You are allowed to do a company project in the company where you work alongside your studies.

However, since a company project must be unsalaried, the tasks you perform as part of your company project must not overlap in any way with the tasks you perform as part of your salaried employment.

If you wish to do a company project outside Denmark, SDU’s International Office can help you with planning your stay abroad.

Please note that you are allowed to receive a salary when doing a company project abroad if it is required by law in the country where you do the project, and you may not simultaneously receive any student grants from the Danish state.

Apart from that, company projects done abroad must fulfill the same requirements as projects done in Denmark.

The company project is examined orally on the basis of a written report on the project process.

The formal requirements for the report will appear on the course page in itslearning.

The submission date for the report appears in the course description.

The project is assessed with an external examiner according to the 7-point grading scale.

The Study Board may grant you a dispensation to change the project title if your project takes a different turn than initially expected.

The Study Board may grant you an extension of the submission deadline if you can document that extraordinary circumstances are preventing you from keeping the deadline. Any extension of the submission deadline must be approved first by your project supervisor, then by the department teaching committee, and finally by the Head of Studies. Therefore, it is crucial that you contact your project supervisor before submitting an application for extension of the deadline.

Regardless if your application concerns a change of the project title or an extension of the submission deadline, you must submit your application no later than 4 weeks before the submission deadline.

Apply for project changes

All associate and full professors at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science can act as internal project supervisors for your company project. The internal project supervisor is responsible for ensuring that all formal and administrative rules and procedures are followed and that you have the qualifications required to do the project.

The internal project supervisor is also formally responsible for supervising you during the company project, ensuring that aim, scope, contents and academic level meet the formal requirements.

If you need help finding a project supervisor, feel free to contact the company project coordinator, Associate Professor Jing Qin, at qin@imada.sdu.dk.

It is your own responsibility to find a company, organisation or other place of employment that can act as project host for your company project. It is a good idea to start early to find a project company, as it can take time to find a place and get an appointment in place.

If you need ideas for where to do your company project, you can check the SDU job bank. Your project supervisor might also have some relevant contacts.

SDU RIO can also help you with finding a company to work with. Send an e-mail to Fleur Bernburg at fleub@sdu.dk.

Several companies already collaborate with the Faculty of Science on company projects. Try writing to them to see if they have the time and opportunity to collaborate with you on your project.

Go to the company list (opens in Sharepoint).

The student counsellors at the Faculty of Science can also help you. Send an e-mail at studyscience@sdu.dk with the following information:

• Your degree programme
• The field you wish to work in
• The areas of interest you might be interested in working with
• When you can meet to get help finding a company/organisation

Once you have made contact with a project company, it is important that you meet and align your expectations:

• What can you expect from the project company?
• What can the project company expect from you?
• When will you be doing the project?
• Who will be your external project supervisor?

The external project supervisor must be person with an academic degree who works in the department to which you will be affiliated. They will act as your daily sparring partner during the project and are responsible for creating the right setting for your stay. Thus, the external project supervisor is responsible for introducing you to the workplace and for the ongoing professional guidance.

You must register for the company project in the student self-service during the course registration period:

• 20-30 November if you wish to do a company project in the spring semester
  
  
• 20-30 May if you wish to do a company project in the autumn semester

Once all agreements are in place, you must complete a project contract. The contract includes a project description and an activity plan, both of which must be approved by both the internal supervisor at SDU and the external supervisor.

In addition to stipulating the title and period of the project, the contract describes your and the project host's rights and obligations during the project. For example, the contract ensures that you are assigned meaningful tasks at a sufficiently high level, and that the company can safely give you insight into confidential workflows and documents.

You must submit the project contract no later than one week after the start of the semester in which you are doing the project. However, we recommend that you submit the project contract as soon as possible after you have registered for the company project in the student self-service.

When the Study Board has approved the project contract, you will be notified by e-mail.

Collaboration and non-disclosure agreements

The project contract is an agreement between you and the university. In addition, you must enter a collaboration agreement with the project company. SDU RIO has prepared a template for this, as the collaboration agreement must be approved by the head of your department.

If the project company wishes to subject your project supervisor at SDU to a non-disclosure obligation, a collaboration and non-disclosure agreement must instead be drawn up between you, the project company, and the university. SDU RIO has also prepared a template for this.

Any non-disclosure agreement must be approved by the Legal Services team in SDU RIO before the head of your department can sign the agreement on behalf of the university.

Read more about collaboration and non-disclosure agreements