Project-oriented study

The contents of the course is:

• An internship in a private/public company, an association or an NGO. It is recommended that 270 hours or 36 days are set aside for solving the agreed problems in the organization (for receiving 10 ECTS – to be doubled if 20 ECTS).
• Writing up a report which must adhere to common academic standards. The report should consists of a descriptive part (5 pages), where the student describes the main tasks that the student has performed in the project period and of an analytical part, where the student documents use of the academic field's theories and methods. The analytical part will normally focus on in depth analysis of a single task (15 pages for 10 ECTS and 25 pages for 20 ECTS).

The internship must be related to the contents of your MSc programme profile. Further, the work to be performed during the internship must consist of appropriate tasks, i.e. mainly tasks that will allow you to apply theories and methods learnt during the programme and write up an academic report about the problem solving process.

The project- and trainee period should contain two main elements:

• Solution of one or more specific problem(s) decided by the company in collaboration with the student and a supervisor from SDU.
• An analysis of the usefulness and the limitations of the competencies and knowledge acquired from the M.Sc. in Economics programme relative to the selected problem, issues or routines. In other words, the tasks that you take on must allow you to reflect on how to use the knowledge and skills learnt in the programme. 

Companies and organizations can give students in unpaid project oriented courses and on unpaid study stays an acknowledgment of up to DKK 3,483 a month (2024-level). It is allowed to have a job in the company or organization in which the internship takes place. Students who participate in project oriented courses abroad may receive a salary if there is a legal requirement for minimum wages in the country in question.

You seek out an organization where you would like stay for an internship. If possible, you then agree on possible tasks to solve and period as well as schedule for the stay. You may get ideas for organizations and tasks from looking into the job bank at SDU.

Once you have a fairly clear picture of the tasks that you expect to work with, you need to prepare a preliminary project description including concrete and specific ideas about the focus of the project, suggested methods to be used, relevant literature as well as an outline of which compulsory courses and topics (the competencies) you expect to used during the internship.

There is supervision connected to the project- and trainee period. To get a supervisor, you need to present your preliminary project description to the profile responsible, and which of your compulsory courses, you expect to build on.

If the profile responsible finds that the content of the project is suitable for a project- and trainee period, you are ready to fill in the digital form for requesting a supervisor.  

You must fill in the form before the deadline. However, we recommend that you have the meeting and fill in the form as early as possible. Notice that it can easily take 14 days to find a supervisor.

Your supervisor and the profile responsible must approve the contents and the goal for the project report before the deadline. This is a requirement for submission of the report for the exam. To get approval on time, you must, as soon as possible make contact with your supervisor and discuss your project proposal with him or her.

For approval, you need to add information to the form that you used for requesting a supervisor. The agreement that you upload must as a minimum contain the following information:

1. Information about the Company/organisation. You can use an agreement form from the company or you can use the agreement available at the job and career center. You must give the following information as a minimum:

• Name of organization/company at which the internship takes place
• Name and title of contact person at the study site
• Period for internship
• Working hours per week
• Overall description of the work content of the internship

2. A preliminary project description including:

• Concrete and specific ideas about the focus of the project
• An explicit outline of the compulsory courses and the topics (the competencies) that you expect to be use during the internship.

Registration is done via the Student Self Service as for other courses.

1. To find a company or another organization for the project- and trainee period and agree on tasks to be solved.
2. To have a meeting with the profile responsible and fill in the form for requesting a supervisor with the necessary information as early as possible and  before the deadline:
   • 15 August (autumn)
   • 15 January (spring)
3. To get the supervisor agreement approved before the deadline.
   • 15 September(autumn)
   • 15 February (spring)
4. To hand in a report before the deadline.
   • Find the deadline in the plan of examinations

Questions concerning the Project and Trainee Period can be directed to the course responsible. You can find contact information in the menu.