Internship Regulations of the BSc in Agricultural Sciences
For information regarding training on workplace safety, please refer to the internship page of the DISAAA-a Department, and
for the completion of required documents, consult the current year internship e-learning page on Moodle (https://elearning.agr.unipi.it).
This regulation establishes the procedure for internships at host institutions.
It is reminded that internships may be carried out within the Departments (including DISAAA-a) of the University of Pisa, University Centres, and public research institutions such as CNR and ENEA, as well as in farms, private practices, or other affiliated structures.
For internships at external host institutions
Before starting the internship, the student must have obtained at least 100 ECTS credits and have passed the specific training activities considered relevant to the proposed training project.
The student must identify an Internship Tutor among the faculty members of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-environmental Sciences (DiSAAA-a) or members of the Board of the BSc in Agricultural Sciences. The Internship Tutor must agree to supervise the student and should preferably carry out teaching or research activities related to the topic the student intends to develop during the internship.
In agreement with the academic tutor, the student must identify on the University Internship Portal one or more companies/organisations or university structures (hereafter “host institutions”) among those affiliated with DiSAAA-a that are willing to host the student, in compliance with university requirements.
If the chosen host institution is not yet listed in the Internship Portal, the student must inform it of the need to establish an agreement with the Department, following the procedures provided by the University and the Department (see the DISAAA-a internship page).
The student, in agreement with the Internship Tutor (academic tutor) and the Tutor at the host institution (company tutor), must prepare:
– a draft Training Project, taking into account the student’s prior knowledge and the learning outcomes of the degree programme; the training project must be **saved as a draft** to allow for possible modifications and must be agreed upon with the academic tutor;
– a Declaration of completed exams;
– a certificate of completion of health and safety training/information, to be submitted simultaneously by uploading it to the appropriate sections of the e-learning page.
Approval of the application is a necessary condition for submitting the training project through the University Internship Portal.
The Commission undertakes to review applications within a maximum of 14 days from submission. Students whose applications are not accepted will be called together with their academic tutor to address the issues identified by the Commission.
Once the application is accepted, the Training Project must be entered by the host institution via the University Internship Portal. After printing and signing by all parties, it must be submitted to the Commission. The Commission will forward the list of approved applications to the Department’s Teaching Office and, if required, collect and transmit the final documents to it.
For internships carried out in laboratories or other DiSAAA-a structures
The student, in agreement with the Internship Tutor (proposing tutor) and the person responsible for the host structure, must prepare:
- a draft Training Project, taking into account the student’s prior knowledge and the learning outcomes of the degree programme, based on the template available on the DISAAA-a internship page
- a Declaration of completed exams
- a certificate of completion of health and safety training/information, to be submitted simultaneously by uploading it to the appropriate sections of the e-learning page
Registration of internship credits
Once the required hours for obtaining internship ECTS credits have been completed, the student must register for an exam session for the course “Internship”. The internship will be validated by the Internship Commission with a pass/fail judgement based on the evaluations provided by the academic tutor and/or company tutor, and on an oral assessment by the Commission.
Students are not allowed to carry out internship activities during scheduled lecture hours for their year of study.
At the time of registration for the exam session, the following is required:
- the student must have completed activities corresponding to 6 ECTS credits, equal to a total workload of 150 hours, certified by the host institution(s) (see below);
- the host institution or, for internships within DiSAAA structures, the proposing academic tutor, must have provided an evaluation of the student, as well as any additional information requested by the Internship Commission to improve the service, using the form below;
The internship evaluation form, to be completed by the company tutor or academic tutor (for DiSAAA internships), can be downloaded from the e-learning page.
Registration for an exam session must be timely and in any case within the deadlines indicated by the Internship Commission on the exam portal.
ADDENDUM to the Internship Regulations regarding recognition of credits for working students, and provisions for student parents and students with disabilities
Students employed by a company or organisation external to DiSAAA-a, in order to benefit from specific allowances allowing fulfilment of internship requirements, must provide the documentation required for recognition of “working student” status (Art. 27 of the University Teaching Regulations) or of the other above-mentioned conditions. This documentation must be submitted to the Department’s Teaching Unit.
In the case of working students, if the job/profession is relevant to the degree programme:
- they may request recognition of credits for their work activity (Art. 17, paragraph 5 of the University Teaching Regulations). If the activity is not relevant to the degree programme, the student
- must find a different host institution that can provide competencies consistent with the study programme, following the internship regulations;
- alternatively, they may carry out a different training activity instead of the internship, agreed with an academic tutor and approved by the Internship Commission, consisting of an in-depth study of an applied topic.
In case 1), the relevance to the study programme and the adequacy of the work commitment will be assessed by the Internship Commission based on a report describing the main tasks performed during the period for which credit recognition is requested. The report must include working hours (part-time or full-time and total hours), certified by the employer.
If the documentation is deemed adequate by the Commission, the student may register for the internship exam session for credit recognition. Registration is subject to an emergency decree by the Programme Director authorising the Commission to record the internship activity for the student.
In case 2), the hours required for internship credits are reduced by 60%, resulting in 60 hours instead of 150, considering that working students may not be able to complete the full requirement within a reasonable timeframe.
The reduction of required hours may also be requested by student parents and students with disabilities.
For information, contact the Internship Commission by email from your institutional address at luciano.avio@unipi.it and in cc to christian.frasconi@unipi.it