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Overseas Internship (for HU students)

*Information as of March. We will update as soon as possible.

Most people may associate the term internship with on-site experience at a company, but in the case of overseas internships, the CEED deems both companies and universities to be places where students can learn and experience a variety of things. Similarly, in Canada and other western countries, many universities now send students not only to companies, but also to universities as interns.

The CEED recommends students take internships in which participants can collaborate with the staff at universities or companies to which they are sent. By doing so, students are encouraged to communicate with others around them so that they can understand their own position in a certain project, and also to apply their knowledge of such fields as mathematics, physics and chemistry to new research. By putting themselves in such positions, students can enhance their potential capacities. In the case where research themes related to a master thesis or doctoral thesis in Hokkaido university are continuously pursued at overseas universities, the CEED doesn’t regard such research as an internship.

The CEED conducts a survey on changes in the self-awareness of participants’ abilities before and after participating in internship programs. These abilities are as follows:

(1) An ability to apply your academic knowledge to an actual problem
(2) Decisiveness, judgement, flexibility
(3) Challenging spirits to try new experience
(4) Positive attitude to ask things you don’t understand and try to inquire
(5) An ability to grasp the situation and find out the problem
(6) Cooperative attitude to plan and act
(7) Creativity to yield new ideas
(8) Special skill and technique (experiment, analysis, calculation, plan)
(9) Patience, ambitious
(10) English proficiency (Conversation, document preparation, English thinking)
(11) An ability to understand other cultures
(12) Positiveness, leadership
(13) Communicative competence
(14) Eagerness and aspiration
(14-1) Learning in the college and motivation for research
(14-2) Understanding of working, Aspiration for the future
(14-3) Confidence as a technician
(15) Other abilities that you think you have improved (free to write)

Regarding questions 10 and 11 above, the items are listed for students who have participated in overseas internships. The other thirteen questions are common to participants of domestic internships and overseas internships.

Each item is given one of the following scores.

  • Excellent: 2 points
  • Good: 1 point
  • Fair: 0 point
  • Bad: -1 point
  • Very bad: -2 points

A survey on the differences in scores before and after participating in internships was conducted. The results show that scores have greatly increased in participants of both domestic and overseas internships. The score of the participants in domestic internships has increased by an average of 0.64 points per question, while the score of those in overseas internships has increased by an average of 1.03 points per question, indicating that better results are gained from overseas internship programs.

The following chart shows a comparison of the scores before and after overseas internships.

Chart1

While 84% of students evaluated their own levels regarding the preceding 12 items as average or lower before participating in overseas internships, 72% of them confidently evaluated themselves as good or excellent after their internship. The CEED provides financial support to cover the travel expenses of students who take Internship I (5 or more actual working days) or Internship II (15 or more actual working days). These students also receive internship training for at least four weeks.

First of all, students who are interested in internship are required to enter the online registration system of the CEED internship program from the tab below and complete online registration. If you have even the slightest interest in overseas/domestic internships, please register on either or both of these programs. You don’t have to participate in internship because you have registered. By registering, however, you are able to gain more information on internships via e-mail.