FAQ for students

Indeed, the internship in company is a necessary in order to obtain your Master’s degree in Civil Engineering. The completion of the internship is a necessary step to start the Master thesis.

The internship can take place anywhere. There is no geographical restriction on where the internship takes place, as long as it is in a company.

The internship has a minimal length of 8 weeks while working at 100%. It can be done part time, but only as long as the total time spent working is at least equal to the minimal length.

The maximal length of the internship is 6 months (one semester).

The internal directive on the engineering internship in Civil Engineering gives information related to the engineering internships in Civil Engineering:

Relations between the internship in company and the Master thesis (PDM):

  • Together they are equal to 25 weeks, of which 8 weeks for the internship and 17 for the PDM.
  • The internship itself is not remunerated by ECTS credits, but needs to be accomplished in order to receive the 30 ECTS credits for the PDM of 17 weeks.
  • The internship needs to be accomplished by the student, in order for him to start the PDM

The internship in Civil ENgineering and the Master thesis (PDM) are differentiated by these details:

  • In opposition to the PDM, the internship is not suppose to yield any scientific results.
  • The internship in Civil Engineering is done in a company, whereas the Master thesis is done in a academical institution, but eventually with a close collaboration with a company.
  • The theme of the internship can be different from the theme of your PDM..

Validation of the internship

The accomplishment of the internship is evaluated:

  • partly based on the evaluation of the company by the student and of the student by the person in charge in the company. These two evaluations are done online at the end of the internship and are individually sent to the person in charge in EPFL.
  • partly based on the report written by the student for the person in charge in EPFL.

Deadline for the report:

The deadline for the internship report is set to 2 weeks after the end of the internship.

The evaluation forms (by the person in charge and the student) need to be filled online at the end of the internship. Then, they will be automatically sent to the person in charge in EPFL.

The completion of the internship is validated by the person in charge in EPFL. The result is sent online by the person in charge in EPFL to IS-Academia during the semester, but at least a month before the end of it.

The search for an internship is an integral part of the internship itself and has to be done by the student.

In order to do that, the student has multiple possibilities:

  • Use the internship portal established by IS-Academia. This database allows companies to publish internship offers and allows students to look through the published offers aimed for the students of Civil Engineering.
  • – The internship portal must only be used for the compulsory internship master.
  • – Students who have acces to this internship portal are: Bachelor semester 6, Master, HES Pathway.
  • Use the established contacts of the Civil Engineering laboratories in order to get addresses of companies that might provide an internship position in the field in which the student is interested in.
  • Use its own contacts to find companies providing an internship position.
  • Use the internship offers posted on the company’s own website (see useful links)

The internship contract administer the internship´s relation between three interested sides: the company, the student and EPFL. Its completion follows chronologically these steps:

  1. When the company and the student agree on the internship, both sides need to fill the internship contract and then sign three copies of it.
  2. Then, the student brings three copies to the person in charge in EPFL, depending on the field of the internship, who will sign all of them as well. The person in charge in EPFL needs to be either a Professor or a MER of Civil Engineering.
  3. All three sides will keep one copy of the contract. Additionally, a scanned version of the signed contract needs to be uploaded to the internship portal on IS-Academia in PDF.
  4. Based on the the contract and the informations about the company, the section of Civil Engineering will validated the internship.
  5. NB: The internship contract can only be used for the compulsory internship of Master.

Students going for an internship aboad should address the EPFL security through their website securite.epfl.ch/voyages in order to benefit of the assistance program. This program does not replace personal insurances, that students need conserve during their internship to be sure he is covered for maladies and professional and casual accidents.

Once your first internship is validated, it is no longer possible to have another internship validated as part of your Master´s degree.

Optional internships are not an integral part of the Master´s degree and hence the official internship contract cannot be used for them. Another internship, apart from the compulsory one, is possible, but optional and therefore EPFL will not take any part in it.

Yes, it is possible to do an internship or part of an internship on a part-time basis in parallel with your courses as long as it is compatible with your studies. You will have to register as a student and the internship agreement must explicitly mention the functioning of this part-time internship (% of work, days when you will be on internship,…) so that the company gives its formal agreement with this functioning and guarantees the respect of your study time and the preparation of your exams.