STU 160 - Internships, Externships, and Practicums
Number: STU 160
Effective: July 1, 2025
Last Reviewed: July 1, 2025
Department: Student Affairs
Last Revision: July 1, 2025

Purpose

To establish authority and responsibilities of the College in awarding credit for student internships, externships, and practicums.

Scope

Applies to all CWI students enrolling in credit-based internships, externships, and practicums.  This policy does not apply to work-study.

Definition

Credit Hour: A time-based reference for measuring educational attainment used by the Association of American Universities and Colleges.

Internship: An elective experience that allows students to work in a professional environment to gain practical, hands-on experience in a specific field or industry. Internships can be paid or unpaid.

Externship: An elective experience that allows students to shadow a mentor in a professional environment to better understand what they do and what the field involves. Externships are typically unpaid.

Practicum: A program’s required directed study experience that emphasizes the practical application of advanced skills and theory relevant to the student’s discipline in a supervised clinical, industry, or professional setting.

Student Contact Hour: The workload expectations for contact time with the instructor and student effort outside the classroom that meet the defined credit hour standards.

This policy provides guidelines for offering internships, externships, and practicums, establishes student eligibility requirements, and sets maximum credit amounts allowed for these learning experiences.

Guidelines

  1. Internships and Externships:
    1. Application and placement are facilitated by CWI’s Work-Based Learning Center and approved by the department chair and dean of the relevant subject area.
    2. Internships are designated by the college-wide course number 293; externships are designated by the college-wide course number 294.
    3. Internships and externships are graded pass/no pass.
  2. Practicums:
    1. Practicum courses are approved through established curriculum processes.
    2. Course numbers and grading basis may vary by program.
  3. The Registrar shall establish course creation and registration procedures for internships and practicums.
  4. Faculty load for internships and practicums shall be determined by relevant instruction policies.

Student Eligibility

Students applying for internships and practicums must meet the following eligibility requirements:

  1. Must be a degree-seeking student at CWI.
  2. Must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher.
  3. Must have earned a minimum of 12 cumulative credits toward a degree or certificate.
  4. Must follow the established plan of study and credit sequence for a practicum.
  5. Must follow approved application and registration processes and deadlines.
  6. Must complete all internship, externship, and practicum requirements, hours, and outcomes during the semester they are registered to receive academic credit.

Credit and Contact Hour Requirements

  1. Credits and contact hours for internships, externships, and practicums shall be determined by relevant credit hour policies (1 credit = 37.5 contact hours at minimum).
  2. Internships and externships - the maximum number of credits is five percent of the student’s declared degree or certificate (1-3 credits) and shall not exceed one internship or externship per semester or 20 hours per week.
  3. Practicums – the maximum number of practicum credits is established through the program’s curricular requirements.

Referenced