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Internship Business Administration

The Master of Business Administration is completed with an internship that is in line with the specific specialisation of the student: Taxation, Management and IT, Commercial Management, Finance and Risk Management, or HRM and Organizational Management.  

This internship runs for 11 weeks during which the student will be working as an employee within your organisation for four days a week.  

The Business Administration programme

The emphasis of the Business Administration programme is on the organisation of a company and how it operates.  The student gets a good insight into the structure of the company, the dynamics within a company and the relationships with the stakeholders.  By understanding the general economic principles, they understand the laws governing market players. 

 

In the Master year, the student chooses a functional domain to explore further:  

The fact that the internship is a major course unit in the Master year (12 out of 60 credits) reflects its crucial importance in obtaining the academic degree of Master of Science in Business Administration. 

What are the conditions for the internship?

  • The content must be in line with the student's specialisation.  
  • The content of the internship is particularly comprehensive in terms of content rather than merely introductory.  Min 50% is course-related/analytical work within the specialisation.  
  • The internship is supervised by an expert in the discipline.  
  • If telework is allowed by the company, the student must be present at the office at least 3 days a week.
  • There are no business, friendship or family connections between student and internship provider.  
  • Max 1 student per office/company.  Exceptions may be possible, depending on tasks and guidance.  
  • An internship is always unpaid.  Compensation for e.g., meals or transport is allowed.  

Duration and period of the internship

The internship is undertaken over a period of eleven weeks in which the student works four days a week on the premises of your organisation.  
We always strive for four days a week, as a result of which the day off may exceptionally fall on a public holiday.  
Is your company closed for a long(er) period? Then you do not qualify as an internship provider.  

For the academic year 2024-2025, this runs from 10 March up to and including 23 May 2025.  A limited number of students undertake an internship from 30 September up to and including 13 December 2024.  

Coaching and evaluation of the internship

The supervisor of the internship provider is responsible for the general guidance by preparing concrete assignments, within the parameters of the previously approved internship content, and following up on the implementation thereof.  Regular feedback to the student is essential to evaluate and, if necessary, adjust their performance.  If necessary, the supervisor of the internship provider will contact the supervisor of Ghent University.  

During the internship period, the supervisor of Ghent University will schedule a visit to see how the student is doing in their internship.  On this basis, a mid-term review is made by the supervisor of Ghent University.  The student is expected to give a short, professional presentation during the internship visit.  

After completing the internship, the supervisor of the internship provider will give their assessment of the intern according to the categories of the final evaluation.  It is based on both the performance as well as competencies and attitudes.  We encourage you to review the final evaluation with the student and discuss the progress, valued strengths and areas of improvement.  

As a final component of the evaluation, the student will write an internship report.  In this s/he develops one or more internship assignments, linking them with the Business Administration programme (based on academic theories, legal texts and/or conceptual frameworks).  If confidential information is included in the internship report, a non-disclosure agreement can be drawn up.  

Examples of internship assignments

A few guiding examples per specialisation can be found below.

Taxation

  • (Preparing) consultancy for customers, colleagues or management by studying laws, RDs, judgements, CBN opinions  
  • Drawing up details of e.g., disallowable expenses, (quasi-) contribution report, dissolution  
  • Preparation of annual financial statements and fiscal optimisation  
  • Auditing annual financial statements and writing related reports  
  • Calculation and preparation of VAT, PIT, CIT declarations 
  • Attending tax audits 
  • Full closure of the financial year  
  • Thorough (financial) analysis of a file  
  • Attending meetings with customers or suppliers to assist with consultancy  
  • Optimisation of the processes in fiscal, legal or accounting matters  
  • Participating in the development of new reporting models, business plans or strategic planning in fiscal, legal or accounting matters  

Finance and Risk Management

  • Thorough analysis of financial information/files  
  • Qualitative and quantitative analysis of financial products (shares, investment funds,...)  
  • Monitoring, analysing and summarising/reporting on financial news  
  • Substantive preparation of files for the purpose of assisting with consultancy: e.g., carrying out of financial analyses (liquidity, solvency, profitability, cash flow) within the framework of investment credits, setting credit limits,...  
  • Analysis of investment portfolios, credit applications, Global Advisory Letters,...  
  • Valuation of companies, construction of valuation models  
  • Application/implementation of financial regulation (Solvency II, Basel III, MiFID,...) and participation in related reporting  
  • Preparation of annual risk analysis of option positions  
  • Analysing and improving risk management techniques that companies use to hedge their financial risks. 
  • Analysing and identifying the insurance needs of small, medium and large companies by based on specific cases;  
  • Participating in the development of new reporting models or business plan in a financial context.  

Management and IT

  • Gathering requirements or drawing up company rules  
  • Business process modelling  
  • Performance of functional analyses with UML, ERP, SOA  
  • Implementing and testing on IT projects  
  • Assisting with IT project management  
  • Being involved in ongoing IT consultancy projects  
  • Performing IT audits  
  • Optimising search engine (SEO, or 'Search Engine Optimisation’)  
  • Solving knowledge problems using business intelligence and data mining (’big data’)  
  • Thoroughly preparing and formulating policy opinions on current IT topics, such as Business-IT alignment, Green IT, IT outsourcing, CRM, spam control, etc.  

Commercial Management

  • Developing a communication policy around new products and product lines  
  • Monitoring an advertising campaign from analysis, briefing, competition between the various external advertising agencies to the end result  
  • Creating a marketing plan (e.g., competitive analysis, portfolio planning, distribution landscape analysis)  
  • Analysis of sales figures  
  • Research into new marketing techniques  
  • Market research: drawing up of questionnaires, data analysis, reporting results.  
  • Summarising, synthesising market information (for example, for reports for press releases and press articles) and drawing up plans and actions from there  
  • ROI analysis for a specific action  
  • Creating sales analyses based on the internal database  

HRM and Organizational Management

Organisational strategy and HR strategy  

  • Proposing changes in strategic and tactical objectives, changes in the business model  
  • Support in the preparation of a strategic policy plan  
  • Development of performance management systems within organisations: EFQM, Balanced Scorecard, quality management systems  
  • Developing KPIs for HRM and/or setting up an HRM board table 
  • CSR and sustainable organisational strategy  

Recruitment and selection  

  • Identifying how applicants experience the selection process and why they withdraw from this process early or do not accept a job offer  
  • Evaluation of recruitment and selection: developing and interpreting concrete metrics to determine the success of a recruitment process  

Employer branding  

  • Image management: developing concrete actions to improve the perceptions of the organisation as an employer amongst internal and/or external target groups  
  • Developing or explaining a social media strategy for the organisation  

Employee performance management  

  • The development of a strong employee performance management system: results-oriented plans, monitoring and evaluation of employees  
  • Evaluating the incentive and remuneration system.  Proposals for adaptation  

Competency management  

  • Identifying the competencies in job descriptions and deriving training plans from them  
  • Being able to develop a training programme with a professional approach for analysis of the training needs and evaluation of the transfer to the workplace  

Employee wellbeing 

  • Analysis of absenteeism and exit figures with the aim of developing retention policies 
  • Establishing programmes to prevent stress and burnout  

Institutional and social framework of P&O 

  • Functioning socio-economic consultation and negotiation with trade unions.  
  • HR and society: age-conscious HR, gender and HR, HR and diversity, gender and leadership  
  • New jobs, social innovation, happiness at work, self-managing teams  

How to offer an internship?

Students should present their internship by 15 November of the academic year in which they are undertaking an internship.  The best period to make an internship known is therefore between May and October.  

The content of all the available internships is evaluated before we notify the students of their internships via the online learning platform.

Complete the document below and deliver it to stage.eb@ugent.be.

Offer an internship

Contract and insurance

The internship agreement of Ghent University is used at all times.  

During the internship, the student is insured through the following policies:  

  • Personal physical accidents: for medical expenses if the student becomes the victim of a personal physical accident on the way to and from the internship activities.  
  • General civil liability: for damage caused by the student while carrying out the internship, insofar as there is an uncommon slight negligence on the part of the intern. This liability of the internship provider, both for damage to third parties and for damage to the internship provider itself, is insured under this policy. The personal liability of the intern, i.e., for fraud, gross negligence and common slight negligence, is not covered by this policy.  
  • Travel assistance: for medical expenses, repatriation, etc., for students who travel abroad as part of an internship activity.  In addition, health insurance and possible additional insurance are needed.  
  • Accidents at work: the student is insured for industrial accidents at the internship provider’s premises.  

Contact

Tine De Decker - Tine.DeDecker@ugent.be - 09/264.33.72 - Commercial Management and HRM and Organizational Management
Evert Teerlinck - Evert.Teerlinck@ugent.be - 09/264.33.52 - Taxation and Management and IT
Lynn De Wandele - Lynn.DeWandele@ugent.be - 09/264.34.57 - Finance and Risk Management