A Self-organised Internship is where you independently organise an internship and wish to have that internship included in your law program and awarded credit towards your degree. Students with a self-organised placement MUST apply for their internship to be approved PRIOR to commencing their internship. Applications for enrolment will not be considered after the commencement of the internship.

If you wish to organise your own placement you must request the organisation completes the Host Organisation Information form and the WIL agreement then submit it with your application on InPlace. The forms are available on Inplace in the Shared Documents.

Note: With the exception of summer term, we will not approve self-organsied internship requests with our partner organisations. A list of current partner organisations can be found here. If you are interested in completing an internship with one of our partner organisations you should apply for the relevant opportunity through the application period on InPlace. For summer term only you may contact our partner organisations directly to enquire about the possibility of completing an internship. 

A criminology self-organised internship must

  • involve work related to your academic program to extend your learning experiences
  • be over 10 days (70 hours) during the teaching term dates of the term you apply for or be completed in term break immediately prior to the teaching term
  • provide new learning opportunities
  • be submitted prior to week 10 term 2 via inplace and approved by the WIL team and the course convenor


A law self-organised internship must

  • LLB, JD and LLM internships must involve substantive legal practice, policy or advocacy work. 
  • LLB and JD law internships must be undertaken with a non-profit organisation. 
  • be supervised by a lawyer (some exceptions may apply for policy related internships)
  • be completed over 10 days (70 hours) during the course enrolment term or upon approval can be completed in term break immediately prior to your course enrolment term 
  • provide new learning opportunities with an organisation you have not previously worked or volunteered for 
  • be submitted before the end of week 10 the term before via InPlace and approved by the WIL team
 
All students working from home/remotely on an internship must complete the work from home checklist and record their hours each day as per the WFH procedure. 

When does the course run?
Law internships are available in all terms to students who meet the requirements. 
Criminology internships are only available in term 3. 
See the handbook entries for course prerequisites and requirements. 
LAWS3555/JURD7555 UNSW Law Internships (LLB and Juris Doctor) 
LAWS8173 UNSW Law Postgraduate Internship (LLM) 
LAWS8052 Human Rights Internship Program (LLM)
CRIM3025 Criminology Work Integrated Learning Placement
 

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted during the specified application period - See key dates on InPlace - shared documents

  • Once you have checked that you meet all course prerequisites and requirements, make contact with the organisation you would like to intern with to find out if they have available internship placements.
  • After reaching an agreement with an organisation you must then lodge an application through InPlace.
  • Applications are made by completing the documents listed below, available in the shared documents on InPlace and uploading to the relevant self-organised opportunity on InPlace
  • Your internship must be approved by the WIL team in order to be enrolled and receive course credit.

All internships must be approved prior to commencement. The 70 internship hours can be undertaken 1 or more days per week across the term or can be undertaken in a condensed format, either on a full-time or part-time basis, before teaching term commences. All hours must be completed by the end of term. 


Application documents required 

As you have already been accepted by the organisation you do not need to write a statement of interest for your application. Instead of a statement of interest please include the following details and upload the documents in your application: 

  • Completed Host Organisation Information form; 
  • Completed WIL agreement
  • Your resume; and
  • Your MyUNSW academic statement

The provided information will be used to assess the suitability of the organisation and the proposed placement as part of the internship program. Generally, suitable organisations will be engaged in legal practice, or legal policy. The organisations for LAWS8052 Postgraduate Human Rights Internship Program must be in the area of law, community development in justice and/or human rights.

 
Once the application is submitted

The submitted application and relevant supporting documents will be assessed by the WIL team. We will endeavour to notify students of the outcome within 5 days of submission. 


Further enquiries: