College of Social Sciences

The PGR Opportunities Hub internship scheme has been designed to provide relevant workplace experience for postgraduate research students. These internships are designed to develop students' broader transferable skills as encompassed within the Researcher Development Framework's Domains covering:

• Personal and professional values and behaviours
• Engagement and impact
• Knowledge and skills to engage and work with others

These internships cannot be research-focused. 

Internship themes: 

Previous internships have involved PGR students working on project such as: 

• Support for online learning
• Public engagement or outreach
• Business engagement, enterprise and knowledge exchange
• Employability initiatives
• Developing future research leaders

Applications for internship projects are welcomed from both academic staff and professional services staff across the College. Successful applicants will receive an internship grant of approximately £1000 to support a maximum of 63 hours of a postgraduate research student's time.

Internship set-up:

Internships posts are set up by the College HR Team and recruitment and selection is handled by the University's Student Opportunities Hub. Internships must be open to applications from postgraduate research students from any School within the College of Social Sciences and from any year of study. Whilst the Student Opportunities Hub and College Employability Officer will support the advertising of the internship, it is imperative that supervisors also use their School and Subject contacts and networks to advertise to the PGRs in their areas. 

Call for staff applications for PGR Opportunities Hub internships:

The staff call for applications is emailed across the College of Social Sciences in May or early June each year. The approval process is completed in July and internships can be advertised to students from the start of term in September. 

Applications assessment: 

All applications will be reviewed by the College Employability Officer, the Graduate School Manager and the Dean of Graduate Studies and assesed against the following criteria:

• Clarity and feasibility of project
• Transferable skills development benefits for intern
• Planned support for the intern throughout internship

Interested in applying?:

To apply, or for more information, please contact the College Employability Officer or use the PGR Opportunities Hub - Internship Application Form.

The PGR Opportunities Hub can also support and advertise internships funded by the School or Subject area, or tied to a specific research project. All internships are supported by our College HR team and advertised by the University's Internship Hub and should be open to applications from all College of Social Sciences research students. These roles may vary in scope and duration although typically, full time PhD students are not expected to work more than 6 hours per week. Grading of roles is determined by HR on a case-by-case basis, dependent on the job scope and description. 

The SGSSS Research in Practice scheme requires that all ESRC funded students undertake a 3-6 month placement as part of their studentship. The placement can be undertaken in a non-academic or academic setting. SGSSS’ vision for Research in Practice is to equip Scottish Social Science students to be the next generation of research leaders.

As part of this scheme, placements can be hosted in academic institutions within research centres, research teams or professional services teams. 

These 3-6 month placements are funded through the ESRC studentship.

To find out more and apply to host a Research in Practice placement please see the SGSSS Placement webpages or contact the College Employability Officer.