Background to the internship program
The Students for Development Program is the successor to the Canada Corps University Partnership Program that was introduced by former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin as an avenue to engage young Canadians in development issues. Students for Development builds on Canada’s policy of emphasizing the core role of good governance in this country’s engagement with lower-income parts of the world through the programming provided by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Designed and administered by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), its member institutions send up to five students every year into placements with developing country partners identified by the education institutions. The students spend three months working in a wide range of sectors related to governance issues. At the end of their placement, they are supposed to participate in at least one public engagement activity and thus communicate their experiences, knowledge, and insights into development issues with the wider Canadian public. Students’ expenses associated with the placement are fully covered: they receive remuneration for their airfare, accommodation, per diem, and other incidentals.
Who benefits? In what ways?
The program is designed to have two primary or direct beneficiaries: the students and their host organizations. The Canadian public, through the outreach activities at the end of the placements, the Canadian education institution, through further internationalization resulting from the internships, and civil society in the developing countries, through the extension activities of the host organizations, are all secondary or indirect beneficiaries. The program name suggests that student interns will make contributions to development in their host country through the expertise they bring with respect to the concept and application of good governance.
The extent to which students can make a meaningful contribution to the host organization within a very limited timeframe depends on the context and on a number of factors. Size and level of complexity of the host matter. In a very small, under-resourced host organization, students might be able to contribute in a significant way since their lack of contextual knowledge about the country’s socio-economic environment might be more than compensated by their knowledge and ability to apply such knowledge which they bring to the situation. On the other hand, a small host might be so under-resourced and thus suffer from a lack of organization that a meaningful integration of the student into the daily operations is not possible. In this case, it might be very difficult for the student to make any positive contributions.
The reverse is the case for large host organizations. A well resourced and highly organized host that has worked in the area of governance for a considerable time is unlikely to benefit much from the short-term presence of a student who arrives with limited knowledge of the particular country and socio-economic context in which the host’s governance work is carried out. Unless a niche can be found for the student to work on a fairly contained project which contributes to the host’s operations, it is likely that in this context the student will benefit much more than the host through learning about governance issues in an immersion setting.
Selection of students is important in this context. Should the sending Canadian institution screen for maximum input to the host organization, or for maximum learning for students? Are these two irreconcilable positions, or can selection occur in such a way that both objectives are met? The program allows for participation of students from third year undergraduate level up to PhD level. Apparently, a third-year undergraduate student is more limited in regard to knowledge about research techniques or the subject matter at hand than a master’s level student already working on her or his thesis. The contributions made by undergraduate students can therefore be expected to be more limited in most cases, while their learning might be disproportionately high exactly due to the fact that they start their internship with a lower knowledge level than might be the case for a more advanced graduate student.
The selection of students whose contributions can be anticipated to be limited raises important ethical questions: is it justified to claim that the internships are “designed to enhance developing countries’ governance capacity” (AUCC 2007, “Students on the road to governance”). Is it acceptable to “burden” the host organization with a Canadian student intern, in particular since the program does not provide for any compensation to be made to the host for the time and effort they invest in helping design and in administering the internship, as well as taking on responsibility for the intern during their stay in the host country? Do the potential medium- to long-term benefits to the host in terms of building a partnership with a Canadian education institution justify the short-term “price” that the host might have to pay in terms of making additional resources available to oversee the internship?
A partnership approach? The challenge of reciprocity
The last question in particular raises concerns about the extent to which the Students for Development Program is truly based on a partnership approach, given that the “road to governance” appears to be a one-way street. The flow of benefits, as enshrined in the program design, is clearly uni-directional. The program does not allow for covering any administrative costs arising to the host organization, much less does it allow for reciprocal internships by which the host organization would send employees to the Canadian education institution for training. The question “What’s in it for the host?” is a valid one to be asked. It is currently up to the Canadian institution to come up with the respective funding to put the partnership on a more equal footing.
At my university, we were able to create a reciprocal internship for the first time during the summer of 2007. Through a concerted fundraising effort initiated by one of the former Students for Development interns who was deeply troubled by the lack of reciprocity or “giving back” to the host, we were able to offer a two-months internship to an employee of the Indian organization where we had placed interns since 2004. This opportunity was not only well received by the host, but also gave us the opportunity to experience first-hand how much time and effort goes into the proper supervision and assistance provided to an intern unfamiliar with the social and cultural context in which they find themselves. The challenge now is to find a sustainable funding mechanism to reciprocate the learning experience provided by the host to our students in the spirit of a true partnership.
Preparation of and support for students throughout internship
Proper preparation of the student intern well in advance of the start of their placement can play a vital role in diminishing potential challenges in the relationship between intern and host, and will likely increase the contributions made by the student. At the same time, a co-ordinator who accompanies the student intern throughout their placement by staying in touch with them regularly through e-mail, phone, or an internship blog can considerably diminish the time spent by the host organizations’ employees on emotional and psychological issues associated with the internship, such as homesickness, culture shock, and feelings of loneliness and alienation. Interns who are consistently supported by their sending institution will normally seek less emotional support from the employees of the host organization, thus reducing the burden placed on the host.
Of particular importance is the need to balance the interns’ expectations before departure with the potential realities on the ground. Student interns tend to be enthusiastic, highly motivated, and expecting of an environment where they can be “of help.” The prospect of working in a developing country context automatically conjures up assumptions about ”bringing knowledge” to those who “know less.” These assumptions are not only fuelled by broad public perceptions about the relationship between higher- and lower-income countries, but also by the language used in the program description and internship application documents. Students need to understand that job responsibilities can shift dramatically once they get to their destination, and that they may – at least initially – have to take on much lower-level tasks than those described in the application document and internship agreement. Preparing students for the fact that their “knowledge advantage” might be less than they think, or might not exist at all, hedges against disappointments later on.
Internationalization at the Canadian institution
In order for the program to contribute to the Canadian institution’s internationalization efforts, the internship must be well planned in conjunction with the student’s academic program advisor or supervisor (at the graduate level). The program guidelines specify that the interns must receive adequate academic credit for their experience abroad. It is therefore necessary that all parties involved (e.g., student, academic advisor, supervisor, program director, course instructor) have a common understanding of the requirements under the internship in regard to formative and summative evaluation. There should also be agreement on the number of credits the students are going to receive if they meet all the requirements Thought should also be given in advance to mechanisms by which the students can share their learning with the campus community in a format that attracts the attention of more than a few. These common understandings should be spelled out before the start of the internship in a written and signed agreement between the student and the respective university authority. Without linking faculty and instructional staff to such educational experiences abroad the student’s experience has little chances to be validated in the classroom and thus to find its way into the mainstream of the university curriculum.
Media depiction and public engagement
Unfortunately, the media often perpetuate the stereotypical image of Canadians doing good in the world. If not planned carefully, public engagement activities can thus further engrain existing stereotypical perceptions among the general public, rather than increase public knowledge about development issues in an adequate way. Student interns and university coordinators are advised to choose public engagement activities that provide for maximum control of the message given to the public. Presentations by students and other first-hand accounts are thus preferable over journalistic contributions in newspapers where interns normally do not have final editing rights.
Need for a paradigm shift
I am aware that some of the questions raised in this discussion are provocative. They are in no way meant to discredit the Students for Development Program. Quite on the contrary: as an educator who sees internationalism in education as a necessary approach towards building better understanding amongst the peoples of this world by helping our students acquire a world-minded perspective, I fully endorse experiential educational opportunities provided through internship programs. However, a number of critical questions ought to be asked: to what extent are student interns “experts” and to what extent are they learners? Does the program perpetuate the neo-colonial perspective of the “good Canadian Samaritan?” As of recently, there has been a tendency by many Canadian institutions to “sell brand Canada” along those lines. Whether it is the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) which concluded, following a recent survey, to formulate a marketing strategy exploring the notion that “Canada is the best largely unexploited brand in the world, almost universally admired, positively angelic and almost too perfect” (Simon Anholt, as cited by the CTC at this link, p. 31), or whether it is the Aga Khan Foundation Canada that has launched a Canada-wide exhibit on the theme of “the national genius of Canada” (see Bridges That Unite website), the message is clear: Canadians like to see themselves as doing good in the world. Is it acceptable to keep sending Canadian interns down a one-way street to host organizations in low-income countries if the benefits of such placements are nebulous from the perspective of the host?
With a few changes to the Students for Development Program, some of these issues could be addressed: allowing for reciprocal internships as part of the Canadian institution’s funding application; shifting the program’s language to give equal weight to the benefits arising and learning occurring for the students and the host organization; and providing an authentic voice to incoming interns with respect to public engagement activities would go a long way to turn the program into a true partnership between individuals and organizations/institutions in the two countries.
Author's Information
Sabine Lehr is assistant director of the office of international affairs at the University of Victoria (UVic). She has been involved in the development and implementation of curricular course design for internationalization workshops at UVic since 2004. Sabine has spoken at conferences across Canada and internationally about a variety of issues in the internationalization of higher education. She is currently completing a PhD in educational studies which focuses on the impact of a Cuban scholarship program on graduates from Ghana as model for South-South collaboration assistance in education.
Write to Sabine Lehr at sabine (at) uvic (dot) ca .
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