Please refer to Monash University's procedure on Industry Experience for more information.

Unfortunately, we do not have the authority to accept statements or additional agreements from industry partners regarding liability litigation. At MADA Design, we will also not support insurance waivers.

At MADA Design, WIL – or Work Integrated Learning – is the official term we use to describe academic credit-linked work experience that students can apply for, through a competitive selection process. We use the term 'WIL intern' to generally describe students undergoing a WIL engagement.

The semantics can be understandably confusing, especially when 'internships' are often used by the industry to describe what is essentially the same thing – an opportunity for students to gain work experience by embedding themselves into 'real-world' scenarios and projects.

We use Work Integrated Learning (or WIL in short) to describe a specific scenario – students going through this WIL channel gains academic credit for their efforts, which also includes their submission of an assessable placement report and diary.

General 'internships', on the other hand, are not managed or overseen through MADA Design WIL. Students can make their own decisions to apply for their own internships without seeking academic credit, although we provide some general advice around safety and legal liabilities.

WIL internships secured through this academic credit-awarding program do not require 'payment', or to be more precise, a scholarship award.

Students successfully matched and selected (including self-sourced applications) for this internship unit (ADA3406/5406) will receive 6 credit points, the equivalent of an elective unit upon successful completion of the internship. There is an academic assessment of their folio, report and reflection at the conclusion of the internship, and is therefore part of their academic learning activity.

That said, providing a monetary award may offer an incentive for applicants, and also address scenarios where transport and/or meals might present obstacles to the intern(s) working on-site.

There are a few options to consider when offering a monetary award for your intern(s):

1. Hiring the intern(s) as a salaried Employee – this means the WIL intern goes on your payroll and are subject to all aspects of the Fair Work Act 2009. The company is fully responsible for providing Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance coverage (see previous FAQ item). Consequently, Monash University does not cover the intern(s)' liabilities.

2. Providing a scholarship award to the intern(s) –  this can be a single payment made to the WIL intern(s) in recognition of the selection process and to reward the intern(s) for their efforts put into their application and competitive selection. Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance cover (see previous FAQ item) from the company is also required. In addition, Monash University will also provide the insurance for the intern(s), to protect Monash University's interests should litigation occur as a result of an incident during the internship.

3. Transport / meal allowance – companies can provide a separate allowance to WIL interns. This is particularly helpful for on-site internships where the location might be restrictive for the intern(s).

The legal agreement will need to stipulate payment terms (employee, or scholarship award direct to student (preferred), or invoiced through Monash) – this will be finalised and require signing from all parties before the internship can begin.

While we will endeavour to expedite the process, the timeline we have is intended to provide sufficient lead time for the following:

• Negotiating requests, agreement preview & due diligence checks (1 month)

• Call-outs to students to respond to each round (1 month)

• Candidate review/interview process (2-3wks)

• Legal agreement signings (2-3wks)

Most selections take a shorter time to confirm, but we want to advise a standard timeline for our new and ongoing industry partners.

There are typically three stages involved in the selection.

Stage 1 is our internal selection where preferences are sorted and reviewed for quality and eligibility.

Stage 2 goes out to requestors, weighted towards an applicant's higher preference. This varies depending on the 'popularity' of the posting. We tend to be able to match most students here.

Unsuccessful applicants in Stage 2 flow to Stage 3 for final selections. Please note that applicants may not necessarily be 'lower quality'. They might be deemed incompatible with the initial reviewer's job scope, or that a previous offer had to be withdrawn due to unforeseen circumstances.

As each design internship may vary depending on the job scope, we ask that each requestor arrange their own interviews, if required, to assess the quality of the provided candidates. We will also share each student's folio as a PDF link to assist in your review. We ask that you complete the reviews in a timely manner to facilitate the successful matching of as many applicants as possible.

To manage the timeline between review and selection, requestors will only receive a suitable selection of applicants after our internal review is conducted.

To ensure equity amongst all design internship students, we require that students complete 80-100 hours of WIL to satisfy the internship unit they are enrolled in. Engagement beyond this 80-100 hours MUST be negotiated clearly with the intern(s), and a separate agreement should be organised between you and the intern(s).

Please note that additional insurance and contractual obligations will have to be worked out with the WIL intern.

This is possible – let us know in the additional notes in your internship request.

In addition, our students will need to fulfil their academic requirement of submitting a placement diary and report. Therefore, the work that they have accomplished should ideally include a milestone, so that they are able to include more complete work in their folio and bookend their work experience with clarity.

In general, we suggest that you 'stage' project handovers in between the internship periods. This could involve organising meetings between incoming/outgoing interns that you set aside as part of their work commitment.

You are welcome to pencil in your request(s) via the same request form below, especially if your project(s)/role(s) are still in motion. We will get in touch with further details.

If you already have some student(s) in mind and have started conversations with having them on board, let us know in the request form. We will still conduct the necessary reviews to ascertain suitability with Design-centric job scopes. Also, see first point regarding insurance requirements.

Some students might prefer to take on an unpaid, non-credit awarding internship (and not WIL internship). If this is the case, you can arrange this internship with them separately (and this will fall outside the purview of this Design WIL Internship and Monash University).

In addition, some students may have approached you as their first step in submitting a self-sourced WIL internship application. In this scenario, students are applying to gain 6 academic credits for their successful WIL internship completion, but have made their own initiative to seek out opportunities relevant to their design interest.

In either case, we ask that you forward the students to this website, so that they are aware of the credit awarding opportunity. If they choose to take this on as a credit-awarding internship, a formal agreement between your agency, intern(s) and Monash will need to be made (also, see first point regarding insurance requirements).

Only one agreement needs to be signed. Furthermore, there needs to be clarity on WIL engagement (and not just an 'internship') in the agreement.

We therefore ask that our standard Monash placement agreement be used. Other agreements will need to be liaised with our General Counsel on a case-by-case basis to verify the details and compatibility of the agreements. Please allow for 2 additional weeks of processing time.

Generally, yes. The nature of every research project, either withing Monash University or beyond, is always going to be different, and require different skill sets and roles. The key points to consider are Ethics approval, and NDAs (non-disclosure agreement, next point below).

If you bring in WIL intern(s) to help you on the research project, you must consider how they are going to be involved in the project. If the WIL intern(s) are asked to assist in conducting research (e.g. interviews, observations, experimentation), they should be included in the Ethics application. However, if you are requesting WIL intern(s) to only produce media assets or process research data without direct engagement with the core research, you may not require Ethics approval.

It is important that you review Ethics guidelines relevant to your organisation. For Monash University, please refer to the Research Ethics & Integrity portal.

Intellectual property (IP) will remain with the company/research project stakeholder(s). However, WIL interns will be granted a royalty-free use of the produced materials to support the submission and assessment of their work on Moodle, which is not accessible to the public. We ask that the WIL internship supervisor vet the reports before the student(s) submit their work for assessment.

Additional NDAs can be signed to limit the disclosure of projects, which can cover the inclusion of produced work in the intern's report & submission. This is particularly relevant for projects that involve external commercial partners. The NDA is left to the requestor to arrange with the WIL intern(s).

This applies to both commercial and research projects.

Certainly! While this online resource provides the necessary information to get started on your request, we are available to have a chat.

Please get in touch with Dr Chuan Khoo (Design WIL Internship Coordinator) or Dr Xavier Ho (Chief Examiner) for further details.

Your feedback is immensely valuable. It will allow us to continually improve the internship program as it grows.

Please use the Feedback button above to submit your thoughts on our Design Internship program, at various stages of your engagement with us.

Alternatively, please get in touch with Dr Chuan Khoo (Design Internship Coordinator) or Dr Xavier Ho (Chief Examiner).