Student Experience Internships for penultimate year undergraduates

About Student Experience Internships

Building up your work experience is vital in your journey to achieve the graduate job of your choice. The University of Manchester understands that internships are a great way to do this and therefore runs its own internship scheme, Student Experience Internships (SEI) which has three specific strands.

The scheme offers penultimate year undergraduates the opportunity to undertake an internship within the University or with a local charity/not-for-profit organisation. All SEI internships will be paid, full-time and last up to eight weeks.

SEI internships are carried out through a mixture of in-person and hybrid working. Further details of the mode of working for each internship are available on each individual SEI advert.

Applications for summer 2024 are now open! You can apply for SEI roles via CareerConnect.

Please see our How to Apply page for further information on submitting applications.

Eligibility

To apply for any SEI internship type, you must be a University of Manchester penultimate year undergraduate student i.e. in your second year of a three year course or your third year of a four year course.

If you are in receipt of a bursary or financial support from the University, you are able to apply for as many SEIs as you wish. However, if this is not the case and you do not receive a bursary or financial support you can apply for a maximum of 3 SEIs. Once you have accepted an SEI offer, you will be withdrawn from any other SEI roles that you have applied for.

You can only undertake one SEI opportunity during your time at University. If you have previously completed an SEI, you will not be eligible to apply through the 2023 programme.

What types of opportunity are available?

There are three types of opportunities available within the SEI programme:

1 Student Experience Internships within the University

The internships will be based within Schools or within centralised university divisions such as Careers, Business Engagement or the alumni team (for example), undertaking student experience, Welcome Week or employability focused projects.

2 Learning Through Research Internships within the University

The research internships are aimed at students wanting to explore what a PhD or academic career might look like; they will involve working alongside an academic member of staff or other researcher undertaking a very specific research orientated project submitted by the academic.

3 Student Experience Internships with local charities/not-for-profit organisations

Hosted by Manchester-based charities and not-for-profit organisations these internships will be business focused, e.g., developing a fund-raising campaign, writing a social media strategy, launching a new initiative for the charity or perhaps writing a bid for funding. These SEIs will provide an insight into the work of third sector organisations and allow you to gain valuable paid experience in this sector.

Disability Confident Guaranteed Interview Scheme

The University of Manchester is a Disability Confident Employer meaning it offers applicants a guaranteed interview for SEI roles within the institution for students who meet the criteria.