Overview
A professional internship or work placement provides you with experience in a professional environment relevant to your chosen discipline. The process of combining theoretical knowledge with practical experience will assist you in understanding the relevance of material presented during discipline studies and further expand your professional knowledge and work-readiness with practical experience. Following a detailed application and selection process in the term prior to your BUSN20020 enrolment term, once you are placed with a host organisation, you will be engaged in work-integrated learning (WIL) while being supported by the School of Business and Law. You will undertake applied organisational research with a focus on your host organisation's approach to systems, processes and strategies related to your discipline, i.e. human resource management, marketing, management or accounting, with a view to improving organisational effectiveness. You will also be required to document and reflect on your work placement experiences to assess professional growth, recognise and evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, and develop an action plan for future professional development. This unit involves a company placement, either self-sourced by students, or organised and coordinated by a number of internship providers (external companies contracted by CQU to manage this aspect of the internship unit for Postgraduate business students). This unit involves some on-campus classes and assessments, as well as an intensive placement in a host organisation. Because of the involvement of these external host organisations and internship providers, this unit is only available to full-time on-campus international students normally based on the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane campuses.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisites: Must be on track to complete all units (other than BUSN20020) of their course prior to final term of enrolment. BUSN20020 must be the only unit undertaken in the final term of enrolment. Students must follow the internship course planner of their Masters course. For Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) students, successful completion of ACCT20074 Contemporary Accounting Theory, ACCT20075 Auditing and Ethics, and ACCT20080 Ethics and Governance; OR For non-MPA students, successful completion of BUSN20017 Effective Business Communications and BUSN20016 Research in Business; and No Failures on the student’s Academic Record. Enrolment in this unit is subject to your successful application through the SONIA internship system early in the term prior to your final term of enrolment. This process will involve lodging a formal application through SONIA, an examination of your academic record, then interviews with external organisations including possible host organisations. Students may choose to self-source an internship, but all self-sourced placements must be approved and vetted, and students must nonetheless apply through the SONIA system, following the same timeframes as all other students. Placements through an internship provider are not guaranteed, but unsuccessful students will be notified in time for the School to facilitate enrolment in alternative electives. Once accepted for placement in a host organisation, students will follow normal office hours for four days per week over 10 consecutive weeks for the work placement component of BUSN20020. Students cannot self-enrol in this unit; only students who have been successful in securing an approved internship in a host organisation, and who meet the other requirements of this unit, will be enrolled into BUSN20020 by the WIL team. The Postgraduate Business Internships Moodle site outlines all application processes in detail.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Benchmarking; tutor reflections; student feedback.
Include more Career Development Learning and reflective content into the unit content and assessment.
Incorporate more Career Development Learning and reflections into the unit, throughout multiple assessment regime of the unit.
Feedback from Benchmarking; tutor reflections; student feedback, grades and engagement.
Early assessment item.
Include an assessment very early in the term, before students are overly busy with their internship, to help transition them into the internship and spread the assessment load across the term.
- Apply conceptual and discipline-based knowledge and skills in an authentic work environment
- Apply research skills to analyse and generate solutions to workplace problems relevant to specific cognate or discipline areas
- Demonstrate communication and interpersonal skills in workplace and academic settings
- Critically reflect on the personal, professional and academic learning from the internship experience and its relevance to future professional practice
- Demonstrate the ability to work professionally and ethically with colleagues, clients and other stakeholders in the host organisation.
N/A
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Presentation - 20% | |||||
| 2 - Poster Sessions - 30% | |||||
| 3 - Portfolio - 50% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||||
| 2 - Communication | |||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||||
| 4 - Research | |||||
| 5 - Self-management | |||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||||
| 7 - Leadership | |||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||
Information for Textbooks and Resources has not been released yet.
This information will be available on Monday 16 February 2026As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
