Gaining Real-World Experience at The Balsillie School

A compulsory component of the M.A. in Global Governance and optional requirement of the Ph.D. in Global Governance, the internship term is designed to give students valuable work experience with professional organizations working in the field of global governance. Master’s students have the option of completing their internship in either the third or fourth semesters of the program. Students who hold a CIGI Junior Fellowship may count their required research work as fulfilling the internship requirement. Although the programs do not guarantee paid internship positions, they have, in the past, offered financial support to students in cases in which the costs associated with the internship have been considered exceptional.

Ph.D. Internships

After the completion of the comprehensive exams, students in the joint-Ph.D. program may, during their second year, complete a four to six-month internship working on global governance issues in the public or private sector, at a research institute, or for a non-governmental organization. This optional internship experience is designed to enable students to make practical applications of the problems and principles they have studied and to equip them with relevant research and problem-solving skills. It is also designed to help students develop a dissertation research topic.

After completing the internship, students are required to present, in a public forum, a written account of the experience. This presentation will help the presenter think through the theoretical and/or empirical implications of their experience for the study of global governance, and will also contribute to the learning environment of other students in the program.

Master of Arts in Global Governance Internships

Internships are an integral part of the Master's of Global Governance program. They are designed to give students valuable work experience with professional organizations working in the field of global governance. Students in the MA in Global Governance program have the option of completing their internship in either the third or fourth semesters of the program. Moreover, students who hold a CIGI Junior Fellowship may count their required research work as fulfilling the internship requirement.

Since 2007, students have interned at a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations, some of which include:

Arctic Centre, University of Lapland (Rovaniemi, Finland)
The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Ottawa, Canada)
The Carter Center (Atlanta, USA)
The Centre for Trade Policy and Law (Ottawa, Canada)
The City of Porto Alegre (Porto Alegre, Brazil)
The G8/G20 Research Group, University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada)
FLACSO (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
FOCAL (Ottawa, Canada)
The Institute on Governance (Ottawa, Canada)
The International Affairs Bureau, Health Canada (Ottawa, Canada)
The International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington, United States)
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (Winnipeg, Canada)
ISEAL Alliance (London, United Kingdom)
Mines Action Canada (Ottawa, Canada)
Project Ploughshares (Waterloo, Canada)
Search for Common Ground (Bujumbura, Burundi)
Stockholm Environment Institute (Stockholm, Sweden)
Students for Development (Nairobi, Kenya)