Skip to main content
Scenes from International Engineering

Internships & Study Abroad


Internships Abroad

Professional engineering internships are a key component of the International Engineering Program. IEP internships typically take place during the fourth year of the program, and usually after a semester of study at one of our partner universities (listed below.) IEP Internships are six-months in length, they are coordinated with students' engineering disciplines, and are under the supervision of a person or team in one of the many IEP corporate partner companies. IEP interns are usually provided housing by the company sponsor, and are paid a cost of living stipend. Each intern regularly writes internship reports of his or her experience in German, French, Spanish or Chinese.

Well over 300 IEP students have already completed internships with companies in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, China and Liechtenstein.

It is not unusual for students to develop an ongoing relationship with a company through the internship experience. IEP students often work with divisions of the same company in the U.S. before and/or after the internship, and then go to work for the company after graduation. Though not required for domestic summer internships, many IEP students send in a short report about their activities.


Semester Exchanges

IEP students typically spend the first semester of the fourth year studying abroad at an exchange partner insitution. This allows the opportunity to acclimate oneself to the new culture and language, as well as gain insight into how local engineers approach learning and problem-solving, prior to the full-time internship experience abroad. Students take a full-time course load in the host language, and credits earned apply to their URI degrees.  We enjoy very strong relationships with our partner universities, all of which have strong reputations for their engineering programs. 

The cost of the semester abroad through an IEP exchange is very affordable at roughly the cost of in-state tuition, fees, room and board. Most financial aid and scholarship awards apply to the exchange semester, and there are other special internal and external scholarships for study abroad that students may apply to on a competitive basis.

Our exchange partner universities include:

TU Braunschweig
Braunschweig, Germany
Technische Universität Braunschweig (English)
Braunschweig Exchange Program FAQ

Université de Compiègne
Compiègne, France
Université de Technologie de Compiègne

ITESM (Tec de Monterrey)
Monterrey and Toluca, Mexico
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

Université Laval
Québec, Canada
Université Laval

TECNUN (Universidad de Navarra)
San Sebastián, Spain
Universidad de Navarra

Universidad de Zaragoza
Zaragoza, Spain
Centro Politécnico Superior
Universidad de Zaragoza

Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, China
Zhejiang University


Study Tours

The IEP also sponsors study tours to visit several of our partner companies and universities in other countries. First- and second-year IEP students are especially encouraged to participate in a study-tour so that they may not only visit a country in which the language they are learning is spoken but also tour a number of companies and facilities where they might do their internships at a later time. In addition, the study tours allow students to become acquainted with the foreign university where they might be studying for a semester and meet exchange students preparing for their journey to the University of Rhode Island. Usually, students will meet URI students already working for a given company abroad or studying at the university on exchange, thus allowing them to get a better picture of the global workplace.

German Study Tour 2010, January 10-22: Click here for flyer and here for application.