Boston University’s internship program in Shanghai has been canceled for the spring semester because there are not enough Chinese companies working with BU to give students jobs, according to the International Programs office.
No students had applied to the program early last week, when the office announced it would be canceled for the spring, said Joe Finkhouse, the director of International Programs Institutional Relations.
However, the lack of applications does not indicate a lack of interest, according to students and professors in the Chinese department.
Chinese department course coordinator Xiaoyang Zhou said she traveled to China last summer to plan the two programs with the help of China’s Fudan University. Students were enthusiastic in their anticipation of the internship program, Zhou said. The Shanghai Language and Culture Program — for beginners in the language — will still be offered this spring.
“I just know we have some students that finished second-year Chinese here and didn’t register for the third-year course because they are waiting for the spring programs,” she said. “I think they are very excited. A lot of students are thinking about this.”
The IP office wants students in the internship program to “participate in internships of the highest quality,” Finkhouse said in an email.
Zhou said she found out about the internship program’s delay from one of her students, not administrators.
“I thought it would still be in spring,” she said, “but internships don’t open up over the course of a day.”
The Chinese Language and Culture Program does not include internships and is designed for Chinese language beginners, while the internship program requires a minimum of two years of college-level Chinese.
“An internship would give the students some real, useful, working skills over there,” Zhou said. “I think it is much easier for the students to become accustomed to China [if they have worked abroad before]. They learn the language and history not only in the classroom, but also in the country.”
