On 24 February 2011, the Foreign Intelligence Service and the University of Bucharest (UB) signed a protocol of cooperation allowing for the UB MA students’ participation in SIE internship programmes in the field of OSINT (Open source intelligence). The internship offers the attending students the chance to acquire practical experience – which supplements the experience of university studies – in a field of activity reserved for elite professionals. Thus we open an opportunity that our Euro-Atlantic partners have been long harnessing in their dialogue with the universities but which is new among the Romanian institutions.

On a yearly basis, the SIE organises two internship programmes in the periods between June-July and July-August, with an internship allowing for no more than 4 (four) students. The number of transferrable credits granted for attending such an internship is set by the University of Bucharest. For their internship activities, the student interns will not receive any financial rewards from the SIE.

The internship programme is meant for students who have attended the first year of their MA programme in law, philosophy, history, journalism, foreign languages and literatures, political sciences, communication sciences, and who meet all the following eligibility requirements:

a)  Romanian citizen, and resident in Romania;
b)  no criminal record;
c)  BA graduation exam passed with over 8.50;
d)  MA entrance exam passed with over 8.50. 

No later than 15 April, the aspiring student interns will have to file their applications with the Secretariat of the UB’s Institute for Diplomatic Studies (ISD), providing two copies of the following documents:

a)  application form, which also asks you to say why you are interested in the internship;
b)  updated Curriculum Vitae;
c)  at least two recommendation letters from academic or university personalities in the student’s scientific field;
d)  certificate confirming that the student is enrolled in the MA programme and attends it;
e)  certified copy of the BA diploma;
f)  photocopy of the identity document.

The selection of the qualified students will be conducted by a Joint Assessment Committee made up of representatives of the UB Chancellor’s Office, the Institute for Diplomatic Studies, and the SIE. Given the SIE’s specificity, the selection process is chiefly focused on finding those MA students who are interested in the fields of geo-politics and international relations, have strategic thinking skills and speak foreign languages. The Committee’s activity, i.e. analysing the applicants’ files and (if necessary) interviewing the candidates, will end by 1 June.

By Order of the Minister of Education, Research and Youth no. 3955/2008 on the general framework for organising internships in BA and MA programmes, the selected candidates, alongside the SIE and the University of Bucharest, shall sign Framework Conventions on the participation in the internship, a document detailing the internship portfolio.

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