Campus News

Columbia University discontinues academic credit for internships

Columbia University no longer will give academic credit for internship experience, according to an article in Newsweek.

The move is an attempt to encourage employers to pay student interns rather than exchange work experience for college credits, according to the article.

Columbia joins other colleges and universities, including Yale, that have made similar restrictions on internship credits.

The U.S. Department of Labor has guidelines for employers regarding when they can use unpaid internships. As part of the guidelines, employers are encouraged to build internship programs around “an academic experience as opposed to the employer’s actual operations,” according to the Labor Department website.