So my degree normally requires the completion of an internship to graduate, but luckily for me, they put a policy in place during COVID that lets us complete an alternative assessment instead if we can't find placement.
I absolutely despise the concept of unpaid internships and opted for the alternative assessment, of course.
As part of this assessment we need to write about why we were unable to complete an internship, and I'm seeing red. I included all the normal guff about how I had assignments and work and personal projects and how I even did some volunteer work for a not-for-profit organisation that aims to help people get jobs in my field, but I really want to tell them how it is.
I've included the following paragraph towards the end of this section:
“I also personally find the concept of unpaid internships morally objectionable for a number of reasons, not least of which because they are essentially providing employers with free labour. It’s my opinion that unpaid internships put students like myself who need to support themselves through work at a serious disadvantage, as we need to balance our time between school, work and another unpaid job, which is mentally and physically draining. While I understand that an internship can benefit students who are able to put the time in, this often results in students from a financially advantaged background being able to devote more time and energy into their internships, and thus gives them a greater leg up. I also feel strongly that internships create a scarcity in the market for entry-level positions, as most employers would rather hire an unpaid intern to take on these positions over someone they’d need to pay. I also found the “work integrated learning agreement” completely objectionable, with section 8 “intellectual property ownership” literally forcing students to sign over their IP for no pay, and “consent to acts which would otherwise infringe their moral rights”, so they wouldn’t even need to be credited for their work. That is utterly Orwellian”
my question for antiwork is; could this potentially affect my chances of graduating?
As much as I'd love to send this in and tell them exactly what I'm thinking, I worry that it might potentially mean flushing 10s of thousands of dollars in student loans down the drain, and i'm only a semester away from finishing.
If it helps, I'm in Australia.