Imagine this: A German geography student examining cores of saline permafrost in Svalbard. Or a Swedish student simulating soil freezing processes in a cold lab in Canada. Or a Hungarian PhD student measuring permafrost high up in the Andes in Chile. Each of them learning about permafrost – the rapidly changing foundation of many Arctic landscapes – by hands-on work in a professional setting.
By Ylva Sjöberg, Lead of the UArctic Thematic Network on Permafrost, Associate Professor, Umeå University
Mikkel Toft Hornum, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Julie Malenfant-Lepage, Postdoctoral Fellow, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Hanne Hvidtfeldt Christiansen, UArctic Chair in Permafrost, Professor, University Centre in Svalbard
Changes in permafrost directly impact societies across the Arctic in several ways, including threats to infrastructure and cultural heritage sites, geohazards, and potential contamination of water resources. While research on permafrost is carried out at many universities worldwide, students often have limited insight into how knowledge of permafrost can be applied in professional life. This may at least partly be due to the lack of courses focusing on permafrost at many universities, and it motivates initiatives to find alternative ways to prepare future professionals for permafrost-related work in the Arctic region.
In 2022, the UArctic Thematic Network on Permafrost launched the PermaIntern project with the help of the Danish UArctic funding to bridge the gap between universities and real-world permafrost work. We used the Nordic region as our pilot area and gathered colleagues from twelve universities to develop a model for promoting permafrost internships. Through discussions within our group and with students, professionals, and pedagogics experts, we identified the needs and challenges for students, university supervisors, and internship hosts regarding internships in the Arctic and other permafrost areas. Based on what we learned, we formulated a flexible model for working with internships across disciplines, countries, and educational levels.
One of the bigger challenges was the diversity in how educational programs deal with internships. Most have requirements for duration, timing, and focus area, and some have requirements for potential hosts (e.g. excluding universities) or remuneration (demanding or prohibiting salary). Understanding how these differences would impact our envisioned internship service required more time for discussions than we had anticipated. However, these prolonged discussions also helped us understand the value that our service could bring and how to avoid unnecessary administration.
Our PermaIntern program focuses on three main actors: students, hosts, and university supervisors, all of which are required for internships by most universities. With PermaIntern, students can apply for an internship advertised by a certified host in any country and match this with a certified supervisor at either their home university or, if not possible, at another university. PermaIntern-certified hosts and supervisors have the expertise needed to guide the student through their internship focusing on permafrost, and they know the regulations associated with interns at their respective organizations.
Internships are advertised on our online platform, permaintern.org. The website also includes information about the program and the certification process. So far, we have six hosts and six supervisors certified for the program. Seven pilot interns also share their experiences in blog posts on our website. Most of the internships so far have been at universities, as setting up internships at private companies and research institutes has proven more challenging. This is mainly due to administrative issues when students cross country borders or the EU border.
While primarily targeting the Nordic region at the start of the project, we quickly found interest in other regions as well. Two of our pilot interns did their projects in Canada and one in Chile. Going forward, we aim to include students, hosts, and universities from more countries, and we are looking forward to seeing more interns find and make use of PermaIntern. We have also teamed up with the Permafrost Young Researchers Network for the continued development and maintenance of the platform within the newly funded Canadian UArctic networking project SEDNA.
Working with PermaIntern has provided us with insights about the educational needs and their status in relation to permafrost. As a rather niche topic in Earth sciences and engineering, educational opportunities are rare for students especially at the Bachelor level in most universities. Permafrost is also often perceived as a research topic rather than something useful to study for a career outside academia. Internships offer students at all educational levels hands-on educational experiences and also provides the option for universities that do not have specialized courses on permafrost. And since it is possible for permafrost, it could also be beneficial for other disciplines with educational needs in the Arctic region. Imagine a full-scale UArctic internship service covering all topics!
Photo: Dennis Benson
