{"id":1054,"date":"2013-05-14T21:43:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T21:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2021-10-18T08:25:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T08:25:29","slug":"imperial-college-london-pulls-auction-of-unpaid-internship-following-student-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/2013\/05\/imperial-college-london-pulls-auction-of-unpaid-internship-following-student-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Imperial College London pulls auction of unpaid internship following student opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The internship on Westminster School’s website before it was removed<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Imperial College London has pulled an unpaid internship which was up for auction at one of the country’s most expensive private schools.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Westminster School, which charges in excess of \u00a37,000 per term<\/a>, is running an online auction for internships and were offering a one week unpaid position at Imperial College to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

The auction<\/a> is taking place to help fund the school’s\u00a0“newly acquired Sports Centre as well as the ever-expanding bursary programme.”<\/p>\n

It was\u00a0advertised to take place\u00a0inside the\u00a0Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the university which is ranked 8th in the world.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0The institute brings scientists, medics and engineers together to work on\u00a0medical\u00a0diagnosis and treatments.<\/p>\n

The internship isn’t the only unpaid opportunity included in the lots on the website – but is the only one offered by a university.<\/p>\n

Other internships include one week at retail expert Mary Portas’s communications agency<\/strong>. The auction also includes the\u00a0opportunity to win\u00a0the services of a bagpipe player and an “assorted archive items dating from the 1930s.”<\/p>\n

The auction came after several top universities, including Nottingham, Essex, Sussex and York, agreed\u00a0not to allow unpaid internships to be advertised <\/a>on their websites.<\/p>\n

However, once the Students’ Union sabbatical officers discovered their university was allowing the internship to be auction they issued a statement\u00a0condemning\u00a0it<\/a> and saying that education should be based on merit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They said:<\/p>\n

“For a publicly-funded body to restrict this transformational opportunity only to the wealthy is a betrayal of our academic principles and the work to widen access to which so many staff and students have given their time.<\/p>\n

“We will ensure that this auction is withdrawn entirely and that College take steps to prevent similar incidents happening again. We have contacted senior management and College communications staff and discussions are underway.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Following their protests and discussions with the university the position was removed<\/strong> from the Westminster School auction page.<\/p>\n

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The internship at @imperialcollege<\/a> is no longer up for auction: auction.westminster.org.uk\/lots\/one-week-\u2026<\/a> Updates to follow when we know more.<\/p>— ImperialCollegeUnion (@icunion) May 14, 2013<\/a><\/blockquote>\r\n