An internship system that charges tuition without offering wages is not merely unjust — it is corrosive. When students perform tasks indistinguishable from full-time staff, working long hours and shouldering near-professional responsibilities under the guise of “education,” the problem goes far beyond compensation. It reveals a deeper distortion in how value and responsibility are assigned.
A paid internship system is not just a matter of financial support; it is a structural commitment to recognize that time invested, knowledge applied and professional growth are educational processes, while being socially valuable and economically measurable contributions — as the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) stipulates.
Students are not just learners — they are contributors. A just internship framework must offer more than technical training; it must guarantee dignity, compensation and a culture that values honesty. Students should be encouraged to learn from mistakes, take responsibility for outcomes and be rewarded for genuine contributions, not coerced into silence, obedience and unpaid labor.
It needs to be more than another iteration of institutionalized exploitation. It needs to be a system that treats students as responsible emerging professionals.
To correct the structural injustice of tuition-charged, unpaid nursing internships in Taiwan, National Chung Cheng University’s Department of Labor Relations has proposed a two-phase structure that respects the educational and labor dimensions of clinical training. The first phase emphasizes tuition-based learning and the second compensates measurable contributions.
Consider a two-day-per-week internship that lasts for four weeks. On the first four days, students would engage in a closely mentored, skill-building stage. Tuition would cover insurance and instructional costs. They would receive no wages, but may be granted a modest daily subsidy for transportation and meals. Evaluation is self-directed, focusing on learning rather than performance.
In the final four days, the internship shifts toward performance. Students assume semi-independent clinical roles and become eligible for compensation. Payment is tied to outcomes, not only attendance.
A review would assess clinical skills, teamwork, patient feedback and documentation quality.
The model decouples “tuition” from “wages,” avoiding the pitfalls of turning students into cheap labor or offering blanket pay without accountability. The typical NT$6,000 internship tuition would apply, while minimum performance-phase compensation would be NT$7,328 for four, eight-hour days at NT$229 per hour. Compensation would scale with performance, with top-tier interns receiving a NT$5,000, the second tier getting a NT$2,000 bonus, no bonus for the third tier and the bottom tier required to repeat the internship at their own expense.
The waged internship model is a paradigm shift. It reframes learning not as a cost borne solely by students, but as a value-generating process. It recognizes interns as active agents, supports learning through failure and resists a culture of blind obedience. Aligned with international standards, stipends are legal and ethical imperatives. It advances professional growth by integrating technical skill with ethical reflection, ensuring that students emerge not only skilled, but responsible.
Internships must be places where responsibility is exercised, not deferred; where contributions are respected, not exploited; and where students are empowered to grow with fairness and purpose.
Chu Jou-juo is a professor in National Chung Cheng University’s Department of Labor Relations.
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