Internship with AIESEC? Good luck -.-

Are you thinking about finding an internship through AIESEC? Then there are a few things you should know.
One of AIESEC’s services is the access to their database of internships GIP (Global Internship Programme).
The internships seem professional in the sense that the intern has real responsibilities within his/her field and they are often well paid (considering the wage level of the countries). There are internships to find across the globe although very few in for example the US. It should be noted that the access to the database costs around 2500 DKK* in which case I also expected a professional service during the entire process.
This is all information you are given upon entering the programme and additionally you are informed that your preferences regarding geographical location of the internship must be rather broad.
For me this was fine since I wanted to do an internship in either Latin America or central/western Europe.
I began applying right away and I found many internships of my interest within these regions.

The first disappointment occurred when I realized that France has a national policy that interns must be students during the entire internship and that the university has to sign a form saying that the internship is part of your degree. Since I recently finished my bachelor’s degree this is not the case for me. Later it turned out to be the case for many German companies as well. This is information I wish I had known earlier on.
I kept applying in other countries but at one point I realized that I had received pretty much no feedback at all from anybody. No confirmation notices, no interview invitations and even no rejections.
I began wondering whether or not my applications were even being considered. I changed strategy by asking questions about the internship before applying. Around 1 in 10 responded. Often with the information that they had already found an intern or something similar. One time the rejection was caused by the fact that the company had “preselected some interns”. And this is another problem; it is not always clear from the database when the internships expire or whether or not they have already found somebody. In other words, you risk wasting your time applying for internships that are no longer available.
The ironic part comes now. I have received around 50 e-mails from AIESEC departments in India encouraging me to apply for one of their internships. In addition I have received a few from the rest of Asia and a few from Eastern Europe. Finally I received an e-mail from a department in Brazil encouraging me to apply for their internship and so I did.

All in all, this is what you should know about finding an internship with AIESEC:
You pay a substantial fee to access the database but the students that run the initial application process are not being paid. So although is it natural to assume a professional service do not expect that. Another problem is the bureaucracy. Typically one low ranging AIESEC member is the contact person for the internship, when he/she finds a prospective intern it goes on to her/his boss and then to the company. So in many cases there are at least three links before you reach the company.
The next thing is the application process. Forget about applying. You clearly have to wait for somebody to write you (unless you like wasting your time by sending out applications that are never even reviewed).
It is very ironic that internships are listed in the database ready for applications when interns are preselected and contacted by e-mail. What is the point with the database and the search functions?

Would I recommend AIESEC GIP programme? If you have no specific country in mind, then yes (in which case you will end up in India). Otherwise: no.

A few other things:

• Language skills are often a requirement. Languages in high demand: English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Mandarin
• Most typical types of internships: business, marketing, programming and IT, language teaching and engineering.
• The salary varies a lot. In most countries the amount is enough to get by on, but if your travel expenses add up don’t expect them to be covered by the salary.
  Examples of salary/month by country:
  India: 250 USD
  Mexico: 700 USD
  Western Europe: 1000-1400 USD
  Brazil: 400 USD
  Chile: 900 USD
• There are very few internships in: The US, Canada, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain
• There are many internships in: India, China, Brazil, Taiwan, Germany
• If you do not find an internship you can get your money back (there are some requirements you have to fulfill). It does not compensate the time you have wasted though.

*2500 DKK = 450 USD

Aarhus University BSS - what do grades reflect?

I recently graduated from Aarhus University BSS (Denmark) with a bachelor's degree.
In retrospect there are numerous grades, teaching methods, grading methods, exams, classes, assignments that baffle me. What I find most questionable is the connection between the above.
The business department (BSS) is considered to be a good school, though it has fallen a bit in ratings since becoming part of the standard university. Any who, it makes sense for a good university to be tough with the grades when the level is high. Does it also justify poor teaching?

Let me first explain how Aarhus University BSS works (this is a generalization based on the Business Administration programme).
Almost every class consists of lectures and tutorials with exercises.
Although there are many exercises and occasionally presentations and assignments, they are all voluntary and do not take part in the final grade. It is only the final exam that matters in the end.
There is no doubt that there are both good and bad aspects of whatever teaching method you encounter. However, in this case a few things ought to be questioned.

First of all there is the attitude towards higher education in Denmark. The main idea is that the learning outcome is the responsibility of the student and the student alone. This also means that students can choose to not study all year-long but instead study right before the exam. It is therefore reflected in the "you-have-one-chance-method" (the final exam).
A characteristic of the programmes taught at BSS is that they all have relatively many classes, lectures and assignments. Ergo they're using significant resources teaching the students that choose to show up. Naturally there is nothing wrong with using resources on ambitious students. Though, did anyone every consider whether students choose to study on their own as a result of the quality of the teaching during the year? The content of the classes bring me to the second part.

Secondly, the classes, assignments and lectures are not necessarily directly preparing the students for the exam. Some exams, especially in excel, are highly standardized and similar each year. Still, the curriculum throughout the year is often more broad, more simple or taught from another angle. This means that even if you keep up all year, you still have to study specifically for the final exam by going through previous exams.
My point is, don't the preparations during the year appear redundant if they are not mandatory, not directly preparing and not counting in any way in the final score?
Or is the reason why no assignments, presentations or midway tests count really that they do not represent the course? Redundant, right?

Third of all, this arrangement is not necessarily fair when it comes to evaluating the students in the end. Since all the effort during the year does not count in any way, it is actually possible to learn a substantial amount but still fail the exam. This is possible because of a slightly different content and type of exercises. Ergo, learning the curriculum and learning to pass the exam is not the same thing. One could argue that the more knowledge the better. However, since the students only end up with one grade for passing the final exam, they have no legitimate proof of knowing anything else (or better performance)!
Example: the elective course "UK Society"
This course consists of tutorials and lectures. This means that there are small exercises to prepare and even presentations. The class goes through different aspects of the UK and the final exam consists of writing a paper about a specific topic and occasionally defending it orally. You can easily go through several aspects of the UK during the year and then write a final paper about yet another aspect. This means that going to class doesn't prepare you for the exam. Yes, surely there will be a learning outcome, but you cannot prove it. Because basically, you can do killer presentations during the year, but write a bad paper at last (or defend it poorly) and end up with a poor grade IRREGARDLESS of your performance during the year.
... Fairness?

For some students this system is fine. Though, I am having a hard time focusing on the upside.
When classes ≠ exams it is highly demotivating to show up for class when you don't get any credit out of it. You can read the entire book and fail the exam or choose to not read the book and only study for the exam and hereby pass. What does that say about the exam? About the classes? And most importantly, what does that say about the grades that the students end up with? Do they represent skill, effort and knowledge?

I ask?