- If your employer wishes to simply confirm your student status, you can download your Confirmation of Study Letter and share this with them.
- You can download a Record of Agreed Results (ROAR) if your employer is requesting confirmation of your current modular results before you have completed your programme
- If you have already completed your programme, your employer may use your HEAR and the Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD) to confirm your qualification at King's online.
If your employer requires additional documentation, the King’s Host Agreement is available for you to share with them.
What is the King’s Host Agreement?
This three-part documentation is facilitated by King’s Careers & Employability, but may require you to get support from your personal tutor or academic department as it requires that you, your employer and King’s all complete the document in order for formal approval.
The King’s Host Agreement:
- Satisfies our legal and regulatory requirements
- Provides a level of support to you whilst on your opportunity
- Sets out our expectations for employers to ensure your health and safety, compliance with policies and insurance regulations, and guarantee of a fair remuneration
- Supports with termination, complaints, misconduct and appeals.
Important to know: The Agreement has been created in line with guidance from the Universities Safety & Health Association (USHA) and ASET, the Work-based Learning Association. The Agreement is approved for use by King’s legal and governance teams and is regularly reviewed to ensure compliance with all UK legislation and is sufficiently covered by European law.
What is it not?
The Agreement is not a contract of employment, and King’s maintains no contractual involvement in setting aspects such as pay, working hours, location, termination and notice periods, other than ensuring our base minimum expectations are met.
Important to know: It is not to be used in lieu of a contract of employment, which you may sign separately directly with your host employer.
Who can use it?
You are eligible to use the King's Host Agreement if you are:
- A currently registered student at King's College London, and your formal student status is retained until after the start of the relevant opportunity.
- Enrolled in a programme of at least 6 months in length (either full-time or part-time).
- Prospective students and offer holders are not eligible to use the King's Host Agreement, neither are alumni of the institution who completed their course more than 2 years (24 months) ago.
If the bulk of your opportunity takes place after you formally complete your studies at King’s, please follow the guidance for the Graduate Host Agreement.
You can check your formal course dates via your Confirmation of Study Letter, to ascertain how much of your opportunity might be beyond your course completion.
Your registered student status is not connected to your graduation ceremony, but to the end of your programme of studies. Therefore, you can’t delay your graduation to extend your student status.
Key things to know about the Host Agreement
- An opportunity may only be undertaken by current students during semesters if it’s part-time and up to 20 hours per week. Agreements sent to King’s Careers & Employability or your academic department which don’t meet this will be automatically rejected.
- It is your responsibility to undertake your own due diligence in advance of applying for an opportunity.
- You should explicitly ask your employer when applying for, or are offered a role, whether they expect King’s to complete any documentation so you can undertake the role.
- You should clarify whether the role will be available to you should you cease to be a student for all or part of the opportunity.
- You should clarify whether you're hoping to undertake the opportunity for credit as part of your course, or simply as an extra-curricular endeavour. If it is a contractual requirement of your employer to undertake the opportunity for credit related to your course, or as part of a course of study, but this is not possible on your programme, you will be unable to pursue the opportunity.
- Your employer must possess employers' liability insurance (of at least £5m) and confirm this cover can be provided to you throughout the duration of your opportunity. This is a legal requirement in the UK and where students are undertaking opportunities overseas, King's expects an equivalence or parallel legal equivalent to be provided to cover for possible incident whilst undertaking the opportunity, as part of our duty of care.
- Your employer should be aware of our own Agreement and that this is the only documentation we are able to sign, so you are not disappointed by not then being able to fulfil the opportunity.
- It is not the responsibility of the university to engage directly with your host employer, neither can King’s be held responsible for an employer not being able to fulfil our expectations and obligations, or an opportunity which may be voided if your employer cannot accept the King’s Host Agreement.
Important to know:
- King’s is unable to sign employers’ own documentation or documentations provided by external organisations. These documents will be rejected.
- Unfortunately, if your employer requires documentation from King’s – but is unable to sign our King’s Host Agreement, you may be unable to undertake this opportunity.
- Minor amendments may on occasion be made to specific clauses (e.g. a change in a clause from 14 days’ notice to 7 days’ notice) in the Agreement at the sole discretion of the relevant King’s authority or the Associate Director (Employer Engagement & Work-based Learning).
- Changes cannot be made to insurance or health & safety clauses and are not guaranteed to be made.
- King’s is unable to confirm that an opportunity will form a part of your programme of study or is credit-bearing, if this is not the case.
Taking up opportunities overseas
The details outlined above are particularly important if you are considering an internship in a country (e.g. France, Belgium, Italy, Spain) where they commonly use an agreement called a ‘Convention De Stage’/’Acuerdo De Practicas’/’Convenio De Colaboracion’.
- These agreements are contractually binding and required because their employment legislation means that an intern may not legally treated as a full ‘employee’.
- This means your employer is not required to undertake certain checks, may not be required to pay you, or have insurance or social security in place should something go wrong.
- King’s cannot sign these Agreements supplied by your employer.
You should also check the latest King’s guidance on support for international mobility, and whether travel to that country may not be permitted by the institution at that time (e.g. in event of a pandemic, natural disaster or travel advisory warning). You may be required to also complete further risk assessment documentation for us to confirm an opportunity.
How do I obtain the King’s Host Agreement?
The King's Host Agreement is a digital form completed through DocuSign:
DocuSign is a safe and secure platform that uses a qualified electronic signature that is unique to you.
You don’t need to register to use it; you will sign it first, then it will get automatically sent to your employer, and finally to the relevant King's authority.
- If you’re undertaking one of our own programmes or an industry placement (Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences/King’s Business School) you’ll either be sent a link or directed to the document by a member of staff.
- If you need it for a self-sourced opportunity, you will need to complete the Agreement on DocuSign
To have a King’s Host Agreement approved, please be advised that:
- You will need to provide your full name and King's email address in the format firstname.lastname@kcl.ac.uk.
- You will need to provide the contact name and email address of the employer in the 'Request a King's Host Agreement' form. The agreement cannot be signed without this information.
- The relevant King’s authority (based on your department or the programme being undertaken) will review the agreement and may reject it if it is not compliant with current guidelines.
Important to know:
- You must initiate the Agreement at least 21 days prior to the start of your opportunity to ensure that all signatories have the opportunity to review the relevant sections. Failure to do so may jeopardise the chances of receiving the necessary documentation and it can’t be guaranteed that the Agreement will be confirmed in time.
- To make full use of the terms and conditions in the Agreement, you must be registered as a student for the entire duration of the opportunity.
- Please only initiate one Agreement at a time. If you need to amend any details, contact the King's Internships team first, so the first version can be avoided before you re-submit a new version.
Who signs on behalf of King’s?
If you’re undertaking one of our own programmes or an industry placement (NMES/KBS) your Agreement will be automatically signed by the relevant member of staff responsible for that delivery. Modern Languages students completing an Agreement for their year abroad will have their document reviewed by the Global Mobility office.
- If you’re on the Accredited Internships Programme you will be provided with a list of Internship Convenors for your department, and you will need to direct the form to that individual academic.
- If you are a King's Business School (KBS) student, your internship host agreement will be automatically forwarded to the Work-Related Learning Manager for review.
- For all other students, King's considers the Head of Department, or when they are unavailable, the Deputy Head or Personal Tutor, as the designated King's authority that reviews and signs the agreement for internships or placements.
- PhD students and research staff should liaise with their tutor in the Centre for Doctoral Studies.
The King's authority will review the agreement and check that the opportunity meets the essential criteria of quality and health and safety, and will use their professional judgement to approve or reject agreements based on the information provided.
We have Guidance and Advice for Academic and Professional Services staff to support them in signing the Agreement, which you may wish to share.
The King’s Host Agreement terminates automatically when you cease to be enrolled as a student of King’s College London, as per paragraph 11.1 of the terms and conditions.
This means that King’s will not be able to support you in holding your employer accountable for your health and safety, compliance with policies and regulations, guarantee of minimum wage, support with termination, complaints, misconduct or appeals after your ‘course completion’ date has passed.
If you are a graduate, you are not entitled to the terms and conditions of the King’s Host Agreement, because the formal relationship with King’s College London has ended before the start of the internship or placement.
We have a condensed Graduate Host Agreement which you can use within 2 years of completing your course of study.
To access this Agreement, you will need to be registered as an alumni with King’s CareerConnect and follow this pathway.
The Agreement will be signed on behalf of the university by King’s Careers & Employability, who will receive the form automatically to approve.
Important to know:
- You will need to obtain any relevant health and liability insurance prior to the opportunity. You will not be insured against the risk of sickness, maternity, disability, and accidents at work by King’s, and may not be by your host organisation, so please check with them directly.
- King’s College London will not be liable for any accident involving the graduate or costs arising from this, or provide any form of insurance. Both the organisation and the graduate must obtain liability insurance with an insurance provider of their choice. King’s College London will not be liable for any actions, errors, or omissions of the graduate.
Where can I get advice related to my visa?
If you hold a Student Visa, you must ensure you check your status means you are able to undertake an opportunity. Please check for information and guidance at Immigration & visa advice for any support.
Important to know: King’s is unable to provide support regarding visas in other countries to enable you to work and you will need to seek independent advice from that country’s embassy or consulate.
I’m on a break from my studies; can I access the Agreement?
The King’s Host Agreement is only available for currently enrolled students who remain a student at King’s during the full opportunity, and terminates automatically when you cease to be enrolled as a student of King’s College London, as per paragraph 11.1 in the terms and conditions of the Agreement.
Important to know:
- This means that King’s will not be able to support you in holding your employer accountable for your health and safety, compliance with policies and regulations, guarantee of minimum wage, support with termination, complaints, misconduct or appeals if you are on interruption in your studies or research.
- If this applies to you, you are not entitled to the terms and conditions of the King’s Host Agreement, because your formal relationship with King’s College London has temporarily changed.
Instead, we have a condensed Graduate Host Agreement which you can use if you on interruption.
- To access this Agreement, you will need to be registered as an alumni with King’s CareerConnect and follow this pathway.
- The Agreement will be signed on behalf of the university by King’s Careers & Employability, who will receive the form automatically to approve.
Important to know:
- You will need to obtain any relevant health and liability insurance prior to the opportunity. You will not be insured against the risk of sickness, maternity, disability, and accidents at work by King’s, and may not be by your host organisation, so please check with them directly.
- King’s College London will not be liable for any accident involving the individual or costs arising from this, or provide any form of insurance. Both the organisation and the individual (you, the student) must obtain liability insurance with an insurance provider of their choice. King’s College London will not be liable for any actions, errors, or omissions of the individual.
I still have questions, who can I speak to?
If your question has not been answered by this article, you can email the Internships team who will endeavour to support you or direct you to the correct information or team.