‘He who is silent is taken to agree’: University careers services and the problem of unpaid graduate internships

Abstract

Unpaid graduate internships (UGIs) are a controversial feature of the UK graduate labour market. Drawing on Watts’s socio-political ideologies, this article examines how university careers services and practitioners engage with this issue in policy and practice, using data from interviews with careers managers and practitioners. It reveals that practitioners are sometimes reluctant to engage directly with the ethical issues surrounding UGIs, and that some careers interventions which support individuals may arguably help to perpetuate this unfair practice. I contend that careers professionals nonetheless have a moral duty to take action on UGIs, putting ethics at the heart of their work.