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The UGC's 2023 internship guidelines make an internship of 60 to 120 hours after the fourth semester mandatory for students in UG degree programmes. If your child lands one in another city, help them check four things before the train leaves: the offer, the stay, the money and the contacts.
How do you check if an internship offer letter is genuine?
In February 2025, AICTE alerted institutions to fake appointment letters sent from email addresses made to look like official ones. In July 2026, the PIB Fact Check unit called a Google Form offering ministry-approved internships fake and advised people not to share personal details on unverified platforms.
Read the letter together and tick each line:
The organisation's name and address match its own website.
The email came from the organisation's own domain, not a free account or a look-alike spelling.
Role, dates, working hours and office address are in writing.
The stipend, if any, is stated, with when and how it is paid.
A named reporting manager has an official email and phone number.
It says whether housing, travel or meals are provided.
It asks for no fee of any kind: registration, training, kit or deposit.
The AICTE internship portal says registration, applications, shortlisting and the completion certificate cost a student nothing.
Where should your child stay during the internship?
Start with the college. The UGC guidelines say each college should have a nodal officer for internships, that the host organisation should work with that officer to help interns on arrival with registration, ID cards and accommodation, and that the nodal officer may look after interns during their stay. It is worth one email. Then ask the host organisation whether it offers housing or knows PGs and hostels earlier interns used.
Before paying any deposit, check:
A video-call walk-through of the room, or a visit by someone you trust.
A written agreement and a receipt for every payment.
The commute at the hours your child will actually travel, including late evenings.
The owner's or warden's number, saved on both your phones.
Food: a mess, a kitchen, or money set aside for eating out.
If cooking, laundry and running a room are new, our list of life skills to practise before your child moves to a hostel applies here too.
How much money does an intern in another city need?
Build the budget in three parts rather than one monthly figure:
One-time costs: travel there and back, the deposit, bedding and kitchen basics, a first grocery run.
Monthly costs: rent, food, local travel, phone and data, laundry, toiletries.
The gap: the weeks before the first stipend reaches the account.
A worked example: an eight-week internship starts on 1 June, with the stipend paid at month-end. Your child pays rent and deposit in week one but sees no stipend until about 30 June. So you fund all of June plus the one-time costs, and the June stipend carries July. Add a buffer for one emergency, such as a last-minute ticket home. If the letter does not say when the stipend is paid, ask HR in writing.
To set the amount, see our guide to how much monthly money to give your college-going child, and revisit how to avoid scams and never share an OTP before they go.
Which safety contacts should your child save before leaving?
Save these on your child's phone and on yours before travel day:
112, the single national emergency number under the Emergency Response Support System, meant to bring police (100), fire (101) and ambulance (108) numbers together, as Kerala Police explains for ERSS 112.
1930, the national helpline for reporting online financial fraud, set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs and answered by state police (Vikaspedia).
Tele MANAS, 14416, a toll-free 24/7 mental health helpline in every state and union territory (PIB), for evenings when stress feels heavy.
The college's internship nodal officer or supervisor.
The reporting manager.
The PG owner or warden.
One local contact: a relative, senior or fellow intern.
Keep a shared note with the stay address, office address and manager's number.
What should you say before your child leaves?
Keep it short. You could say:
“I trust you to handle this. I'd like three things: the offer checked with college before you pay anything, the address in our shared note, and a message on the first night. After that, call when you want. If something feels wrong, tell me and we'll sort it out together, no ‘I told you so’.”
If the internship is in a lab or an engineering team and your child wants to revise an idea before day one, the Fermi Concept Library has a lesson on every concept in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and computing.
This weekend, go through the checklist together and let your child tick the boxes.
