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Statement Regarding Unfunded Psychology
Internships & Postdoctoral Fellowships APPIC changed the policy
regarding unfunded internships and postdoctoral fellowships in 2006 following
a bylaws change approved by the membership (please refer to Internship criterion
#16 and postdoctoral criterion #14): Frequently
Asked Questions Regarding APPIC's Stipend Requirement Criterion:
The program has the necessary financial resources to achieve its training
goals and objectives. Intern [postdoctoral] stipends shall be reasonable,
fair, and stated clearly in advance. Unfunded internship [postdoctoral]
positions are allowable only in unusual and infrequent circumstances.
Clarification: APPIC requires internship [postdoctoral]
positions to be equitably funded across the site. Intern [postdoctoral]
stipends shall be set at a level that is representative and fair in relationship
to the geographic location and clinical setting of the training site. Unfunded
or poorly funded internship [postdoctoral] positions are allowed only in unusual
or infrequent circumstances in which the creation of such a position would serve
to alleviate a hardship for the potential intern [postdoctoral] candidate. Examples
of such hardships may include geographic limitations due to family circumstances
or difficulties finding suitable placement. In such cases, the "burden
of evidence" lies with the program to demonstrate that the lack of funding
does not adversely affect morale or quality of training. In addition, training
resources should be sufficient to afford the same training for an unfunded or
poorly funded position as for fully funded positions.
The payment of
a stipend is a concrete acknowledgment that a trainee in the agency is valued
and emphasizes that the primary task of the year is educational in nature. Stipends
are generally lower than a salary received by a regular employee and implies that
there is a significant training component in addition to experiential learning.
Stipends are equal among trainees unless there is an extenuating circumstance
(e.g., specialized skills, consortia agreements). This distinction between
trainee and regular employee emphasizes that an internship [postdoctoral program]
is "an organized training program, in contrast to supervised experience or
on-the-job training".
GRANDPARENTING PROVISION:
Programs that are current APPIC members on the date of implementation of
this criterion, but do not meet the criterion or clarification on that date, must
request an exception at the time of each membership renewal. An exception may
be granted if the program demonstrates that they have made reasonable efforts
to secure funding and describes its plan to obtain future funding in order to
meet this criterion. They will be asked to resubmit application materials in one
year in order to monitor these expected changes. 6
September 2007 | |
