The role of internships in a higher education institute

Abstract

Industrial placement or internship is becoming part of an increasing number of higher education courses, ranging from engineering to accounting and social work, in the past decade. The paper analyses internship practice at a technological university in the island of Crete, in the south of Greece, where internships are part of every undergraduate course offered, and documents this experiential-learning process for students, academics and business managers alike. This work details the goals and structural elements of internships and its characteristics relating to employment conditions, and procedures for the academic institution and company alike, and lists the assessment tools of students and the process itself. It also describes the different approach to internships for each of the three stakeholders involved: students, managers and university academic staff, based on the long experience of academic internship supervisors of the institute. The findings of this paper are based on an enhanced internship project that the Greek institute is running and reports preliminary results of this programme. In addition, suggestions are made for future development and monitoring of internship programmes to achieve beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders.