Education Commons^™

A Qualitative And Quantitative Study Of Required Internships: The Students’ Perspective, Elizabeth Ann James

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Internships are increasingly popular in higher education (Coco, 2000; Divine et al., 2007). One reason for the increase is the benefits, both perceived and documented, associated with them (Divine et al., 2007). In addition to offering internships as electives, some programs have even begun requiring them of all students (Klein & Weiss, 2011). The policy change from elective to required internships has been evaluated very little, if at all, even though mandatory internships result in a substantial increase in cost and commitment for the departments that implement them (Divine et al., 2007).

This study analyzed survey and interview data from …