Determinants of Internship Effectiveness: An Exploratory Model.

Developing university-business cooperation through work-integrated learning

“…Unlike existing WIL studies that have a predominant teaching focus (Freestone et al, 2007;Lucas et al, 2009;Narayanan and Olk, 2010), the study contributed a UBC focus of WIL by examining how WIL partnerships can be developed to not only substantiate WIL efforts but to lead to broader UBC outcomes including research and commercialisation. Furthermore, unlike UBC studies that have under-recognised the role of education and students in UBC, the study extends the UBC literature beyond its commercialisation focus to incorporate WIL-related UBC given calls for greater research on a student focus of UBC (Astebro et al, 2011;Stephan, 2001).…”

“…In a WIL context, Narayanan and Olk (2010) argue that communication can range from arm's length where there is sparse communication between the university and the firm to embed characterised by high levels of communication. Additionally, Rounce et al (2007) found that language was a highly contentious issue in WIL communication between firms and universities as terminology was confusing and there was little shared understanding.…”

“…In the WIL context, Narayanan and Olk (2010) explain that coordination pertains to the appointment of both university and business supervisors who mentor and provide feedback to students during the internship. More broadly, Rounce et al (2007) argued that it also involves planning and clarifying purpose and outcomes in the WIL context.…”

“…First, research outcome measures from the UBC literature include publications, completion of research theses, research income and international linkages (Barnes et al, 2002;Groot and Garcıa-Valderrama, 2006;Perkmann et al, 2011). Second, the hiring of skilled students is a key outcome of WIL for both firms and students (Bishop et al, 2011;Knemeyer and Murphy, 2001;Narayanan and Olk, 2010). Additionally, the UBC literature has also adopted relational measures to assess UBC outcomes such as intention to renew the cooperation (Plewa and Quester, 2007).…”

“…The impact of WIL in developing entrepreneurial skills of venturing and technology self-efficacy in engineering students has also been established (Lucas et al, 2009). The WIL literature has generally assessed the benefits of WIL in terms of student satisfaction and skill development rather than UBC outcomes (Narayanan and Olk, 2010). For instance, in evaluating WBL, Freestone (2007) altered the course evaluation questionnaire to the work experience evaluation questionnaire and measured items such as good teaching, clear goals and standards, appropriate assessment, appropriate workload, generic skills and overall satisfaction.…”