The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of internships as a complement to environmental science degree curricula in higher education. An underlying question was whether or not a compulsory internship would help achieve three institutional goals of higher education which the authors listed as training for research, professional education, and general natural science education. The researchers were interested in the improvement of skills, knowledge and aptitudes that students had developed in the following phases: (1) beginning the degree curriculum; (2) going into the internships; and (3) following the internship.
Data collection was completed through longitudinal surveys that were conducted over a period of six years. Participants in the study included 293 internship supervisors and 478 students that completed a 15-week internship and a 5-year degree program in environmental science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. The surveys asked supervisors and students multiple questions that related to the skills, knowledge, and aptitudes of the students at the beginning and end of their internship. At the beginning, for each of 14 attributes, the students were asked to judge how qualified they were before the beginning of the internship and to estimate how much they would learn. Similarly, the students' supervisors were asked to quantify how qualified the student should be before the internship began, measured against the 14 attributes, and to estimate how much a student could improve with respect to each attribute. At the end of the professional internship, the students were asked to assess again how qualified they perceived that they had been with respect to the 14 attributes at the beginning of the internship, and, at this point, how much they felt that they had learned during the internship. Their supervisors were asked the same questions—how qualified each student had been at the beginning of the internship, and how much the student learned and improved with each attribute during the course of the internship.
Through analysis of the survey results, five skills emerged: (1) conceptual scientific skills; (2) technical scientific skills; (3) coping with complexity; (4) general abilities and key qualifications characterized by the ability to communicate, write reports, acquire information, and organize work; and (5) environmental problem solving in the field of human-environment systems. Each of these five areas of skill growth is attributed to the positive educational effects of the internships.
The results of this study suggest that internships are a valuable and important component of environmental science degree curricula in higher education. The authors indicate that internships are essential for the development of professional careers including introduction into the workforce, training for research, and orientation to future learning.
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