Student internship experiences: areas for improvement and student choices of internship practices

Purpose This paper investigates areas for improvement in internship practices from the perspectives of key stakeholders, such as university department leaders, host company lecturers, work supervisors, graduates, and final year students. Student choices are also reported. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory sequential mixed methods approach was implementing that included three focus groups, 15 individual in-depth interviews, 461 responses to a student survey. In qualitative phase, deductive thematic analysis employed explore practices. quantitative descriptive statistical analysis, two non-parametric tests were used: Mann–Whitney Kruskal–Wallis tests, followed by pairwise comparisons identify Findings The corroboration triangulation data sets revealed distinct Vietnamese universities. These learning outcomes, support, assessment. highlighted crucial role industry including supervisors entire process internship, well responsibility universities improving experiences. Originality/value Areas have not been discussed previously. carry practical, policy theoretical implications higher education Vietnam other countries striving enhance Hence, this study contributes international WIL literature with its findings emerging complex mixed-methods design. methodological offers enhanced reliability validity compared previous research field relied on single set.