Discovering the tutors’ perspective on the quality of internship programs in a pandemic context

Abstract

Digitalization of educational activities has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic in all dimensions of the education system, including the higher education institutions. These were forced to adapt their teaching and research activities to an online format, as physical interactions were restricted in the Romanian case for two years (March 2020-March 2022). Internships are a strong tool for developing students’ competences, and they also faced the challenges of forced digitalization. This paper investigates the quality of the internship programs delivered in a digital format during a pandemic context, as perceived by the tutors from academic environment. Using an online distributed questionnaire, data collection was conducted in the first months of 2022 and resulted in a sample of 60 respondents, all academics from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. The analysis uses a mix of quantitative (statistical) and qualitative methods, making use of various visual representation tools. Principal component analysis (PCA) is also conducted in order to identify the main factors influencing the quality of internship programs from tutors’ perspective. The five factors that resulted from the PCA are: knowledge transfer, collaborative activity, personal development, administrative environment, and student evaluation. The results show that most of the interrogated academics have a favorable opinion regarding the effectiveness of the internship programs in a pandemic context. They appreciate that most of the companies have the facilities for delivering internship programs in a hybrid or online format. Also, these programs are increasing students’ competencies and self-confidence. However, tutors are more reluctant towards the personal development of students in a hybrid or full online format of the internship.