Evaluation of the industrial internship for the Diploma IT programme at DTU

In this paper we present the result of analyzing data based on more than 5 years’ systematic collection of questionnaire survey data on the evaluation of the industrial internship for the Diploma IT programme at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Since 2005, we have been tutors for all students at Diploma IT.

During this period we have systematically collected data from students and companies involved. In total 785 questionnaires have been analyzed, which offers a good foundation for judging the success of the internship and a great opportunity for learning from the results. The questionnaires comprise various questions measuring the general level of satisfaction with the internship.

The results in general show high satisfaction, both from perspective of the companies involved and from the students’ perspective. In addition to the satisfaction surveys, we have also collected data on remuneration during the internship and data on the number of students who had a job at the time of graduation.

The last year of data collected, 2011, contains results from the new CDIO-based curriculum, which was launched in autumn 2008. This enables us to compare results for students enrolled in the old curriculum with students enrolled in the new CDIO-based curriculum. In general the data collected forms an important source in understanding how the transfer from the educational system to industry is experienced from both sides.