The long-term impact of On-campus Internships 

“The placement led me to pursue a PhD in the same field, and I have since embarked on my academic career with a postdoc position at Oxford University” 

In 2023, the Learning and Teaching Academy conducted its own On-campus Internship with student Adil Sawal, drawing together quantitative and qualitative data from previous interns and supervisors to produce a report on the overall long-term impact of the internship scheme on staff and students. 

The intern conducted interviews with internship alumni, looking in particular how the internship experience impacted the futures of our staff and students, and what aspects of the internships were integral to create this lasting impact. These interviews were transformed into comprehensive case studies, which we will share later on in this blog series.  

Notable trends were discovered in the data, showing that the impact of the internships changed the career trajectory of our students. Many interns acknowledged that they gained a wide variety of skills that strengthened their CVs, which provided them with a competitive edge in their job applications, and a large percentage subsequently took part in master’s or doctoral degrees.   

The responses we received from staff emphasised that the experience fostered the development of a range of skills, including effective communication, time management, and project coordination, ultimately enhancing their abilities as mentors and educators.  

In our next blog, we are excited to share with you the key highlights of our impact report on the internships. We hope that this inspires you, as a staff member or a student, to join our internship scheme and develop your own career trajectory.  

Find out more

Discover more of our blogs on our On-Campus Scheme or find further details on the staff intranet.