A recent study by the University of Michigan-Dearborn elicits curiosity about something beyond its purpose.

UMD surveyed career centers at 64 institutions to address student needs for employment preparedness.  They evaluated various methodologies (and lack there of) for implementing a successful experiential learning program.  The work is ground-breaking by its own merits. (Nice goin’ UMD!)  What’s more is a cross-reference of data, which reveals the following;

1) Students can earn on average up to 6 internship credits within their major

2) More than 90% of schools charge students tuition for “recoupment of the cost of administrative and educational oversight”

3) However, ONLY 22% of career centers were classified as “high-touch” (see footnote)

This begs a very interesting question:  Where’s the money going that universities charge students for internship credits?  And how much money is that?

PLEASE NOTE:  This wonderment is no way about pointing fingers or naming names.  It’s a simple question.  I imagine what makes the truth ever-elusive here is my experience that hardly any two schools do much of anything the same way.

Knowing that, let’s extrapolate some questionable facts and take some liberty for the sake of important dialogue.

Here’s the annual cost of higher education broken down by credit based on a generous full course load in comparison to what career centers spend per student.  Did you get all that?

Click to Enlarge.

In this fact-based yet extremely hypothetical scenario, a public university with an enrollment of 15,000 undergraduates, all of whom earn a pay for their 6 internship credits would take in $17,370,000 with the career center getting $157,950 or about .009%.

Is there a data analyst in the house?  Good.  They’d probably have a faulty logic meltdown right about now.  I admit a little over-inflation for the sake of conversation.  I mean, career services has to get more than “.009%”.  Even NACE says they’ve got a whole ten bucks to spread around for every student.  I guess the tuition credit funds go to faculty advisors and department coordinators, right?

Again, the point here is not to be more than a bit scandalous.  It’s to question whether those dollars can work harder elsewhere.  It’s to call attention to the need for more funding for career services and internship offices.

What can be done?  What if all the tuition money for internships was placed in a special fund and/or used to establish and maintain a central internship placement office?  (more on this soon)  What if every school established an appropriate allocation ratio?  How about an independent audit by the fraternity brothers who sleep through Accounting 101?

Most important, what do YOU think about students getting charged for internship credits and how to account and apply that money?  There’s no substitute for the experience I lack.

FOOTNOTE:

UMD defined a “high touch” career center as having a “high level of administrative or professor support; [being] well-structured within coursework components, [comprising] required orientation seminars, [and involving] a high-level of personal interaction.”  Only 25% classified as “moderate touch,” and overall, “approximately 50%” of respondents do not help with finding the internship, but instead direct students to various external websites.”