Assessing Career-Related HIPs

Since 2015, when Marian University (Indiana) first administered NSSE and began an institutional effort to increase student participation in internships and field experiences, participation in these career-related High-Impact Practices (HIPs) has grown by 16 percentage points. In NSSE 2019, 82% of Marian’s seniors reported participating in an internship.

This program’s success has largely been driven by Marian’s institutional culture of cross-department support as well as an institutional focus on remaining learning centered. Housed within The Exchange, Marian’s career development office, the program comprises an institutional system for internships that includes partnerships between academic departments and the Office of Institutional Research, which oversees the administration of NSSE and strives to make both quantitative and qualitative data accessible to all stakeholders through presentations across campus and intranet access. This extent of access and communication has increased support for more comprehensive HIP programs like the internship initiative

Marian is also committed to assessment to ensure equity and quality. For example, they plan to examine which students participate in internships and how their engagement outcomes compare to those of nonparticipants. Using the NSSE Report Builder to focus on findings related to internships as well as incorporating other sources of institutional data, The Exchange can help improve HIPs by providing more training and resources for supervisors of internship programs.