Undergraduate research internships: Veterinary students’ experiences and the relation with internship quality

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

Students’ experiences with undergraduate research internships are generally positive. The perceived quality of the supervisor and the department's working climate play a prominent role in undergraduate research experiences. Supervision and intellectual and social climate are correlated with the quality of research reports and students' overall satisfaction. This questionnaire, derived from the Postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaire, seems to be valid and reliable for measuring undergraduate students’ research internship experiences. Studies of factors not addressed in this study, such as students’ motivation, and in-depth investigation of aspects influencing the intellectual and social climate of internships, are needed.

Table 1.  Scores (5-point scale) on factors and items related to the undergraduate research experience (means and standard deviations (SD) and alpha coefficients per factor)

Item	Factor	Mean	SD	α
	1. Supervisor items	3.87	0.65	0.84
1	Supervision was available when I needed it	3.66	1.14
2	My supervisor(s) made a real effort to understand difficulties I faced	4.03	0.83
3	My supervisor(s) provided additional information relevant to my topic	3.89	0.99
4	I was given good guidance in topic selection and refinement	3.78	0.89
5	My supervisor(s) provided helpful feedback on my progress	4.14	0.71
6	I received good guidance in my literature search	3.34	1.00
7	The examination process was fair	4.10	0.73
8	I was satisfied with the examination process	4.04	0.89
	2. Skill Development items	3.88	0.51	0.68
9	My research further developed my problem solving skills	3.95	0.79
10	I learned to develop my ideas and present them in my written work	4.07	0.65
11	Doing my own research helped me to developed my ability to plan my own work	3.74	0.71
12	As a result of my research I feel confident about tackling unfamiliar problems	3.75	0.72
	3. Climate items	3.64	0.91	0.85
13	The department provided opportunities for social interaction with other undergraduate students	3.59	1.19
14	I was integrated into the department's community	3.93	1.02
15	The department provided opportunities for me to be involved in the broader research culture	3.67	1.04
16	I used the research ambience in the department or faculty to stimulate my own work	3.45	0.96
	4. Infrastructure items	3.57	0.86	0.75
17	I had access to a suitable working space	3.55	1.18
18	I had good access to the technical support I needed	3.77	0.93
19	I was given good access to computing facilities and services	3.38	1.04
	5. Clarity items	3.94	0.58	0.66
20	I developed an understanding of the standard of work expected	3.93	0.67
21	I understood the required level for the research report	3.97	0.78
22	I understood the requirements of examination	3.92	0.90
23	Overall satisfaction item	4.20	0.67

Note: The percentage of observed variance is 61.58% for the 5-factor model.

Table 2.  Regression analyses for the two dependent variables (quality of research reports and overall satisfaction with research internship) and the five independent variables (supervisor, skill development, climate, infrastructure, clarity of goals) and the possible external variables i.e. grade point averages (GPA) and gender. Unstandardized coefficients (B), standardized coefficients (β), standard errors and zero-order and part correlations are presented

Quality of research report^a						Overall satisfaction^b
	B	SE B	β	Zero-order correlations	Part correlations	B	SE B	β	Zero-order correlations	Part correlations
Step 1
Constant	2.620	2.282				3.008	1.506
GPA Years 1–4	0.689	0.321	0.253	0.265	0.252	0.166	0.212	0.096	0.095	0.095
Gender	−0.213	0.309	−0.081	−0.118	−0.083	0.009	0.204	0.005	−0.009	0.005
Step 2
Constant	1.151	2.134				1.915	1.272
GPA Years 1–4	0.572	0.301	0.210	0.265	0.229	0.007	0.180	0.004	0.095	0.005
Gender	−0.301	0.290	−0.115	−0.118	−0.128	−0.128	0.173	−0.077	−0.009	−0.092
Supervisor	0.491	0.227	0.303*	0.377	0.258	0.563	0.136	0.547**	0.567	0.458
Climate	0.295	0.146	0.258*	0.360	0.244	0.113	0.087	0.155	0.398	0.159
Infrastructure	−0.167	0.159	−0.137	0.139	−0.130	−0.068	0.095	−0.088	0.263	−0.089
Step 3
Constant	1.484	2.243				1.070	1.271
GPA Years 1–4	0.585	0.309	0.214	0.265	0.232	−0.017	0.175	−0.010	0.095	−0.013
Gender	−0.303	0.295	−0.115	−0.118	−0.128	−0.120	0.167	−0.072	−0.009	−0.090
Supervisor	0.530	0.248	0.328*	0.377	0.260	0.459	0.141	0.445**	0.567	0.380
Climate	0.316	0.158	0.276*	0.360	0.243	0.070	0.090	0.097	0.398	0.098
Infrastructure	−0.148	0.173	−0.121	0.139	−0.107	−0.123	0.098	−0.157	0.263	−0.155
Skill development	−0.120	0.274	−0.059	0.160	−0.055	0.264	0.155	0.204	0.449	0.209
Clarity	−0.062	0.270	−0.035	0.142	−0.029	0.187	0.153	0.165	0.450	0.152

Notes: ^aR² = 0.08 for Step 1; ΔR² = 0.18 for Step 2 (p < 0.005); ΔR² = 0.01 for Step 3 *p < 0.05, **p < 0.001.

^bR² = 0.09 for Step 1; ΔR² = 0.34 for Step 2 (p < 0.001); ΔR² = 0.07 for Step 3 (p < 0.05).