Assessment of University External Internships. Towards a Mixed Model for Measuring the Acquisition of Skills and the Satisfaction of Parties Involved

The continuous improvement of management and assessment processes for curricular external internships has led a group of university teachers specialised in this area to develop a mixed model of measurement that combines the verification of skill acquisition by those students choosing external internships with the satisfaction of the parties involved in that process. They included academics, educational tutors of companies and organisations and administration and services personnel in the latter category. The experience, developed within University of Alicante, has been carried out in the degrees of Business Administration and Management, Business Studies, Economics, Advertising and Public Relations, Sociology and Social Work, all part of the Faculty of Economics and Business. By designing and managing closed standardised interviews and other research tools, validated outside the centre, a system of continuous improvement and quality assurance has been created, clearly contributing to the gradual increase in the number of students with internships in this Faculty, as well as to the improvement in satisfaction, efficiency and efficacy indicators at a global level. As this experience of educational innovation has shown, the acquisition of curricular knowledge, skills, abilities and competences by the students is directly correlated with the satisfaction of those parties involved in a process that takes the student beyond the physical borders of a university campus. Ensuring the latter is a task made easier by the implementation of a mixed assessment method, combining continuous and final assessment, and characterised by its rigorousness and simple management. This report presents that model, subject in turn to a persistent and continuous control, a model all parties involved in the external internships are taking part of. Its short-term results imply an increase, estimated at 15% for the last course, in the number of students choosing curricular internships and, for the medium and long-term, a major interweaving between the academic world and its social and productive environment, both in the business and institutional areas. The potentiality of this assessment model does not lie only in the quality of its measurement tools, but also in the effects from its use in the various groups and in the actions that are carried out as a result of its implementation and which, without any doubt and as it is shown below, are the real guarantee of a continuous improvement.

Book receipt of John Mellen and William Bentley, 1780 June 16

This half-page slip contains receipts for two Harvard College Library books received by Harvard College Tutors John Mellen (1752-1828; Harvard AB 1770) and William Bentley (1759-1819; Harvard AB 1777).

Requests to stop commons, 1775

Requests from Tutors John Wadsworth, Caleb Gannett, and Stephen Hall to the Steward, dated March 20, March 25, and April 4, 1775, to stop the commons of students. Reasons given include illness and absence from the College.

Ledger for the Classes of 1703-1718, 1703-1731

The parchment-bound hardcover folio volume contains accounts for Fellows, Tutors, the President, and members of the Classes of 1703-1718. Payments were often made with bills of credit, money, and notes. The Steward's accounts with the College are interspersed in the volume.

Ledger for the Classes of 1795-1804, 1795-1804

The leather bound folio account book kept by Steward Caleb Gannett contains accounts for members of the Classes of 1795-1804, as well as accounts for President Joseph Willard, Tutors, Fellows, and Faculty. The volume also contains the Steward's accounts with the Harvard Treasurer, as well as his "Cash" accounting. The volume does not have the detailed transaction descriptions found in earlier ledgers; both Credit and Debit entries are described as being paid by, or being owed to, cash, balance, sundry accounts, or the Treasury.

Junior Classology, [1820]

Handwritten copy of "Junior Classology on two leaves of unlined legal-sized paper. The verses begin, "Songs of Scholars, in reveling roundelays, / Belch'd out with hiccoughs at Bacchanal Go..." and ending "We'll ne'er be afraid, boys, tho' Tutors parade, boys; / Here's a health to the blade, boys, who loves a high go."

The Report of the Committee appointed to Consid'n of the Memorial of the Overseers of Harvard College, 1722 June 29

Two folio-sized leaves containing a handwritten copy of a June 29, 1722 report created by a Committee of the General Court responding to the June 13, 1722 memorial of the Board of Overseers. The report lists three points declaring that the Charter of 1650 intended the Tutors to be members of the Corporation "provided they exceed not five in number," that none of the Fellows be Overseers, and that the Charter of 1650 did not grant the Corporation the power to set salaries without the consent of the Overseers. The copy notes that the report was read and accepted on June 29, and signed by Governor Samuel Shute on July 2, 1722, with the stipulation that none of the current non-resident Fellows be removed from the Corporation.

The laws of Harvard College, 1767

Handwritten copy of the 1767 College laws, lacking its original covers. The volume is identified as "original" and a note with five changes to the Laws is bound at the front of the volume. A note accompanies the item: "Mr. Wigglesworth compliments to the Librarian ~ Tutors to desire they would meet with the Professor at his House at 12 o Clock. Monday 11 o clock."

[Admittatur of Timothy Prout (Harvard AB 1741)], 1737

Notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws copied in English by Harvard undergraduate Timothy Prout and signed by President Edward Holyoke, Fellows Henry Flynt and Nathan Prince, and Tutors Stephen Sewall and Daniel Rogers on October 5, 1737. The flyleaf includes the note, "This Body of Colledge Laws was transcribed by Timo. Prout July ye 10th anno Domini 1737.

[Admittatur of William Clark (Harvard AB 1759)], 1756

Notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws in English prepared by Harvard undergraduate William Clark and signed by President Edward Holyoke, Tutors Belcher Hancock and Thomas Marsh, and William Symmes and William Kneeland on January 3, 1756.

[Admittatur of Benjamin Dolbeare (Harvard AB 1763)], 1760

Notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws and additional laws approved by the Corporation between 1756 and 1760 in English prepared by Harvard undergraduate Benjamin Dolbeare and signed by President Edward Holyoke, Tutors Belcher Hancock and Thomas Marsh, and William Kneeland and Josephus Jackson on January 12, 1760.

[Admittatur of Joseph Willard (Harvard AB 1765)], 1762

Notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws and the additional laws approved by the Corporation on March 29, 1757 in English prepared by Harvard undergraduate Joseph Willard and signed by President Edward Holyoke, Tutors Belcher Hancock and Thomas Marsh, and William Kneeland and Ebenezer Thayer on May 6, 1762.

Draft of law related to the settling of chambers after Commencement, 1742

One-page handwritten draft of a law created by the president and tutors requiring juniors to inform the Faculty of their intent to stay in dormitory rooms following Commencement. The document is undated and unsigned, but appears to be in the hand of President Edward Holyoke, and has a note in shorthand in the left margin. The text is included in College Book IV and was presented at a meeting of the Harvard Corporation on September 6, 1742.

Journal of College Disorders, 1788-1797

This journal contains entries about various student "disorders" which occurred during Eliphalet Pearson’s tenure at Harvard. Daily entries describe a wide range of students’ rebellious conduct, which included: hissing at speakers in chapel, throwing snowballs and stones at College buildings and people (including tutors and then-President Joseph Willard), disrupting lectures by scraping chairs and feet, breaking windows, intoxication, moving and breaking furniture, stealing firewood, firing pistols, building bonfires, stealing supplies (food, cider and candles), throwing food and utensils during meals, stealing Bibles, wearing hats indoors, filling door locks with stones, drawing on lecture room walls with gravel, and silencing the morning chapel bell by filling it with molten pewter plates (stolen from the kitchen). There are also entries pertaining to more malicious offenses, including the drowning of a dog in a well. Several entries describe meetings of the College government to determine the appropriate punishments for each offense. Students were often fined, expelled, or suspended ("rusticated") for their unruly behavior.

[Questions about real estate, 1799]

One leaf containing handwritten research questions regarding the holding of real estate and related tax exemptions, the College charters and temporary orders, and the tutors of the College.