Universities as internship regulators: Evidence from Australia

This chapter explores the common assumption that work experience undertaken by students as a part of their tertiary education is better regulated and of higher quality than ‘open market’ opportunities. It considers the educationally focused regulation of internships in Australia, England and France and contributes a ‘law in practice’ analysis of the effect of the existing regulatory regime on work integrated learning practice within Australian universities. Informed by data gathered in a series of 68 interviews conducted with individuals from 15 universities, the chapter considers how Australian universities are responding to, implementing, or overlooking the formal regulatory framework regarding work experience placements. This analysis contributes unique insights into how Universities are acting as regulators in the broad sense of the word and allows preliminary conclusions about the efficacy of educationally focussed regulation to be drawn.