Campus to Career: Internship Conversion in U-I Partnerships
Jan. 7, 2025—Talent has always been a key driver in university-industry partnerships, from recruitment fairs and internships and co-ops to co-developed curricula to better prepare future workers. Leading companies focus beyond attracting talented students to converting them to full-time employees. Doing so efficiently fills the talent pipeline with proven, skilled individuals and saves time onboarding compared to hiring entry-level employees through other channels. How can this approach help fulfill business and university needs while supporting broader research and collaboration objectives?
Converting talent
Talent acquisition is typically a significant cost center for companies, so focusing on conversion rates—the percentage of interns and co-op participants who become full-time employees—makes sense as a key metric for measuring program success. Hiring these recent grads is a cost-effective way to evaluate and train early talent and prepare them for success once they become full-time employees. Partnering with a company that wants to convert students to employees or prioritizes its conversion rate can benefit universities as well, as positive career outcomes help to strengthen institutional reputation, improve student career pathways, and establish more connections within the company.
Organizations must invest in planning their internship and co-op programs to maximize their conversion rates and strengthen relationships with university partners. With interns and co-op participants as a vital talent pipeline for the future, companies should assess their anticipated workforce needs two or three years out, tailoring recruitment efforts to match these needs. For example, if the company will need more data scientists in the coming years, the internship program should focus on recruiting students in that discipline. Ultimately, internships and co-op programs are working to address a critical gap in preparing STEM graduates for careers in industry. With the current timeline from fresh hire to productive employee stretching 18 months or longer, internships offer an opportunity for students to grow accustomed to working in an industry environment while strengthening hard skills, like meeting company safety and quality standards, and the soft skills necessary to succeed in a social, company environment. At UIDPVirtual 2024, we dedicated an entire day to discussions on talent. UIDP members and event attendees can access the materials and presentation recordings in the UIDP resource center.
Intern trends
The 2024 Internship and Co-Op Report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers examined data surrounding internships and conversion rates. While not exclusive to the R&D space, the report’s conclusions could indicate overarching trends. For example, rates of offering full-time positions to interns and co-op participants fell in 2022-2023 compared to previous years. In fact, the current offer rate (66.6%) is the lowest it’s been in five years, contributing to the resulting dip in the conversion rate, which fell from 57.6% to 52.7%. This dip could indicate difficulty in finding suitable students for internships and co-ops or that those who do work at the company are not suitable for full-time positions after the program concludes. Not all the numbers, however, are in decline. Eight in 10 employers surveyed intend to maintain or increase the number of interns and co-op participants they bring in, with just 20.6% indicating that they plan to decrease hiring.
Source: 2024 Internship & Co-Op Report, National Association of Colleges and Employers
Why it matters
Interns and other student workers play an important role in university-industry partnerships, both as future employees and as sources of innovation and fresh perspectives. Converting these students to full-time employees after graduation can be a big priority for companies, and tracking conversion rates can help measure the success of internship and co-op programs. High conversion rates for internships rely heavily on robust hiring practices — without thoughtful selection, organizations risk bringing on interns who may not be a good cultural or organizational fit. At the same time, interns and co-op participants working for partner companies help deepen and strengthen the organizational relationship with universities. Ultimately, when students receive a well-rounded education and the skills they need to succeed in full-time employment, everyone in the partnership wins.
We want to hear from you. How does your organization measure the success of internships? Let us know on LinkedIn.