Work placements enhance the academic performance of bioscience undergraduates

Abstract

The UK Government's recent emphasis on the graduate workforce raises the profile of work placements within higher education. Anecdotally, the authors find that students on their optional bioscience sandwich degrees benefit academically from placement experience but there is little supportive evidence of this in the literature. To investigate rigorously the link between sandwich placement and academic performance, two cohorts of bioscience students (n = 164) were described in terms of gender (male = 0, female = 1), pre-university qualifications (HESA score), academic performance (%) for each year of degree study (first, second, and final), and mode of study (non-placement = 0, placement = 1). Multiple regression analysis yielded the following predictive equation where all terms were significant: Final % = 28. 80 + 2. 97 (gender) + 0. 14 (HESA score) + 0. 44 (Second%) + 3. 82 (mode). On average, placement students gain an advantage of nearly 4% in their final year performance. Given that the final year contributes 75% towards degree classification, over a quarter of placement students may benefit from the independent effect of mode of study by crossing a threshold into a higher degree class.

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