Students' experiences with the business internship program at Kuwait University

• Students' experiences with business internship at Kuwait University were assessed.
• Internship impacts (benefits) were identified from the literature.
• Analysis reduced the benefits into adaptability, team-playing, professionalism, communication skills, and career potential.
• Students were generally satisfied with their experiences with the internship program.
• Satisfaction, however, varied depending on the major and year of internship.

This study assessed students' experiences with the business internship program at Kuwait University (KU) as well as the effect of a number of individual and situational characteristics on those experiences. The analysis revealed five internship impact areas, including adaptability to the workplace (AWP), team-playing capability (TPC), professionalism (PR), computer & communication skills (CCS), and career potential (CP). Interns were generally satisfied with the program. They believed that the internship improved their AWP, TPC, PR, CCS, and CP. However, the intern's major influenced satisfaction as the interns majoring in accounting, finance, and management information systems (MIS) were more satisfied with their experiential learning than were their counterparts majoring in economics, management, and marketing. In addition, the year of the internship influenced the interns' satisfaction as the 2013 interns reported lower satisfaction with the improvement in their AWP, TPC, PR, and CCS than did the 2010 interns. These findings and their theoretical and practical implications are further discussed in the paper.