Curricular internships in higher education are increasingly a crucial element in the final phase of an undergraduate degree, particularly in engineering and applied sciences, offering students their first exposure to real-world professional environments. Traditionally, many students delayed or even failed to deliver during the normal period. This article rethinks the role of curricular internships, proposing a framework using project management and value creation concepts.

The study begins by addressing the challenges observed in curricular internships functioning within a specific undergraduate program. Key issues identified include limited supervision, poorly defined project scopes, delays in deliverables, lack of motivation from both students and companies and misalignment of expectations between the three main actors: students, academic supervisors and corporate partners. These systemic weaknesses often result in minimal value creation and missed opportunities for professional growth and organizational impact.

To respond to these challenges, the authors developed and implemented a project management framework applied to all ongoing stages. The proposed framework integrates both quantitative and qualitative evaluation tools, including structured planning phases, stakeholder alignment meetings and mid-term feedback checkpoints and checklists. The project plan is co-conceived from the beginning, incorporating clear objectives aligned with the company’s interests and a shared evaluation platform for value creation. In the proposed framework, a list of available tools and templates are provided for stakeholder usage.

According to the findings, from the student’s perspective, success means gaining technical and soft skills, solving real-world problems and producing work of demonstrated value. From the company’s viewpoint, success involves receiving useful solutions, identifying talent for future hiring and engaging with academia in a meaningful way.

With the usage of quantitative and qualitative data collection approach, results from three-year academic cycles support the framework’s effectiveness. Surveys were conducted with students, academic supervisors and company representatives. Data reveals a measurable improvement in the quality of project deliverables, with an observed increase in final project grades by 25% and earlier completion of key milestones by 40%. By defining these mutual outcomes early and embedding them in a formal project plan, stakeholder commitment is increased, with a 60% increase in activity participation but also on motivation and long-term engagement. Additionally, company satisfaction rates rose significantly, with over 90% expressing interest in continuing or expanding their collaboration. Faculty members surveys also reported a noticeable improvement in students’ problem-solving skills, communication abilities and project ownership.

In conclusion, transforming internships into strategic partnerships requires a shift in mindset and procedures that the proposed framework supports in practice. A detailed process that establishing shared objectives from the beginning ensures co-creating a detailed project plan, keeps regular monitoring and involving all stakeholders in feedback loops are critical to success. Our framework demonstrates a win-win advantage that enables internships to become transformative educational experiences and productive engagements for the professional world.

Keywords: Higer education, internships, framework, value creation, academic enterprise partnerships, project management, soft skills.