Colleges struggle with crunch as New Internship mandate launches

The internship Sujata Kini did last summer was supposed to be a footnote in her education—a two-month, unpaid stint at the request of her college. But it changed the course of her career, redirecting her away from the family logistics company and into a bright future at a private insurance company. Her tale is representative of what policymakers hope for: internships as transformative, experiential learning that closes the wide gap between classrooms and careers.

But for Maharashtra's higher education environment, a new mandatory internship requirement is set to be as much a logistical nightmare as it is a forward-thinking reform.

From this year, more than 900 University of Mumbai-affiliated colleges are preparing to introduce a central tenet of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: four-credit (120 hours) On-the-Job Training (OJT) mandatory for every undergraduate student, across streams, prior to graduation. That's roughly 75,000 students seeking placements annually.

The problem? There just aren't that many opportunities.

Colleges welcome the intention—practical experience does hone skills and enhance employability—but the scale of rollout is revealing an intrinsic disconnect between policy aspiration and reality on the ground. Industry connections, the strength of OJT, are sparsely deployed. Large numbers of businesses don't have the infrastructure or appetite to receive interns in large groups, and existing networks  are being pushed to the limit.

Some universities are being innovative. St. Xavier's is recruiting parents as possible bridge to industry contacts; HR College is investigating dispensations for commerce students whose CA articleships will coincide with OJT requirements. While students from non-professional courses, such as history or pure sciences, have to resort to being resourceful—approaching internships in museums, research centers, and NGOs in order to meet criteria that didn't exist before on their horizons.

Mumbai University is promoting field visits and workshops as stop-gap measures, but these are, at best, half-measures. The larger issue is that without a firmer framework—either legal requirements forcing industries to take part or increased government-sponsored schemes—the policy runs the risk of being an administrative box-ticking exercise rather than a substantive experience.

As the May deadline approaches, the message is clear: intent is not enough. To make internships a game-changer in reality, systemic support, strong industry collaboration, and maybe new legislation are needed urgently. Otherwise, students will be pursuing opportunities that do not yet exist.