Brücke zwischen Theorie und Praxis: Eine Analyse und Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten der Praktikumsstrukturen in der ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Lehre

Abstract

Practical experience is an essential component of engineering education, as it supports the application of theoretical knowledge in real industrial contexts. This master’s thesis examines the role and effectiveness of internships within the engineering programs at the Technical University of Dortmund. The study focuses on how internships contribute to the transfer between academic learning and practical professional requirements. To explore this, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students, teaching staff, and company representatives. The collected data were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis to identify central themes and recurring patterns across the different perspectives. The results indicate that internships are widely recognized as valuable learning opportunities that foster technical competencies, workplace understanding, and career orientation. However, the findings also reveal considerable differences in the structure, supervision, and learning outcomes of internship experiences. These variations influence the degree to which internships support meaningful professional development and integration of theoretical knowledge. Overall, the study highlights the importance of a stronger alignment between academic expectations and practical learning environments. The work contributes to the ongoing discussion on how to enhance the theory-practice relationship in engineering education and provides a basis for further development of internship structures in higher education.