Nurturing undergraduates beyond the classroom through a novel summer internship program

Background The medical and health professions curricula in India have seen a paradigm shift to competency-based formats in recent years, emphasizing student-centred teaching-learning. This aligns with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 that advocates education being learner-centred, multidisciplinary, flexible and with a wide range of career options. We describe the design and implementation of the summer internship program (SIP), a novel student-centred, ongoing summer elective for undergraduates, started in 2022 at the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), and the evaluation of its 2023 cohort. Methods The SIP has been implemented every summer since 2022, offering a wide choice of internships with experiential learning in research, clinical and holistic healthcare. Enrolled undergraduate students learn under the guidance of a mentor for 2-4 weeks and at the end of the program, evaluation is performed with a questionnaire using Likert scale items as well as open-ended questions. Data from the 2023 SIP cohort of 576 students across 60 institutions were analysed for learner-goal attainment. Results 462 (80.21%) students responded and their satisfaction levels were high. Over 90% agreed that their stated learning goals related to career insights, skills acquired and personality development were achieved. They appreciated the opportunity to explore their field of interest in a deeper and contextual manner, making connections and being guided by mentors, who also appreciated the students. Conclusion Positive student and mentor feedback suggests that the SIP effectively supported learner goal attainment, with experiential 'beyond the classroom' strategies contributing to achievement of learning outcomes.