Students’ expectations from their cooperative education placements in the hospitality industry: an international perspective

Four groups of students from the following institutions participated in a study to assess the expectations from their cooperative education placements’ work environment: Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, N = 80; Hotel School, The Hague, N = 107; Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, N = 50; University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, N = 50. In all, 287 students responded to a mail questionnaire (Work Environment Scale, Moos, 1994) before their cooperative education placements. Overall, all four samples including the Melbourne students had moderate to high expectations from their organisations’ work environment. Specifically, Melbourne students expected higher involvement, greater peer cohesion, more task orientation, more work pressure and greater control when compared with the The Hague students. They also expected less autonomy on the job as compared with the Strathclyde students. The Hague students had overall lower expectations on most of the social climate dimensions. It is suggested however that the above findings be verified by replication with a greater variety of populations and institutions.