Credited and paid for but peripheral: student sense-making in co-operative education

Higher education institutions widely promote co-operative education as an integral component of undergraduate learning, yet students may encounter competing institutional messages regarding its academic role, value, and recognition within degree programs. This research examines how students make sense of Simon Fraser University's additive-credit co-operative education model and the implications of these interpretations for participation. Guided by the research question, "How do students make sense of SFU's additive-credit co-op model?", I employed an interpretivist qualitative approach. I conducted five semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students from two separate co-op programs and analyzed them using reflexive thematic analysis. I found that students did not share a consistent understanding of co-op. Instead, participants interpreted co-op differently as they negotiated its academic legitimacy, educational value, and role within their degree. These interpretations influenced their participation decisions and suggested that students evaluated co-op through the interaction of institutional messaging, degree structures, and personal experiences.