Three different evaluation forms get called the same thing. The employer evaluation assesses the intern for your own decision. The university evaluation is a compliance document the institution needs against academic credit. The intern feedback survey is the one most companies skip, and it is the only one that improves the next cohort.
All three are below. They take about ten minutes each and they are the difference between an internship programme that compounds and one that restarts every year.
1. Employer evaluation of the intern
INTERNSHIP EVALUATION — EMPLOYER Intern: ______________ Role: ______________ Period: ______ to ______ Evaluator: ______________ Relationship to intern: ______________ Rate 1–4. 1 = below expectation for an intern 2 = met 3 = exceeded 4 = exceptional QUALITY OF WORK [ ] Did the output need rework? Was it checked before submission? RELIABILITY [ ] Deadlines met, blockers raised early, commitments kept. LEARNING SPEED [ ] Time from "shown once" to "does it unaided". INITIATIVE [ ] Work identified and started without being assigned. COLLABORATION [ ] Asked clearly, responded usefully, credited others. COMMUNICATION [ ] Written and verbal; whether a reader could follow. DELIVERABLES COMPLETED ______________________________________________________ THE SINGLE STRONGEST THING ABOUT THIS INTERN ______________________________________________________ THE ONE THING TO WORK ON ______________________________________________________ WOULD YOU WORK WITH THIS INTERN AGAIN? Yes / Yes, in a different role / No CONVERSION RECOMMENDATION: ______________________________ Evaluator signature: ____________ Date: __________
2. University evaluation — what institutions usually ask for
Most Indian universities send their own form, but the fields are broadly consistent. Knowing them in advance means the mentor can note things as they happen rather than reconstructing a semester in ten minutes.
- Confirmation of the exact start and end dates
- Total hours or working days completed
- A description of the work assigned — usually two to four lines
- Ratings on punctuality, discipline, technical ability and communication
- Attendance or leave record
- Whether the internship was completed satisfactorily
- Signature, designation, company stamp and a verification contact
3. Intern feedback survey — the one companies skip
INTERNSHIP FEEDBACK — FOR THE INTERN Anonymous. This changes the next cohort, not your reference. 1. Did you know what you were supposed to deliver in your first week? Yes / Roughly / No 2. How many hours a week did you actually get with your mentor? ____ hours 3. Was the work you did the work the job description described? Yes / Partly / No — what was different: ______________ 4. What was the longest you were blocked, and what blocked you? ______________________________________________________ 5. What did you learn that you could not have learnt from a course? ______________________________________________________ 6. What would have made this internship twice as valuable to you? ______________________________________________________ 7. Would you recommend this internship to a friend in your course? Definitely / Probably / Probably not / Definitely not Why: __________________________________________________ 8. Anything you did not feel able to raise during the internship? ______________________________________________________
What to do with the answers
| Pattern across the cohort | What it usually means | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| "Roughly" or "No" on Q1 | Projects were not scoped before interns arrived. | Make a written scope a precondition for hosting an intern. |
| Under 2 hours on Q2 | Mentors had no capacity, whatever they said when they volunteered. | Cap interns per mentor, and count mentoring in the mentor's own objectives. |
| "Partly" or "No" on Q3 | The JD promised work the team could not actually give. | Have the mentor, not HR, sign off the JD. |
| Long blocks on Q4 | Access and permissions were not ready on day one. | Move all access provisioning to the week before joining. |
| Weak answers on Q5 | The work was real but repetitive. | One scoped project per intern, with a definition of done. |
| "Probably not" on Q7 | You have a campus reputation problem forming. | Treat it as urgent. Campus word of mouth moves faster than any employer brand campaign. |
Frequently asked
What should an internship evaluation form include?+
Six scored dimensions at most — quality, reliability, learning speed, initiative, collaboration, communication — plus the deliverables completed, one strength, one development area and a conversion recommendation. Longer forms get completed less honestly.
Who should complete the employer evaluation?+
The person who actually worked with the intern day to day, not the skip-level manager who saw them in three meetings. If the mentor cannot describe what the intern finished, that is a finding about the internship rather than about the intern.
Do we have to complete the university's form?+
If the intern took the internship for academic credit, their credit usually depends on it, so in practice yes. Ask for the form in week one so it can be filled in properly rather than reconstructed under deadline.
Should intern feedback be anonymous?+
Yes, and say so clearly, because an intern hoping for a reference will not tell you the mentor was absent otherwise. Anonymous cohort-level feedback is the only reliable signal you will get about whether the programme actually worked.
How do we use evaluations to improve the next cohort?+
Read them across the cohort rather than one by one, and look for the patterns — unscoped projects, absent mentors, access delays. Individual evaluations tell you about individual interns; the pattern tells you about your programme, and the programme is the thing you can actually fix.