There are almost 49 university undergraduate programs in sports management in Turkey (ÖSYS, 2012) which offer students to manage sports activities and services in different fields such as; public and private sector, local governments,voluntary organizations, etc. The establishment of Sports Management departments in the name of the School of Physical Education and Sports was realized in line with School Council of Higher Education of LawNo. 2547Article 7/D/2 dated 25.02.1993 (Sunay, 2009). North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) and Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA) which accredit the sport management education programs within the skills and knowledge for modern developments and business life in the world formalize sport management programs with basic elements such as sport management, sport marketing, sport law, sport economics, public relations, ethics, finance and accountancy andalso field experience www.cosmaweb.org/accredmanuals). Although at somepoints different from each other sport managements programs in Turkey are also formalized similarly with elements such as: management and organization, business, law, marketing, economics, communication, etc. both in general and specifically to sport.

With the increasing number of sport management programs educational activities for qualified sports managers have also increased and field experience became very important in sport management programs to contribute to personal development of the students and to have experience in real work environment (Chouinard, 1993; Appenzeller and Appenzeller, 2008; Barnes, 2009).

In this sense field experience like internship became very crucial for sport management programs because it includes applications that allow experiential learning in university education. NASSM (2013) indicates that the academic unit/sport management program must recognize the role of practical and experiential learning as a relevant component of sport management curricula (www.cosmaweb.org/accredmanuals).Jowdyet al. (2004) claim that experiential learning in the form of internships becomes an important component of the programs due to the need of preparing sport management students into knowledgeable and skilled professionals. If a sports management program wants to be successful it has to support its students by experimental learning experience before they graduate from the university (Southall et al., 2003).

In evaluation studies concerning sports management education programs internships and many similar practices come out as an important part of the program. In one of those studies, Ulrich and Parkhouse (1982) evaluated the major sport management curriculum by alumni-based model. In this study surveys were sent to sport management alumni to assess their graduate program and work satisfaction. Surveys were also sent to employers of these graduates to assess their sport manager performance. The results of this study showed that internships are considered to be one of the most applicable courses by graduates.

Similarly, Parkhouse (1987) conducted a study to examine the current status of professional education programs in sport management in the United States in order to determine the quality of such programs. In this study sport management programs, graduate and undergraduate from 83 different universities were evaluated. As a result of the study, internship along with foundational areas of study and applied courses was determined as one of the three elements of programs. However, Hardy (1987) in those years addressed sport management education programs with a more critical approach. He claimed that an ideal curriculum should revolve around core knowledge, functional applications across segments, supplemental electives and segment specializations including internshipsbecause especially graduate level sport management curricula should produce managers, not entry-level technicians. Within this perspective Hardy’s critics about internships is that the benefits of internships are realized by only a few programs and therefore students are not able to benefit sufficiently by the internship even though it is an important part of their program. In one of the important studies addressing sports management internship Sutton (1989) suggested that from undergraduate to post graduate all sport management programs should include internship.

In those years when all sports management education programs in the United States were analyzed, field experience appeared as one of the 10 content areas (Appenzeller and Appenzeller, 2008). DeSensi et al. (1990) evaluated sports management education programs in USA. This study specifically describes employer expectations of sport managers, employers’ evaluation of educational sport management programs andcurricula, university/students’ evaluation of com-ponents of existing sport management programs and the interrelationships among these groups.The researchresults regardinginternshipsinsport management showed that businesses, faculties and students perceived internships as important and effective. Field experience can be seen among the accreditation principles published by the National Association of Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and NASSM in 1993 (Standards for Curriculum and Voluntary Accreditation of  Sport Management Programs, 1993). In the following period the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA) was founded in 2007 with the initiative of NASSM to accredit educational programs in sport management. When considering the new accreditation principles published by COSMA in 2010 it was seen that one of the seven key areas in sport management education was designed to include field experience (www.cosmaweb.org/accredmanuals).

As it canbeunderstood fromthe literature field experience practices such as internship are considered to beessential inthecontextof sportsmanagement programs. What makes field experience so valuable in terms of sport management programs is that it serves as an important bridge between universities and the business world. The most important contribution of field experience in sports management to the universities is evaluation of the program. The feedback from the students and the agency supervisors shows how the program meets the contemporary needs of business world. Without a doubtthe greatest added valueoffield experience is to the students. During this process studentscan experience and understand the work opportunities in sport industry before they will start working in the future. Employers on the other hand can reach a working potential for their future employments. In this respect internship can be seen as a kind of work rehearsal bringing employers and employees together.

Predictions on this subject are already suggesting that a well-educated and oriented intern whose work-related skills match the requirements of the organization could most likely stay on as an employee (Beggs, Ross and Goodwin, 2008). One of the outcomes which prove this prediction was achieved much earlier by Parks (1991). In his study which examines the employment status of sport management graduates he revealed that students find their first job through an internship (Parks, 1991). From this perspective, field experience is understood to be highly significant in shaping the professional future of the students. However, in order to be streamlined to the work environment internship programs should be very well prepared (Cuneen and Sidwell, 1993; Englander et al., 2000; Divine et al., 2007; Rothman, 2007; Alpert et al., 2009).

There is a common belief that field experience creates a good opportunity for students to apply learned theory in the real work environment. In other words, field experience helps students transfer theoretical knowledge into practice (Sutton, 1989; DeSensiet al., 1990; Chouinard, 1993; Southall et al., 2003; NASPE/NASSM, 1993/2000: cited from: Jowdyet al., 2004; Mihail, 2006; Divine et al., 2007; Barnes, 2009).

Something else which makes field experience valuable are the gains which students acquire. These gains are: self confidence, communication and social interaction, problem solving, critical thinking, analysis and synthesis, creative thinking skills and also career planning and understanding real work life in sport management (Chouinard, 1993; Hong, 2008, Surujlal and Singh, 2010). When the vocational education areas other than sports management are reviewed it is seen that internship is also seen as an important part of education. It is important for students to be in work groups in the workplace because through this process critical thinking, decision making, being able to convince, to cooperate and many other professional skills can be achieved (Crebert et al., 2004: cited from: Bennetta, Eagleb, Mouleyc and Choudhurya, 2008; Englander et al., 2000; Clark, 2003; Divine et al., 2007; Tosun et al., 2008).

NASPE/NASSM(1993) described in the Sport Management Program Standards and Review Protocol two different forms of field experience: internship and practicum (Cuneen and Sidwell, 2005). According to NASPE/NASMMinternship should consist of appro-ximately 400 h full-time applied work experience and it should be evaluated by an academic and an agency supervisor. NASPE/NASMM also describes practicum as: “some may be extensions of a course while others may be self-contained. Some may be offered for academic while others are not. These are completed on a part-time basis while involved in other coursework, with less of a commitment than an internship” (Cuneen and Sidwell, 2005). Cuneenand Sidwell (2005) alsostated that internship experiences are usually scheduled at or near the end of classroom work.Eyler (2009) onthe other hand suggests field experience that includes learning in the workplace in two common ways including cooperative learning and internships. However Southall, Nagel et al. (2003) describe field experience variations as filed work/research etc. together with cooperative learning and internship. Regardless of variation the common goal of these kind of practices is to provide an opportunity for students to have workplace experience in other words learning by doing-living. 

Purpose of the study

Just like all othereducational programs sport management programsinclude field experience as well. Of a total of 49 programs, 36 programs include field experience in Turkey. Programs provide possibilities for students to have experience in the work field through credit and non-credit courses or mandatory practice courses. All of these practices with different names have a common goal. This study primarily focused on this common goal and all of these practices were considered as sport management internship. There is a very limited number of studies evaluating internship practices in sport management in Turkey. In particular there are very few studies reflecting the impact of internship, gains through internship or perspectives of employer, student and the universities. Based on this limitation the purpose of this study was to examine differences between intern and non-intern students in terms of their perspectives on sport management internship within the context of field experience.

Participants

In this research 3^rd year students who had not taken an internship course were included and also 4^th year students who completed their internship. The students were studying sport management at four different universities: AbantIzzetBaysal University (AIBU), CelalBayar University (CBU), Marmara University (MU) and Sakarya University (SAU). Information of the 189 students is shown in Table 1. 

39.2% students in the study were females and 60.8% were males. 57.7%of subjects were students who completed an internship course and 42.3% were the students who were yet to complete internship. 

Data collection instrument

The questionnaire used in the study originally belonged to Knemeyer and Murphy (2002) and was modified by Ross and Beggs (2007) to compare the perspectives of the students and managers towards recreational sport management internship. This modified questionnaire wasa 5-point Likert Scale type questionnaire which consisted of five sections and 48 items. Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient was .91.

In order to adopt the questionnaire to be used in Turkish first of all permission was obtained from the original author. Afterwards standard procedure was followed as suggested for translate-retranslate method. The questionnaire was translated into Turkish by an English-Turkish language expert and two sports management experts who have advanced knowledge of English. The questionnaire was prepared in Turkish. The Turkish version was re-translated into English by a different Turkish-English language expert, a physical education and sport and a sports management expert who both have advanced knowledge of English. The new English sampleand the originalEnglish questionnaire were compared to ensure consistency between the items. Subsequently the finalized Turkish questionnaire was checked by a Turkish language expert for language consistency.

For the context validity of the survey the expert’s opinion was obtained. Two experts were of measurement and evaluation, one of field practice and another four of sports management field, thus a total of seven experts. According to the expert’s opinion the questionnaire which originally consisted of 48 items, was divided into 5 sections.

The first section was contribution of internship to employers (6 items), the second section contribution of internship to the students (9 items), the third section the role of the internship agencies (10 items), the forth section the abilities of the interns (17 items) and the fifth section was the selection of the internship agency (6 items). Finally, in order to test the unambiguity of the questions ten students who did not take part in the study were asked to fill the questionnaire.

Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient for complete modified 48 items questionnaire was .91. Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficients of the sections were as follows: for the first section it was .59, 2. for the second section it was .80, for the thirdsection it was .81, for the fourth section it was .88 and for the fifth section it was .65. The reason why Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficients for the first and the fifth sections were lower than the other sections was that there was only a small number of items in these sections. Item number is directly related to the reliability of a test (Tekin, 2000). Besides, for the first explorative research .60 coefficients can be considered adequate (?encan, 2005).

Data collection procedure

For the data collection AIBU, CBU, MU and SAU sport management departments were selected. Questionnaires were given to 3rd year students who were yet to complete their internship course and to 4th year students who had completed their internship. Of a total of 300 questionnaires 262 (87.3%) were returned.

After examining the results of the questionnaires completed by the students, the questionnaires which were filled incorrectly were eliminated and finally 189 questionnaires were evaluated in the study.

Data analysis

In order to ensure the validity of the data obtained in connection with the purpose of the study the expert's opinion was obtained and to ensure the reliability theinternalconsistencyCronbach'sAlpha coefficient, descriptive statistics and independent samples t-test statistical techniques were used. The statistical significance level was determined as 0.05.

Research findings related to the internship places of the students in the study are shown in Figures 1 and  2.

The internship organizations of interns were primarily sports clubs, public and private sector and municipalities (Figure 1). Same sequence orderapplies to the organi-zationswhere students wanted to do their internship inthe future (Figure 2).

According to Table 2, there was not a significant difference (p>0.05) between the perspectives towards “contribution of internship in terms of employer”. 

According to Table 3, there was not a significant difference (p>0.05) between the perspectives towards “contribution of internship for students”. 

According to Table 4, there was a significant difference statistically between the perspectives towards “internship agencies should provide interns an opportunity to write a press release” (p<0.05), “internship agencies shouldprovide interns opportunities for full-time job after the internship” (p<0.01) and “internship agencies should provide interns assistance in finding job after the internship” (p<0.05) in favour of the students who were non-interns.

There was a significant difference (p<0.05) statistically between the perspectives towards “Interns should be willing to do all kinds of work that is asked of them” (Table 5).

According to Table 6, there was a significant difference (p<0.05) statistically between the perspectives towards “interns should select agencies based on their career aspirations”.

The results of this study examining the comparative perspectives of sport management students, both interns and non-interns, towards internship indicate that the top of the preferences of the students for internship agencies selection was sport clubs. Some of the academic researches (Moorman, 2004) claim that professional sports clubs are perceived as more prestigious by the students. In this study sports clubs were also first choice of the students therefore it might be suggested that the same applies to the students in the current study as well.

The results related to the contribution of internship for employer indicate that there was no significant difference between the two groups. In this case it can be said that the students in general think similar in this regard. However considering the arithmetic mean of the views in this group it is seen that the view stating “internship should provide seasonal staff in the work place” was the least agreed on in both groups. Leland (2003) pointed out that if interns are viewed as a cheap and exploitablesource of labour then the value of the internship should be questioned (cited from: Cunningham et al., 2005). However, it is very important for interns to be seen as an employee of the organization during the field experience and also to be able to express themselves even if it is a temporary period of time in terms of their satisfaction (Siu et al., 2012). Rothman (2007) stated in his study related to the internship in business administration that the interns want more specific as well as quality projects to be produced for themselves and they want to deal with more challenging assignments. In the light of these statements it might be said for students within the scope of this research that even for a short period of time that students do not want to see themselves as a temporary employee of the organization.

As a result of the comparison of the perspectives towards contribution of internship for students there was no significant difference found between the views in this section. On the other hand the view of “internship should be included in the GPA of students” had the lowest mean (average) in both groups. Internships should be applied on a regular basis and under the academic regulations of a grading system (satisfactory-unsatisfactory) (Case, 2007). Some studies focus on the educational aspects of the internship and recommend to issue internship with academic credit and grading system (Case, 2007; Ross and Beggs, 2007), whereas other studies suggest focusing on experiences gathered from internship rather than considering internship as a compulsory or elective course (Southall et al., 2003). Williams (2004) indicated a challenge that although students in sport management take internship more seriously when it is a credit course, some of the students tend to find an easy way and try to find internship agencies where they can simply complete their internship. Therefore the subject whether including internships grades in cumulative grade point average (GPA) or not or being a credit course or not is a controversial topic. Perhaps the real question to be explored is why students would not want internships grades to be included in cumulative grade point average?

According to the results the view “internship should develop work-related skills of students” in contribution ofinternship for students section had highest mean (arithmetic average) in both groups. In this case interns and non-interns expect to develop job related skills through internships. This result is similar to the results of the studies which were conducted by Beggs et al. (2006) and also Ross and Beggs (2007). The situation that appears can be considered as a possible outcome that was also concluded in many other studies (Crebert et al., 2004: cited from Bennetta et al., 2008; Englander et al., 2000; Clark, 2003; Divine et al., 2007, Tosun et al., 2008) indicating that developing job related skills of students is one of the important purposes and contributions of the internship. 

In the section related with the role of the internship agencies there were significant differences between the perspectives towards an opportunity to write a press release, offering a full-time job and assisting interns to find a job. Writing a press release received the lowest mean among those views in both groups. The reason might be the fact that interns had never done such an assignment and non-interns would not assume to do such an assignment either. The other difference between the perspectiveswas related to employment opportunities. In other words non-interns expect from the internship organization to offer a full time job opportunity or help in finding a job. The students who were in the studies of Rosset al., (2006) and also Ross and Begss (2007) also think that internship organizations should offer job opportunities. On the other hand, in both studies it was indicated that employees and students did not agree on the views of organization offering job opportunities (Rosset al., 2006; Ross and Begss, 2007). In the current study the difference between interns and non-interns might also be caused by the realities which students had to face during internship experiences which give students an opportunity torecognize work conditions and opportunities in real life. From another point of view it could be considered normal for non- interns to have such an expectation because it is widely known that internship creates expectation regardingfuture facility of employ-ment in the sports industry (Stratta, 2004; Koo et al., 2008).

As a result related to the abilities of interns there was a significant difference between the perspectives towards “interns should be willing to do all kinds of work that is asked of them”. According to the means of this view it is understood that the interns agreed at a higher rate than non-interns. It is stated in many studies that interns generally are not comfortable with performing unskilled jobs (Uzay, 2005; Mihail, 2006; Ko and Sidhu, 2012; Chen and Shen, 2012; Aymankuy et al., 2013). In this case, it is clear that students are not particularly willing to do all kinds of work during their internship. However it is seen that they cannot escape from the initial concerns and have to do the things they do not want to. In the light of these discussions it might be useful to look back at the experiences of the interns to understand the difference that occurred. In this case, interns could agree more thannon-interns by knowing that some circumstances bring necessity for some jobs.

According to Stratta (2004) students often prefer the internship places matching their professional goals. However there was a significant difference in this study in favour of non-interns about selecting an internship agency for the career aspirations which was in internship agency selection. Why was there such a difference among interns and non-interns? Perhaps the answer could be found in another question: Is it possible that students did not do their internship in a workplace according to their career aspirations?

Research results in general revealed that there was no significant difference between the perspectives of interns andnon-interns towards internship. Nevertheless diffe-rences arising from some of the views give the feeling that internships havemore realistic perspective originating from their experience. 

In conclusion this study brought another question which is whether the interns are being much more realistic than non-interns to some of the statements in this study because of their experience in real work life. Given this perspective it is thought that expanding this research with other studies which will answer that question might contribute to a better understanding of sports management internship in Turkey. Furthermore in order to achieve a multifaceted perspective towards internships in sports management departments the opinion of the other stakeholders in this area should also be taken into account. By identifying similarities and differences between the perspectives of students, academics and employers shortcomings in this area will also be resolved.

The author has not declared any conflict of interests.