Beyond quality labels: do international accreditation–driven reforms improve internship performance? Evidence from China

Introduction In higher education, accreditation is increasingly viewed not only as a quality assurance mechanism but also as a driver of program-level educational reform. This study investigates whether international accreditation–driven reforms are associated with improvements in students’ internship performance. Methods Employing the entropy method and a difference-in-differences (DID) method, the analysis draws on 2,594 internship evaluations from a university in Guangzhou, China, during 2017–2023, based on supervisor-rated assessments within a specific placement context. Results The findings reveal that accreditation-driven reforms are associated with higher internship performance within structured placement contexts. Heterogeneity analysis shows that statistically significant associations are observed in finance, trade, manufacturing, and technology sectors, whereas no significant associations are detected in education and healthcare placements. In addition, the estimated coefficients are comparatively larger for female students than for male students, suggesting variation in internship performance across gender groups within the evaluated context. Discussion By treating international accreditation as a program-level institutional reform within a quasi-experimental setting, this study provides new empirical evidence from the Chinese context and offers policy-relevant insights for higher education institutions, accrediting bodies, and policymakers.