A Neo-Institutional Analysis of Work-Integrated Learning in Higher Education

This paper critically examines the institutionalization of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in Alberta’s postsecondary education system through a neo-institutional lens. While WIL is often promoted as a tool for enhancing employability and bridging academic and labor market demands, this study argues that WIL is not a neutral or universally beneficial intervention. Drawing on institutional logics theory and informed by the reoriented neo-institutionalism of Hasselbladh and Kallinikos, the paper explores how WIL is shaped by underlying assumptions about legitimacy, knowledge, and desirable outcomes. Using a qualitative case study design that includes interviews with 28 institutional actors, the study examines how WIL is institutionalized across Alberta’s postsecondary institutions and identifies three dominant institutional logics underpinning this process: employability, professionalization and cultural fit, and integration-as-adaptation. These logics frame WIL in ways that reinforce economic utility, marginalize civic and transformative educational aims, and place the burden of integration on immigrant learners. Situated within Alberta’s performance-driven policy landscape, exemplified by Alberta 2030 and Bill 74 , the paper demonstrates how institutional rationalities and government mandates converge to narrow the purpose of higher education. The study contributes to both migration and higher education scholarship by interrogating how institutional structures shape immigrant learner experiences and by calling for more inclusive and reflexive models of WIL.