This study draws upon survey data of 486 student teachers from five different programmes based in five different countries (one programme in each country), and programmes that have varied in their efforts to become more coherent. We explore students' perceptions of the coherence within their teacher education programmes and across the five programmes to investigate whether teachers in these programmes actually experience their teacher education programmes to be coherent. Descriptive analyses and analysis of variance were used for this purpose. Students in a programme which has explicitly made efforts to connect theory and practice over a period of 15 years do report more coherence. Students from a programme that has been constantly working on improvements but not a major redesign conceptualized around coherence, report experiencing less coherence. Based on students' reports across all programmes, we conclude that the relationship between courses and field placements is in need of tighter links. Investing in collaboration across settings, i.e. field placement settings and university, remains a challenge for all teacher education programmes, even those engaged in substantial change efforts. Investigating how teacher educators might create closer links to school sites is a promising means of developing our understanding of teacher education programme coherence.