UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH IN SELECTED US UNIVERSITIES

REPORT ON US VISIT - INSTITUTIONAL CASE STUDIES

Richard Huggins, Alan Jenkins and David Scurry

OxfordBrookesUniversity

February 2007

  1. Introduction

"..The research universities have often failed, and continue to fail their undergraduate populations, thousands of students graduate without seeing the world - famous professors or tasting genuine research." University of Stony Brook (1998, 3)Reinventing Undergraduate Education: Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the ResearchUniversity.

In Scholarship Reconsidered Ernest Boyer (1990, X11) challenged US higher education to “break away out of the tired old teaching versus research debate.”

An Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) gives undergraduates the opportunity to participate in the research activities of the institution’s academic staff and postgraduates. The ImperialCollege scheme, which is modelled on that at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Collier, 1998: 349).

This report presents the key findings of a trip to the USA in October 2006 that was funded by the Reinvention Centre with the aim of learning from some of the best US practice in establishing undergraduate research programmes and relatedly of community based undergraduate research programmes.

“Undergraduate research” is taken to be a form of curriculum and/or learning that is most strongly based in US higher education. There are variations to its form which include undergraduate students learning through various forms of research based /inquiry learning, often strongly supported by academic staff and at times on faculty research projects, work undertaken in the summer vacation or in semester breaks, at times rewarded by credit and at times by pay and at times involved in a scholarly and research based way with local communities/. Often undergraduate research is for selected students and is outside the formal institutional and departmental curriculum.

In some institutions it is largely focused on “honours students” i.e. those students with high grades in special programmes. However there is now an increasing emphasis in some US institutions to mainstream this curricula form and to credit it and/or link more firmly with the mainstream curriculum –and make it available for all students irrespective of grades [1].

In the USA major funding streams, such as the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, are important financial supporters of undergraduate research. In addition the Council on Undergraduate Research in WashingtonDC and its affiliated institutions works with agencies and foundations to support undergraduate research. There are now a range of UK institutions and research councils that are seeking to adapt undergraduate research to the UK (Jenkins: 2006).

2.Institutions Visited: An Overview of Contexts

In section three of this report we provide summaries of the policies, practices and approaches from the institutions visited that provide possible models to adapt to Brookes, Warwick and elsewhere in the UK with the aim of further strengthening institutional strategies to link teaching and research (Jenkins and Healey, 2005). Before that though we provide a brief outline of institutions visited and the contexts in which they and their programmes have been developed and are delivered. Note the institutions we chose to visit were those in North East USA with well-developed undergraduate and/or community based research programmes and to an extent where we already had good contacts. This we considered would give us better access to strong programmes which had worked out much about how to develop effective policies and practices.

Though there are key differences between each of the institutions in terms of mission and resources – including endowment income - Boston, Michigan, PennState and MIT are clearly research-intensive institutions. Nationally these have reacted to the strong public criticisms of research intensive universities – particularly in the Report of the Boyer Commission (University of Stony Brook, 1998) - for failing to take undergraduate teaching seriously. A central response has been to develop or strengthen undergraduate research programmes that seek to capitalise on the strong research traditions and resources of those institutions (Katkin 2003). By contrast BatesCollege builds on the strong scholarly teaching traditions characteristic of liberal arts colleges and universities in the US. In addition, the scheme reported from PennState builds on the civic engagement mission of the US Land Grant Universities and current US concerns to develop the “scholarship of engagement” (i.e. where students and staff undertake scholarly work with and for the wider community[2]).

While those US contexts clearly shape the approaches and policies of the institutions we visited we also consider that many positive aspects of their practice can be creatively adapted to developing undergraduate programmes in a wide range of institutions in the UK.

Table 1Institutions Visited: Timetable and Main Web-Links

Institution / Who / Date / Web
PennStateUniversity / Alan Jenkins / 4th-6th October /
University of Michigan / Alan Jenkins
Richard Huggins / 9th-10th October /
TuftsUniversity / Alan Jenkins
Richard Huggins
Dave Scurry / 12th October /
MIT / Richard Huggins
Dave Scurry / 13th October /
BostonUniversity / Alan Jenkins / 13th October /
/und/item04.html
BatesCollege / Alan Jenkins
Dave Scurry / 17th-18th October /

3.Themes Pursues and Questions Asked

Given below are the broad questions we decided on before we went and sent to institutions and which guided aspects of the visit. Clearly, when we looked at individual programmes and discussed issues with colleagues at different institutions the questions changed and new ones emerged.

3.1.Structures and Organisation of U/G and Community Based Research Schemes

  • How would you characterise your approach to undergraduate research/community based research?
  • What would you identify as the key values and contributions of your scheme to:
  • Student learning
  • Student personal development
  • External Community and organisations
  • Internal academic, intellectual and organisational culture
  • How does your scheme operate?
  • When do students undertake this programme?
  • How long is the programme?
  • How are students recruited to the programme - Is it elective, selective or open?
  • How is the programme administered?
  • How is the programme funded?
  • Are students paid?

3.2Course Design, Delivery and Credit Rating

  • Is the programme
  • discipline/subject based
  • extra-curricula
  • cross-programme
  • structured i.e. major/minor/discrete option etc.
  • credit-rated and how much credit-rating does it carry?
  • How is the programme assessed? (Coursework, research findings/report, etc.).
  • How does the programme function across different subject areas/disciplines?

3.3Role and Value of U/G and Community Based Research Schemes

  • Why do they offer the programme?
  • What is the value to students/staff/stakeholders?
  • How does the programme support student development in
  • research skills
  • learning skills
  • employability

3.4Student Support and Achievement

  • How are students supported on the programme?
  • Do they receive separate research training/development?
  • What technical support is available?
  • How do they manage ethics approval?
  • Have they measured the impact?
  • What is the impact on the student
  • Experience
  • Attainment
  • Retention

3.5Curriculum Development and Design

  • How does this programme feed into wider academic development and curriculum development and design?
  • How does the scheme contribute to the development of social capital, community and individual capacity?
  • How is good practice shared and disseminated?
  • How is the programme linked to the wider curriculum?
  • How is feedback from students/staff/stakeholders collected, monitored and fed into programme development?
  • How does the programme link to other aspects of the course, e.g. projects, lab work, dissertation/senior thesis?

4.Institutional Descriptions: Summaries of Approaches, Policies and Practice

4.1 BatesCollege

BatesCollege[3] is a private liberal arts and science wholly undergraduate institution. Some 1,700 students are taught by approximately 170 faculty most of whom have doctorates and are tenure track. Student staff ratio is around 10:1 with an average class size of 20. Fees are set at c.$43,000 a year but are in fact reduced to c.$14,000 through a strong endowment fund. A once largely local college now enjoys national and increasingly international studentrecruitment.National rankings place Bates among the top 25 liberal arts colleges in the US.

In terms of the link between teaching and research senior staff characterised the institution as one which sees itself as at the intersection of teaching and research and seeks to break away from the characterisation of these two activities as binary categories. This is supported by an approach to staff recruitment which requires demonstrable effectiveness in both teaching and research and is backed by a range of policies including limiting faculty buying themselves out of teaching if they receive external research grants. In effect, faculty must be clearly committed to both teaching and research.

There is a strong focus on requiring/crediting students to do significant research through the senior thesis/capstone requirement and there is strong emphasis (but not a requirement) for community engaged research. One senior staff member interviewed saw only around 2% of US institutions, namely selected liberal arts/science undergraduate institutions rather than the research intensive such as Michigan et al as being able to deliver such a mission. But they considered that aspects of its approach and particular innovations could be adapted elsewhere. Indeed, the HarwardCenter (see below) sees its national and indeed international role as exploring and demonstrating the potential of the liberal arts and science education for civic engagement.

The key features of undergraduate research and (and to a somewhat lesser extent)community based research include:

First Year Seminar - The expectation is that all students in year one will take one “freshman seminar” characterised by a small class with a senior instructor and a focus on investigation, inquiry and writing. The Instructor is their advisor until they declare a major in the second year. (Note many North American Institutions have developed similar courses and requirements (Goodman and Pascarella 2006)).

Five Week Short Term - The college year is divided into two and one “short term”. For example, the Academic Year may be constituted as follows:

Semester One: Sept 6/7 - Dec 16/17

Semester Two: Jan 8 - April 15

“Short term” from April 20 - May 30

In a four year programme all students have to take two short-term courses, including one in their final year (thus ensuring they are there on graduation day). During this short term students take only one intensive “5 days-a-week” course. This course may be interdisciplinary and focuses on forms of inquiry/research based learning. In addition such a course may be community based or may include US or international field work/travel and a few other US institutions have adopted this model.

Summer Studentships - As at Michigan and Boston there are a wide range of endowed programmes providing financial support to students to undertake (credit bearing) summer research projects.

Mount David Summit - The Mount David Summit is the annual campus-wide celebration ofstudent academic achievement, highlighting undergraduate research; student creative work in art, dance, theatre, musicand film/video;projects conducted in the context of academic courses and service-learning. Students present their work in poster sessions, in15-minute talksscheduled in concurrent sessions, or in readings, performances, screenings, and exhibitions. The Summit is a large scale event with many posters and presentations,is festive and informative and draws a large crowd of students, faculty, staff and parents. It provides a “wonderful opportunity for younger students to test their presentation skills in a supportive environment, and gives more advanced students the chance to present their individual research to a wide audience”(Web site description). Prizes and awards are presented to selected students.

Note this event is timed to ensure that many parents are visiting the campus and is towards the end of the second semester. Also current and potential donors/sponsors of undergraduate research/artistic creation/community based research are invited.

One member of support staff assigned to support this event for a limited period of the year and intensively for approximately two weeks.Students register electronically to participate but need a member of faculty to approve their abstract and application. Many departments organise their own events to complement this institution wide event and to better prepare students to later participate in the institution wide Mount David Summit.

Service Learning and the Harward Center for Community Partnerships - Bates[4] has a strong social service, citizenship ethos (it was founded by abolitionists in 1865 and gave early support for black and female enrolment at the College) and more recently with has developed a strong focus on “service learning and supporting students as active informed citizens”(as has Penn State). Recently this public service mission has been greatly strengthened in scale and given a more clearly central academic focus.

The HarwardCenter for Community Partnerships - Formally established in 2005 though based on a pre-existing significant service learning mission and a range of programmes. The new Centre supports eight full time staff.Its Head is David Scobey, internationally renowned scholar and educator who was previously Director of the Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan (see also University of Michigan, below)

The central goals of the Centre include:

  • Based on previous service learning, student and staff volunteering – building a strong scholarly research based approach that both supports community development but also transforms teaching and research in the disciplines.
  • Transforming the nature of service learning so that it both transforms the pedagogy of student learning while also becoming a serious intellectual task for students, faculty and for disciplines. Service learning should offer opportunities for making this serious academic work central to higher education (Scobey, in press) and not leaving it as peripheral aspect in units such as careers or student services.
  • One important priority is working with faculty and community partners as a “Collaboratory” to transform in term and out of term research learning opportunities and the mainstream curricula in the disciplines at Bates.
  • One of the eight full time staff –the Director of Service Learning - has the sole role of working in the communities around Bates and in the institution to set up long-term collaborative scholarly relationships. This role includes supporting faculty to prepare students to work and learn in the community.She is supported by another full time member of staff to do this work.
  • “Community” clearly centres on Lewiston –Auburn the town in which Bates is located but also extends in Maine, WashingtonDC and at present in Rwanda.
  • Amongst the range of grants available for faculty are Harward Center Grants up to $6000 which may support a wide array of publicly-engaged academic projects. There are also a range of grants to support student (community based) research.

Thinking Beyond the Semester - As with the Michigan Arts in Community project the Harward Centre seeks to build long term projects founded in community needs and student and faculty research interests that enable students and faculty to work with community partners within semester based courses on issues of common concern. The projects are co-generated by community partners and faculty. Thus one current project has local museum staff working with humanities students and faculty to develop a travelling exhibit about Lewiston’s mills and mill workers in the twentieth century. This includes students learning and using oral history research methodologies to interview former mill workers.

Mellon Learning Associate - (supported by Andrew Mellon Foundation) works with college staff and community partners to create curricula that support the goals of the Harward Centre/Bates College. Such work will vary immensely depending on the curricula being created for Mellon Associates work across the whole curriculum including work that is community based. Such associates could be community based artists nearby or at a distance who become resident for a limited period, or faculty. Generally such grants are created by faculty bidding for a particular expertise to support one or more of their courses.

Imagining America - Bates and the HarwardCenter is centrally involved in the national organisation Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life,

a consortium of approximately 75 colleges and universities committed to public scholarship in the arts, humanities and design (Koch 2005).

4.2 BostonUniversity

Undergraduate Research Opportunities programme was founded in 1997 to “promote participation by undergraduate students in independent, faculty mentored research projects across all disciplines in the university” (Goodman, 2006). While undergraduate research had long existed in various forms, BostonUniversity needed a central resource and clearinghouse to coordinate and develop this experience. The development of the UROP programme built on and linked a range of existing semi-independent initiatives.

  • The program reported directly to the university provost and its funding came through a mix of the university’s annual budget and until recently a portion of gifts to BU’s Parents Fund. (i.e. a fund of parent donations to BU. Parents could directly target their donations to this programme).
  • A core group of faculty from a range of disciplines shape the programme.
  • 2006 budget includes University funding of $ 395,000 which though a significant increase on initial allocation is low by the standards of the well funded programmes such as MIT et al.
  • Extra funds for directly supporting student research comes from corporate, public and private donors (including parents). This programme is very popular with parents who have witnessed their children’s participation in the programme and with external donors (this a recurring theme at the institutions visited).In addition major research funders such as NSF enable and /require undergraduate student involvement in selected research projects they fund.
  • The programme is staffed by Programme Director (0.2) who is focussed on strategic development and external links (including public and corporate donors). There is now a firm view that this person has to be a senior academic with a strong reputation inside the University with a commitment to research and to teaching. An Assistant Director 1.0 responsible for programme administration and evaluating student experience. A Programme Administrator0.7 and an Undergraduate Research Support Officer 0.5, employed in the summer to support the greater range of programmes at that time.
  • Funding also available to support and/or pay selected students (see below).
  • Nearly all studentships are for individual students –though there is some move to also supporting small groups on the same project.
  • Students will be supported through pay, credit or through volunteering. Students cannot ‘double dip’ i.e. receive both credit and pay for the same work.
  • Faculty post on the UROP web-site details of projects they will support/advise on. Students also search for mentors through those teaching them and through faculty research web sites and contacting faculty directly.
  • Students work with faculty to submit applications describing goals, methods and requesting funds for pay, research expenses and travel funds.
  • UROP staff sees one of the strengths of the programme is that the students' funding applications include aspects of a federal grant application format, and they are evaluated competitively by a faculty committee. Students get advice and help with the application from their faculty mentors and the staff of the UROP office.Approximately 70% of applications are funded. UROP awards can be given to the same student more than once if there is evidence of sufficient progress on the initial project.
  • Applications reviewed in Fall, Spring and Summer funding rounds. The research varies as to timing but is carried on throughout the year and some parts of the programme are clearly focussed on the summer. In summer most of the projects supported are non credit based.
  • In 2005 UROP directly funded 150 students and across the University. In addition many more did some form of undergraduate research through this funding, through credit or through volunteering (out of around 15,000 undergraduates).

Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium - Each autumn during Homecoming and Parents Weekend, UROP hosts the Undergraduate Research Symposium.Most funding and many credit UROPs require students to produce a poster and to be present to discuss their research. Senior university staff attends the Symposium and awards are made to selected students. Other students and faculty are encouraged to attend as are parents, current and potential donors and other stakeholders.