In academia, research has long been considered exclusive work to be conducted by faculty members and graduate students. For many undergraduates, the concept of research is out of reach.
For one thing, research opportunities are abundant at many universities in the United States, but somehow advertisements of those opportunities do not reach enough students. For another, most undergraduates overestimate the difficulties of research while underestimating their ability to conduct a piece of research work. They believe the role of an undergraduate should be mainly taking courses and gaining skills that immediately meet the need of industries.
But these are misperceptions. Compared to liberal arts colleges thought to provide a higher quality of education, research universities such as NC State offer more resources than liberal arts colleges when it comes to research for undergraduates. Empowered with graduate schools, research universities generally have more faculty members who not only teach, but actively conduct more research work than those in liberal arts colleges. What university administrators need to do is to build up programs that connect faculties and undergraduate researchers.
Conventionally, those undergraduates who are interested in research are most likely to move on to graduate school after college and to choose research as their career path. But some studies in recent years indicate that there is no significant relation between having research experience and students’ choices of career paths.
David Lopatto, a professor of psychology at Grinnell College, suggested that undergraduates’ research experience has little to do with whether students—at least those who major in hard sciences—choose research-related careers. This finding clears the premise that career paths narrow once an undergraduate engages in research.
Loosely speaking, the aim of research is not always to get the work published. Research at the undergraduate level could bring tremendous benefits to students even if they do not intend to choose a career in research.
The results of a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience survey conducted by Lopatto demonstrated that research experiences enhance intellectual skills such as inquiry and analysis, searching and understanding primary literature of a specific field, and communication and teamwork.
All these skills fostered in research experience are clearly written as part of the job descriptions in many positions offered by industries. From a cost-benefit point of view, research experience exposes undergraduates to a bigger picture of job opportunities more efficiently than any other extracurricular activities.
Undergraduate researchers learn patience for obstacles faced in the research process, how knowledge is constructed and how to break down a difficult problem into different steps. These benefits are an advantage in any career path.
Given that undergraduates are eager to do research, what should a university do to facilitate the connection between faculties and students? By redefining the concept of research, professors could slightly tweak their curricula to avoid giving only homework and exams as the only means of assessment. For example, a small experiment could be assigned to students in a science major and ask them to gather data, make observations and write down conclusions independently. Research is usually from a small and intriguing idea rather than an ambitious plan. This guidance could be completely integrated into a course curriculum for freshmen or sophomores who are considered less likely to be able to conduct research.
Another institutional change could be building mentorships between undergraduates and Ph.D. students who play roles as both students and researchers. Most Ph.D. students choose research as their career path, thus they are beneficial by providing mentorship to undergraduates researchers. Many Ph.D. students directly engage in teaching courses and should be able to have better communication with undergraduates and their interests of doing research.
