A case for undergraduate research
by Jerry A. Varsava
In recent issues of University Affairs, the future of undergraduate education has been discussed. Ian Clark, Richard Van Loon, and David Trick have promoted the establishment of a two-tier system in Ontario, where a number of new, pedagogically focused undergraduate institutions would operate along with existing research-intensive universities. For her part, Maureen Mancuso has rejected this proposal, emphasizing, among other things, the importance of professorial research in the overall enterprise of undergraduate teaching and learning. I would like to pick up on this thread, or at least a strand of it.
If we embrace Dr. Mancuso’s position, and I certainly do, an important extrapolation can, and should be, made. If it is true that undergraduates should come under the tutelage of subject experts – and it is research and its impactful, vetted dissemination that certify researchers’ credentials as experts – then there should be a concomitant emphasis on undergraduate research and, importantly, its dissemination at all universities.
Research is of course already an inherent part of the standard undergraduate curriculum. The major term paper or project and the seminar presentation are common elements of upper-level undergraduate courses. But why aren’t other opportunities widely available to highly motivated, energetic undergraduates to advance their intellectual and socially responsive interests and commitments beyond the formal curriculum? Why are universities too often ignoring the cultivation of this rich source of intellectual and social capital? Why are they not exploiting the recruitment, promotional, and even political benefits that would derive from a fulsome program of elective, extracurricular research opportunities for this important, populous stakeholder constituency? And, indeed, what benefits might faculty realize through their stewardship of such an enterprise?
As is broadly known, the neglect of undergraduate research in Canada is particularly acute in the social sciences and humanities, the domains in which I work. The Natural Science and Engineering Research Council should indeed be lauded for its Undergraduate Student Research Awards which can and often do lead to undergraduate research dissemination, with undergraduates commonly in a subsidiary role. And, from time to time, CIHR’s institutes prescribe research roles for undergraduates. While per capita funding for researchers in the natural sciences, engineering and medical areas, of course, greatly exceeds that in the disciplines that the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council covers, and stark budget realities notwithstanding, SSHRC should be meaningfully involved in the undergraduate research enterprise.
I think of undergraduate research as a final frontier on university campuses, yet to be fully mapped and yet, frankly, to be methodically exploited. So, what might be done? Departmental targets should be set – say, two undergraduate research disseminations by time of graduation – and students encouraged, but not obligated, to hit the number. Undergraduate research should also have an appropriate level of emphasis in strategic plans at the faculty and institutional levels. Contributions to the advancement of undergraduate research should be meaningfully recognized in the annual assessment of faculty and administrators alike. And for those understandably concerned with money matters, opportunities for undergraduate research and its dissemination can be scaled in complexity and size and budget, and made operational within and between disciplines.
The promotion of undergraduate research is admittedly taking place in many quarters. Among international university consortia, Universitas 21 supports undergraduate research, though the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) does not. It is unclear what role the newly founded Matariki Network of Universities envisions for itself at this point. In the U.S., the Council On Undergraduate Research has been active for many years. In the U.K., the first annual British Conference of Undergraduate Research was held last year.
There have also been some important developments closer to home. A few years ago, Queen’s University established its Inquiry@Queen’s Undergraduate Research Conference. On my own campus, the Undergraduate Research Initiative was launched last year. Further, the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS), an endowed research center established in 2010, and which I direct, has begun a series of master classes on various matters related to undergraduate research and its dissemination; additionally, last August, KIAS held its inaugural annual interdisciplinary research conference for undergraduates, “Tomorrow’s Ideas, Now,” an event that attracted students from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Information on these diverse activities can be found on the relevant websites.
I would like to conclude with a couple of numbers, each of which will unfortunately be higher when you read them: $44.27 trillion and 391.8 ppm. The first figure is a recent reading from the Global Public Debt Clock, as calculated by the Economist; the latter is the measure of atmospheric CO2 for December 2011 by scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Each number is growing inexorably, and each augurs disaster on a global scale if circumstances remain unrelieved.
At a time when so many leaders and opinion makers are reluctant to engage in an “adult conversation” on these and other major issues, it may be time to seek counsel from undergraduate minds, many of whom have an acute grasp of the social and political problems of our day, and certainly have a longer-term vested interest in their amelioration than do most of us. Otherwise stated, the vital talents of some of our brightest citizens should not be hidden under a bushel, nor the fruits of those talents buried on hard drives.
Jerry Varsava is a professor of comparative literature and English at the University of Alberta. He also serves as the founding director of the Kule Institute for Advanced Study, whose second “Tomorrow’s Ideas, Now” International Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference takes place in August 2012.
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