In the Common Pursuit of Knowledge: How Undergraduate Research Engagement Affects Students?

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: College Student Learning and Development Roundtable

Abstract

The study seeks to explore the magnitude of undergraduate research engagement and its effects on learning outcomes at fifteen major research-intensive universities in the US. The data includes responses of more than 100.000 students generated by the 2012 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) undergraduate survey. The descriptive analysis suggests that research engagement outside of the traditional classroom is not a universal yet relatively common experience at research-intensive universities. The further analysis shows that undergraduate research engagement leads to higher levels of learning gains in multiple areas, including different skills. In addition, undergraduate research engagement affects education and career choices, stimulating more students to go to the graduate or professional school.

Authors

• John Douglass, University of California

• Igor Chirikov, University of California - Berkeley

• Saule Bekova, Higher School of Economics