Attending representatives:Peter Childs, Dean of Research

Mick Healey, co-Director CeAL (CETL)Carolyn Roberts, co-Director CeAL (CETL)

Kristine Mason O’Connor, Dean of Teaching & Learning

Wendelin Romer, Research Assistant

University of Gloucestershire

‘Leading, promoting and supporting under-graduate research in the new university sector’

Undergraduate Research

Project on leading undergraduate research in new universities … to identify transferable practices and inform policy seeking to enhance the student experience at institutional and national levels. The project will address two of the sector’s priority areas – the student learning experience & academic leadership.

Our working definition: ‘undergraduate research describes student engagement from induction to graduation, individually and in groups, in inquiry into disciplinary, professional and community-based problems & issues, including involvement in knowledge exchange activities.’

Background: UG Research

• Inter-Faculty cooperative projects to develop and evaluate students’ experiences of UG Research

• Increased student participation in research projects

• Inclusion of UG Research in the curriculum of our nationally-accredited PGC in HE, which all new academic staff undertake

• Participation in Carnegie scholarship of T&L programme on Undergraduate Research (CASTL)

• Institutional Web pages containing guidance on UG Research for staff and students

Activities• An analysis of research-informed teaching

statements and institutional policies with regard to leading, fostering and sustaining undergraduate research. This will draw on new universities’ TQEF plans under the RiT Initiative.

• A benchmarking exercise between the UoG and another new University in England using the template developed by Monash and Sydney Universities in Australia (Brew and Weir 2004).

• Trialling and evaluation of three undergraduate research initiatives at UoG.

Activities

• A review and analysis, through our involvement with the Carnegie (CASTL) Leadership programme, of approaches to the leadership of undergraduate research in North America outside the research-intensive universities.

• The identification and development of 10 case studies to illustrate the range of ways in which UK HEIs are leading and fostering undergraduate research, and the way they play out by departments and disciplines.