Resources for Faculty
Resources from other VU faculty-student research teams:
Resources on ethical research practice:
Potential Benefits of Student-Faculty Undergraduate Research: To Faculty
- Invigorates intellect and increases enthusiasm
- Enhances teaching effectiveness and job satisfaction
- Promotes advancements in research program (research shows that students are able to make meaningful/productive contributions to the research projects to which they are assigned)
- Increases access to grant funding
- Enhances faculty members’ ability to remain current in their field/discipline
- Promotes greater engagement with students, colleagues, and the community
- Provides faculty with a platform to motivate, inspire and contribute to the educational experiences and professional development of future researchers; faculty often derive personal satisfaction from “watching” the professional growth of their students
- Allows for the mentorship of enthusiastic, highly-motivated students
- Produces recognition by one's internal and external peers
- Improves teaching techniques, such as in investigative laboratories
- Augments the transfer of results from one's scholarship into the classroom
- Promotes the concept of lifelong learning for students
Potential Benefits of Student-Faculty Undergraduate Research: To the Institution
- Enhances intellectual vitality and reputation of the institution
- Attracts talented faculty and builds research programs
- Attracts engaged students and community interest
- Produces external funding and recognition; brings new equipment and facilities
- Encourages innovative and collaborative curricula
- Promotes engagement with national trends in higher education and new research directions
- Breaks down barriers between students and faculty as well as teaching and research by integrating both into the teacher-scholar concept
There are some wonderful online resources available for faculty and administrators engaging in undergraduate research. The following links will connect you with information assembled by other institutions:
The following publications contain further information about the costs and benefits of faculty-student collaborative undergraduate research:
Information on Mentoring
Involving undergraduate students in scholarly activity can provide fresh insights to research questions. For many faculty members, particularly those at two- and four-year institutions, undergraduate students facilitate the pursuit of those research, scholarly, and creative endeavors that allow the faculty member to maintain his/her professional expertise, enthusiasm, and engagement. Undergraduates can indeed be considered “junior colleagues” and scholarly collaborators in the truest sense. These faculty members value the following opportunities:
..For intellectual invigoration
..To remain current in the discipline and field
..To establish collaborations, both interdisciplinary and/or disciplinary
..To produce results and advance a research program.
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