Creating New Knowledge with Undergraduate Students: Institutional Incentives and Faculty Agency

Abstract

Undergraduate students today face a more demanding and competitive labor market than their parents' generation. In response, some pursue double majors to signal breadth to potential employers and to improve their job prospects. Some students also realize that a strong signal of workplace readiness is acquiring in-demand skills through independent and collaborative research. In this article, four professors at an undergraduate-focused public university in the United States share their experiences working with undergraduate students on research, focusing on the supply side of student research training and mentoring. We discuss how institutions can support differently situated faculty members, who face different career incentives and constraints, to integrate undergraduates in their research. We also address the limits of what is possible for faculty-student research and suggest ways to overcome them.