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The University of Texas at Austin

On a National Scale

College of Liberal Arts

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Undergraduate Research has Gotten the World's Attention

While the concept of research at the undergraduate level is new compared to longstanding faculty and graduate student involvement, programs for students engaging in research while pursuing an undergraduate degree have significant support and continue to grow.

The benefits of engaging undergraduates in research have long been recognized across federal and local agencies, in the private sector, and within U.S. universities across the nation.

  • One of the early-adopters of wide-scale support for undergraduate research is the National Science Foundation, one of our biggest research sponsors across all of the University of Texas institutions. Their comprehensive program, Research Experience for Undergraduates has been a highly successful way to include undergraduates in a wide range of projects and training opportunities.
  • Principal Investigators in major universities have been researching the benefits of undergraduate involvement in research through projects funded by the National Institutes of Health stretching across decades.
  • There's even a National Council on Undergraduate Research.

At UT and within the College of Liberal Arts, opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in research have been around for longer than you might think. Here in the College of Liberal Arts, as just one example, the Population Research Center, in association with the Department of Sociology, has had a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program for over 30 years, right on up through today. And the opportunities continue to grow.

Check out some of the featured articles and works below that discuss undergraduate research in more detail.