Undergraduate Research Mentoring: Obstacles and Opportunities

Researchers and policy-makers in higher education increasingly espouse the view that undergraduate students should have the opportunity to learn about scholarship and research in the context of faculty-mentored research experiences. There is mounting consensus that mentored undergraduate research should be standard pedagogical practice in all undergraduate disciplines. Although high-impact, mentored undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative work (URSCW) requires significant resources, with faculty time and energy foremost among them. This article addresses the current gap between aspiration and effective execution of well-mentored URSCW, including the most prevalent obstacles (e.g. institutional, departmental, individual) to undergraduate mentoring. This article is written for academic leaders and institutional officers. It concludes with several specific recommendations for increasing the frequency of mentored URSCW experiences for undergraduates.