Publishing undergraduate research: creating opportunities to enhance the student learning experience within a research-intensive university

Providing undergraduates with opportunities to showcase and disseminate their work can add value to research activities undertaken as part of a programme of study and contribute to the development of a raft of academic, transferable and employment-related skills. As a recipient of an Annual Fund award to promote undergraduate research within the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences (CEMPS), I discuss growing recognition by UK universities of a need to better value research undertaken by undergraduates who might be given opportunities to disseminate their work beyond the boundaries of traditional assessment practice. Using examples of how CEMPS is promoting undergraduate research as a means of enhancing the student learning experience, I highlight some of the practical issues of embedding these activities within the curriculum. The article concludes by signposting the reader to other examples of undergraduate research publishing and associated opportunities for all undergraduates to disseminate their research work.