Why protecting the Arts begins on campus: Nirankar Phull explains what the Undergraduate Research Experience event on tomorrow at The University of Leeds is all about …
The fight to save the Arts, its funding and profile is never-ending: exciting schemes are constantly under threat and Arts students continue to get bad press. Too often students and academics are forced to walk the familiar Arts tightrope to save their initiatives.
One such initiative, which is lucky to be in its fourth year with the support of the Faculty of Arts, is the Undergraduate Research Experience (UGRE) at the University of Leeds. The event essentially provides a much-needed platform for Arts undergraduates (which includes students from the Schools of History, English, Classics, Modern Languages & Cultures and Philosophy, Religion & History of Science) to present their exceptional research in an accessible and engaging way for an inquisitive student audience. It also offers the opportunity for project management and teamwork, useful skills that are not usually offered in the Arts, which enable the team, presenters the audience to reap a common benefit.
Research takes many forms – we all do it – but more often than not, there are few tangible rewards for outstanding pieces of work as undergraduates. The event has been modelled as a more interactive, accessible approach to more formal displays of research, offering a taster of academic conferencing that is usually not experienced at a lower University level. This fresh approach will take the form of speed-dating poster sessions, Three Minute Thesis and sample workshops, amongst many others.
Some of the presentations at the UGRE will be from recipients of the Undergraduate Research and Leadership scholarship (UGRL), which annually awards impressive first-year students the opportunity to undertake supervised research projects related to their degree discipline. Launched at the University in 2009, the scheme has seen a number of successful, integrative community projects come to fruition: from the launch of the first ever Post Punk academic journal to research into the origins of the Leeds West Indian Carnival.
The continuation of schemes like the UGRL depend on donations from generous Alumni but each year comes the fear that funding targets will not be reached and the Faculty of Arts will not be able to award its students with such exciting opportunities to transform their degree. Being able to accelerate learning in an academic way rather than vocational (which seems to be the emphasis these days) is a truly unique experience, with recipients supported every step of the way. Schemes like these should be allowed to survive and thrive, but proving their worth is difficult with preconceived ideas of Arts degrees having less ‘concrete’ outcomes.
This is why the support of the Undergraduate Research Experience is so important. The mutual benefits to be attained by presenting and attending are clear for all to see: students will be curious to engage with the exciting levels of research going on across the departments within the Faculty as well as supporting their own. From 3 minute presentations about zombie literature, to workshops about Leeds surgeons during World War, to posters comparing the contemporary soldier to a Homeric one, there really is something for everyone.
A room on the University of Leeds campus will be transformed, much like the students’ learning, into an arena of creative space in which to inspire and be inspired. The UGRE is essentially a celebration of Arts research, to which students, academics and curious members of the public are warmly invited to experience.
The ‘Undergraduate Research Experience’ takes place on Wednesday 19th February 2014 at the University of Leeds, Michael Sadler Building LG10 from 1pm. Check out the website for more information and the programme of events
Just to clear up any confusion, the Bettakultcha element of this event is the format of twenty slides lasting for fifteen seconds each.
I did a presentation workshop for some of the students at the University a few months back and I’m hoping that the presentations will include the hints and tips I gave them.
I’m going to find out too, as part of the deal I made with the University was to compere a section of the event.
Everyone is welcome but please note that it is not a fully fledged Bettakultcha event.