Why you should get involved with research at uni

Following my participation in ICUR (International Conference of Undergraduate Research) over the summer, I thought I’d talk to you about why you should get involved in research whilst at university. Doing research can be daunting, especially when you don’t come from an environment where it’s common, but at university it’s pretty important. 

1. It allows you to explore your subject in-depth

Research gives you the chance to examine the aspects of a topic that really interest you, and this is often on a deeper level than the way topics are looked at in class. While classes provide you with important understanding and knowledge, conducting your own research means you can go beyond and build on this. 

2. It helps you develop important skills

During the research process, you’ll likely acquire and nurture skills and abilities such as being able to evaluate and summarise information, critical analysis and reflection. These may help you in the future depending on your chosen career. 

3. It can help you to pinpoint your interests

If you don’t know what you’re interested in yet, that’s okay! Research helps you to gain a deeper understanding of something you’re interested in, but it can also help you to discover what your research interests might be. A lot of the research process (at least the first few stages) are about surveying what information is out there, making connections and narrowing down your interests. 

4. It can help you to build connections

A lot of research spans more than one subject or discipline. Doing research can help you to gain knowledge of related subjects and how this could inform your work. As well as bringing in new academic strands, conducting research can help you to make friends with people studying different degrees, especially when you participate in research-based events.

You can see an overview of research and extracurricular opportunities at university in an earlier blog post I wrote here.

I hope you find this post insightful and as always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

Take care,

Ellie