In today's world, higher education institutions compete on publishing as many academic works as possible. And this is not an easy activity; it demands professional trainings on the part of trainers and high interests from trainees as well. Therefore, engaging undergraduate students in learning about research and in doing research is beneficial for them. It also paves the way for them and prepares them well for graduate and post-graduate studies that mostly depend on conducting academic research. Further, to get admitted into a graduate program (in many universities if not all), a candidate has to submit a research proposal in which s/he has to show some research skills/knowledge. This simply reflects the critical importance of teaching research methodologies in undergraduate programs, and also engaging them in some practical activities!

Hope this helps!

Best wishes!

depends on whether it is compensated (financially) or through training, or predatory and exploitive. Students are striking and forming unions for this very reason at the graduate levels.

Thank you Mark Anthony Castrodale for your comment.

In today's world, higher education institutions compete on publishing as many academic works as possible. And this is not an easy activity; it demands professional trainings on the part of trainers and high interests from trainees as well. Therefore, engaging undergraduate students in learning about research and in doing research is beneficial for them. It also paves the way for them and prepares them well for graduate and post-graduate studies that mostly depend on conducting academic research. Further, to get admitted into a graduate program (in many universities if not all), a candidate has to submit a research proposal in which s/he has to show some research skills/knowledge. This simply reflects the critical importance of teaching research methodologies in undergraduate programs, and also engaging them in some practical activities!

Hope this helps!

Best wishes!

I see many benefits for undergraduate students to get involved in research. From an application standpoint, these students learn skills that may certainly be transferable to their intended careers. This makes them more marketable to employers. In addition, it takes learning beyond simply reading and remembering information. If undergraduate students are involved in research, they get to see how knowledge is actually created. This certainly broadens our perspectives and, hopefully, allows us to more critically question ideas that we encounter. Finally, those students who plan to attend graduate school will have a leg up on other students with no research experience, particularly when applying to doctoral programs.

Thank you Reid Evans , for such comprehensive and valuable comment.

Thank you Abdulghani Muthanna .

You have mentioned the key issues.

Thanks indeed.

I would agree with you, Reid Evans. I myself was an undergraduate student involved in research and I see many of the benefits you mentioned in myself. From my second year onwards, I participated in research groups and projects, conducted my own research (supervised, of course) by collecting and analyzing data and presented them in conferences, having a couple even published. I personally feel I have developed not only as researcher but also as a language teacher.

Thank you Eduardo Castro for your very interesting comment.

Thank you Abdulghani Muthanna for your insightful comment.

Thank you Soma Mukhopadhyay for reading the comments.