This chapter takes stock of current research concerning undergraduate research in Scandinavia. A literature search identified relatively few studies that explicitly employ this concept. There is a strong emphasis on “research-based education” as a principle in all three Scandinavian countries, with a broader view on linking research and education. In recent years, perspectives emphasizing inquiry, student-centeredness and problem-based learning have attracted considerable attention. There are also other indications of practices associated with students behaving as researchers – e.g., the relatively wide use of the bachelors’ thesis and specific examples of institutions and cases where principles from undergraduate research have been employed. More recent developments include theuse of honours programmes.

Even though Japan has a largely Westernized system of education, it is worth remembering that this country has a strong hierarchical Confucian tradition of master–student relationships. This relationship is underlined by the literal meaning of sensei, “the one born before,” as the honorific given to all teachers and professors. University lecturers enjoy significant autonomy, and there are no particular barriers to faculty integrating undergraduate research (UR) into the curriculum. It can be argued that the STEM areas in which Japan excels have historically created more opportunities for research, and that UR is already undertaken there, whether formally recognized or not. In the arts, humanities, and social sciences, students are required to write a graduation thesis or report under the guidance of their instructor.

Sociocultural approaches form a theoretical tradition that explains learning, identity development, and knowledge creation not merely as cognitive or as purely internal psychic processes. Rather it understands these educational phenomena relationally as practices that belong simultaneously to the development of the individual as well as to the society and its cultural ways of life. Commencing from these ideas, this chapter argues that undergraduate research and inquiry-based learning can be investigated as ways of ensuring student participation in and engagement with practices of doing research. A sociocultural view on these practices raises awareness of the broader context in which education develops, and how such development is influenced by all kinds of cultural and material relations. Higher education is not only understood within the boundaries of the university or the college. It can also be studied as culturally shaped by professional practices and ethics, or by epistemic cultures that form different manners of knowing. The focus on practices is important because it is a key to the reconstruction of ‘how we know what we know’ as a resource for student learning.

Over the last fifty years undergraduate research (UR) has transformed from a focus on selected students predominantly engaged in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines at private US universities to one that challenges and transforms undergraduate curricula internationally for all, or many, students. The language used to describe UR varies between institutions, and includes terms such as ‘research-based education’ (Humboldt, Germany), ‘student as producer’ (Lincoln, UK), ‘problem-based and inquiry-based learning’ (McMaster, Canada), and ‘student as scholar’ (Miami, USA).

Undergraduate research experiences have been identified as a high-impact practice in higher education.Within the physics community, research experiences were cited as a critical educational experience for undergraduate students by many thriving physics programs. Furthermore, the discipline has, for many years, supported undergraduate research experiences by advocating for and funding such programs as well as providing opportunities for undergraduate students to present their research at professional conferences and in peer-reviewed professional journals. In this chapter, the authors briefly highlight the benefits of research experiences to undergraduate physics students along with some of the known or community-accepted best practices for engaging undergraduate students in research. The authors also discuss the challenges faced by the community surrounding equity and our ability to engage all students in this meaningful professional and educational experience. While challenges exist, there are opportunities for the physics community to successfully address them through hard work, creativity, and innovation.

Brazil accounts for half of South America’s territory and population. Given this large scale and its federal structure, the country can be described as highly heterogeneous. In this context, universities have a crucial role in social change and mobility. Research is closely linked to university life. This chapter provides an overview of undergraduate research in Brazil and its impact on individuals, universities, and society. First, we present an historical outline of the development of the national education and higher education system. Second, we describe administrative issues and cultural impact. Third, we show examples of best practice, selecting specific disciplines and aspects. Finally, we summarize the main themes and provide an outlook on expected further developments concerning undergraduate research in Brazil.

It has long been known that undergraduate research can also be beneficial in legal studies, not least for underrepresented students (cf. Hathaway et al., 2002). However, legal education has a special and – in contrast to most other disciplines – a country-specific relationship to research-based learning at undergraduate as well as at postgraduate level. The modalities and space for designing research-based learning courses depend largely on the respective subjects and methods of research. In jurisprudence, however, these vary considerably depending on the characteristics of the respective jurisdiction and its legal system.

The theoretical contextualization of undergraduate research is undertaken, on the one hand, within the framework of research-based learning (RBL). RBL is experiencing an enormous expansion worldwide in the context of teacher training and is, on the other hand, located within the professionalization discourse, namely that teacher education must focus on the professional activity as a teacher and help to develop it further. For example, the central aspects of teachers’ professional knowledge consist of a combination of “pedagogical content knowledge,” “general pedagogical knowledge,” “curriculum knowledge,” and “subject matter content knowledge” within the disciplines. Accordingly, university education must enable students to acquire deep and flexible knowledge in order to create the necessary basis for successful teaching/learning processes and enable students to find professional solutions to complex pedagogical problems and social challenges, such as reducing educational inequality and establishing educational justice.

Higher education in Canada seeks to provide opportunities for students to succeed by advancing scholarly, technical, and practical (employability) skills. Some institutions, especially research-oriented degree-granting universities, engage students with research in order to advance such skills. Increasingly, undergraduate research opportunities align with preparing students for further studies or the workforce through projects that connect with community and industry. Faculty, staff, and administrators provide undergraduate research through curricular and co-curricular initiatives as a proven way to enhance and amplify the student experience while driving research outputs and campus partnerships. Current trends mean an intensification of challenges to sustain funding for the traditional faculty-mentored student project. As a result, diversification of undergraduate research is occurring. While benefits for students are still generated in terms of skill development and career clarification, Canadian campuses are investing in more innovative opportunities.

The second decade of the present century has been marked by the growth of data science. The mixture of computing, statistical, and domain knowledge that represents data science has become an essential skill across all sectors of industry, academia, and government. Data science is also inherently multidisciplinary, being able to accommodate a diverse set of backgrounds operating in interdisciplinary teams to have the most impact. Two developments simultaneously took shape around the middle of the decade to catalyze data science research for undergraduates at UC Berkeley. Launched in 2014, the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) was designed as a focal point on campus for data science research and software development. In 2015, to meet the growing demand for data science skills among its students, UC Berkeley launched Data 8, an introductory class on the Foundations of Data Science. With these two initiatives, the Data Science Discovery Program was piloted to allow UC Berkeley students coming out of Data 8 and other data science courses to make a real-world impact with partners across academia, industry, and government.

Digitalization is strongly affecting the field of higher education. This chapter investigates the implications of digital tools for the future development of undergraduate research (UR). It asks how the design of digital learning environments and the provision of digital tools can contribute to UR. The chapter starts with outlining digitalization in higher education and the use of digital technology in undergraduate studies. Then, teaching and learning scenarios are presented that serve as design options to integrate digital learning environments in teaching for UR. Moreover, digital tools are analyzed that can support different phases and objectives of UR. Overall, the chapter stresses the importance to critically consider the added value of digital technology for learning in general and for the case of teaching and learning UR in particular. A well-elaborated instructional design plays a key role to develop and implement digital learning environments in UR, to spur student engagement and to foster social interaction successfully. The chapter concludes by discussing future trajectories for UR in the light of digitalization.

Recently, the Chinese government has advocated a shift in focus from quantity expansion to quality promotion in the field of higher education, with a specific emphasis on enhancing the research competence of higher education institutions. Since 2012, a new state-held “National College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program” has pushed undergraduate research (UR) in China to its peak. Tsinghua University, a leading university in science and engineering in the country, is one of the first higher education institutions to promote UR in China and is China’s flagship endeavor. In the future, it is likely there will be a disciplinary balance that maintains the emphasis on science and technology but increases the proportions of humanities and social sciences. Formative assessment is needed for the management and reporting of UR programs. Moreover, further actions must be taken to grant Chinese higher education institutions more autonomy to design UR programs consistent with their own academic strengths.

The dissemination of research via publications and conference presentations gives students the opportunity to understand their work in even more detail, to receive and respond to criticism, and to contribute confidently to academic conversations. However, this last phase of the research cycle is one that is often not comprehensively addressed at the undergraduate level. Over more than a decade, the authors have developed opportunities for international dissemination of undergraduate research, including training and support activities. Co-created with students, their projects include a long-standing international undergraduate research journal, Reinvention, and the International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR). The authors will draw upon their own experiences to explore both the benefits and challenges of providing such opportunities at the undergraduate level and offer some suggestions and solutions to sustain these projects over the long term.

Undergraduate research needs to be rooted in a specific disciplinary context, such as geography. Depending on the disciplinary tradition, training students as researchers requires a research-based curriculum that involves students in the research process instead of merely confronting them with the outcome of previous research. Walkington (2019) stresses that significant progress is already visible in the field, yet myriad aspects, such as mentoring, the role of research in teacher training, or research skills and employability require further attention. This chapter takea up Willison and O’Regan’s (2007) inclusive definition of student research as “[…] a continuum of knowledge production, from knowledge new to the learner to knowledge new to humankind, moving from the commonly known, to the commonly not known, to the totally unknown.” The chapter explores possible curricular architectures for geography undergraduate programs followed by a brief discussion of geography’s special formats to foster undergraduate research.

The chapter provides an overview of the Austrian higher education system and its legal, cultural, and administrative frameworks for Austrian universities, particularly regarding research-based education. Four short case studies give insights into specific approaches showing how undergraduate research is promoted and supported. In the conclusion further national developments for the promotion of undergraduate research are discussed.

This chapter provides a synopsis of our Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research. We argue that undergraduate research is made possible by, and responds to, changes in the ways we think about knowledge. Readers will be familiar with the contemporary social context, which often sees knowledge as a kind of free-for-all in which opinion is presented as fact, where knowledge gained through research competes in the political realm with supposition, and public discourse is steeped in deliberate misinformation. In the context of our handbook, such developments not only open up opportunities for students to engage in research, they also emphasize the importance of all students developing the skills to engage meaningfully and rigorously in evidence-based practice and to challenge unfounded assumptions. Knowledge has become democratized, and it is this that provides both the impetus and opportunity for widespread and equitable undergraduate research engagement.

In Germany, learning through research has experienced a great upswing in the last decade, especially through project funding and research within the framework of the national “Quality Pact for Teaching” (QPL, Qualitätspakt Lehre). Forschendes Lernen – as the concept is called in German – was developed in Germany about fifty years ago. In the last twenty years, this teaching and learning concept has been adapted to current conditions and challenges through the commitment and creative ideas of various university players. Forschendes Lernen became the foundation for undergraduate research in Germany.

This is the general introduction to the Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research. It deals with the history of the university as an institution (which has been a research institution only since the nineteenth century); with the concept of undergraduate research and its dimesions (e.g., student- or staff-initiated research); with possible alternative concepts (e.g., critical thinking or lifelong learning); with research on undergraduate research (e.g., increased retention rate but necessary mentoring); and with implementation challenges (for universities and faculty). We see a new role for students: that in ever more differentiated modern societies, collaborative, cross-segmental knowledge production becomes a new necessity, the educational means to which might be undergraduate research.

Research opportunities for undergraduate engineers vary widely in topics, tasks, and organization, yet they all convey knowledge and practices that are fundamental to engineering work and culture. This chapter outlines that engineering worldview and how it shapes undergraduate research opportunities, and then recommends best practices for undergraduate research in engineering.