The groundwork for developing Australasian conferences of undergraduate research was laid during The ALTC Senior National Teaching Fellowship of Professor Angela Brew. The overall aim of the Fellowship was to enhance student engagement in learning through supporting the development, in Australia, of undergraduate research and inquiry.
The Fellowship:
  • identified national needs by reporting on the current state of undergraduate vacation research programs in Australia, and sources of funding Australia-wide. It has also reported specifically on undergraduate research programs at Macquarie University and suggested actions to take forward. The reports were the result of supervised undergraduate research;
  • established and made available, in hard copy and online, a set of practical resources (models, strategies, protocols for action) designed to bridge gaps between current and future practice, and facilitate Australian academics, course teams, schools and faculties, and institutions in implementing undergraduate research. It has disseminated these through a website, five state-wide Regional Roundtable discussions and a newsletter (URNA?);
  • brought together academics, academic managers, and policy makers with international and national experts in Five Regional Roundtables where institutional leaders in teaching and learning and other interested academics discussed with experts, issues related to undergraduate research and its implementation and were introduced to the practical resources for implementation;
  • brought together national and international experts and leaders and managers of 35 Australian universities and other organisations including the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Australian Universities Quality agency (AUQA), the ALTC, the Australian Council of Deans of Science, and the National Union of Students (NUS) in a National Summit on the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning. Delegates developed a communiqué addressed to Australian political leaders.
  • provided the foundation for the establishment of what at the time was conceived as a national centre for the integration of research, teaching and learning through the work of the national team of experts , the development of a newsletter and an Extended Network of some 245 Australian academics interested in furthering undergraduate research in their institutions.
 
Find out more from these documents:  
Project proposal
Overall Project report
Report on Undergraduate research programs in 2009
Communiqué
Resources

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