Book Review: Developing undergraduate research and inquiry

Developing undergraduate research and inquiry, by Mick Healey and Alan Jenkins, Heslington, York, The Higher Education Academy, 2009, 149 pp., no cost (paperback), ISBN 978-1-905788-99-6, available at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ ourwork/supportingresearch/teachingandresearch Having recently attended a roundtable on undergraduate research and inquiry as part of Professor Angela Brew’s ALTC Fellowship, the opportunity to review this publication was most timely. Commissioned by the Higher Education Academy (UK), the concept of undergraduate research and inquiry is explored in a range of contexts and disciplines, using illustrative case studies predominantly from the UK and US but also drawing from Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. The authors, Mick Healey and Alan Jenkins, are well qualified in this field having published widely on issues related to undergraduate research and inquiry over the past 10 years. At the outset they adopt a position that integration of undergraduate research and inquiry into higher education is a key strategy for the reinvigoration of a curriculum that will meet the needs of a growing sector. Adopting an underpinning perspective that research and teaching are inextricably connected in a university setting, they acknowledge that students can be seen as both an audience for, and participants in, research (pp. 7–8). It is a move towards the latter, involving students as active participants, that forms a key focus of this book.