UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH CHALLENGES: A CASE STUDY FROM “LIBRARY RESEARCH CUBE” OF SABARAGAMUWA UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

Abstract

Dissertation submission appears to be a challenging task for undergraduates in completion of their four-year degree program. It impacts their final grade as it contains the weight of 8 credits. Up to now these challenges have been neither well identified nor properly addressed. The aim of this study is to identify the key challenges encountered by undergraduates regarding the dissertation submission. For this purpose, this study focused on 11 undergraduates from 3 faculties of Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka who were directed by the supervisors to the “library research cube” which facilitates the undergraduates with their research studies. Data collected through the interview processes revealed that undergraduates face challenges such as limited access to the existing undergraduate dissertations, limited library resources, and limited access to the databases within the university's IP range. In addition, students’ incapability in applying taught research methodologies, low response rate from the samples, along with the insufficient timeframe for research completion leading undergraduates to face challenges with their research work. Above identified issues affect the undergraduates in identifying the research gaps in their studies, for the awareness of the latest development in relevant research, and repetition of similar research proposals. Other than these issues, undergraduates are also affected by inadequate sample sizes when populating their findings to larger groups and working on their research work in parallel to their internships. To overcome these issues, this study identified the following actions to implement at Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. They are developing a database of all bibliographic data of undergraduate dissertations, exposing undergraduates to research-related activities such as research symposiums and project work, selecting the best data collection tools rather than striving for an online questionnaire, and encouraging undergraduates from their freshman year to be involved with research-related activities. In addition, this study also recommends that universities adopt a considerable time-frame to the research component through curriculum revisions.