UROP for Staff
Student Recruitment
Placements will be advertised in the 'Placements' section of these web pages until Friday 9th March 2012. Supervisors are responsible for student recruitment and should advertise and promote their placement(s) locally to students who are currently in their penultimate year of study. Note that UROP placements are not open to students in earlier years or finalists. Supervisors should make their own arrangements for selecting the student who will undertake the placement based on CVs and letters, followed by interview. No student selection may be made until after 9th March. General enquiries from students on the UROP scheme and students seeking guidance on how to put together their application should be directed to urop@reading.ac.uk . Student information sessions, with a talk from a past UROP student, will be held on 15th February and 1st March in the Careers Centre. Individual appointments with students are available throughout the Spring Term bookable through the Careers Centre (SEECC).
Student Registration
Once a student has been selected the supervisor is responsible for returning a hard copy of the Placement Registration Form no later than Friday 23rd March 2012. It must be signed by the PI, student and Head of School. The form can be found online in the 'Applying' section of these web pages. It details the agreed placement start and end dates, payment information and clarifies responsibilities in terms of Health and Safety and Intellectual Property issues.
Please e-mail urop@reading.ac.uk if you have any questions
About UROP
As a member of academic staff, a UROP placement could enable you to run a pilot project for a research grant application or support a discrete section of an existing research project for which you are Principal Investigator, providing students the opportunity to develop their research skills and academic knowledge. It can also develop students who may wish to continue to research degrees under your supervision.
UROP placements are initiated by an application from a member of academic staff for placement funding. Supervisors devise six week research projects which are either stand-alone (such as feasibility or pilot studies) or part of a larger, ongoing research programme. Funding provides a bursary payment of £1,200 to the student selected.
What Supervisors Say About UROP
"Many colleagues in humanities think it difficult to engage undergraduates in proper research in fields that rely primarily on books and thoughts. I think I have proved, at least to myself, that they are wrong." Dr Amy Smith, Classics.
"Reading is a research intensive University and the UROP placement is an excellent opportunity for students to integrate with the research community and gain valuable experience - I like to make this point at Open Days." Dr Jennie Litten-Brown, Agriculture.
"I was very pleased to receive funding for this project, which has proved to be very beneficial to my own research as well as to the development of the student's research skills. I am involved with student recruitment, both at an undergraduate and a postgraduate level, and I feel that the UROP scheme is extremely beneficial with respect to both. Over the course of the summer numerous undergraduate applicants visited the department and having current undergraduates around to talk to them and to tell them about the opportunities for summer research work was a great bonus." Dr Stephen Langdon, Maths.