Are Students of Some Disciplines more Involved than Others? Disciplinary Differences in Experienced Research Integration in Higher Education

Overall the research integration in higher education is considered meaningful. It has also been argued that the inclusion of students in research through the curriculum differs between disciplines. Students of ‘hard’ disciplines are supposed to gain more seniority before the research discipline includes them, while students in ‘soft’ disciplines are invited sooner. While previous studies do confirm this trend line, also contradictory
results have been found. Furthermore, the Biglan Framework (1973) provides more disciplinary differences than the often studied hard/soft divide. Moreover, the notion of involvement in research is more diverse than
‘doing research’. Through an online survey this study systematically investigates undergraduate students’ experienced research integration for all study years of seven different faculties (N=2192). The findings indicate
confirmation of the claim that students of different disciplines are included in research at different moments in their educational track. However, this difference is not always based on the hard/soft divide.