Undergraduate Research and Institutional Logics: Tensions and Conflicts at an Undergraduate-Serving Institution

Undergraduate research (UR) is well-established as a valuable learning experience for students, but access to UR remains limited. Expanding opportunities for UR depends on faculty members investing considerable time and energy into the work of mentorship. Prior research suggests that institutional factors play a role in whether faculty are willing to make those investments, but our understanding of those dynamics remains limited. To address that issue, this case study investigates how the faculty in two science departments tried to expand UR at an undergraduate teaching college. Drawing upon four years of interviews and institutional policy documents, it examines how faculty approached UR and the conflicting “institutional logics” that organized their actions. A key finding is that the administration of the college prioritized a “business logic” fixated on revenue and cost reduction, whereas the science faculty operated within an “academic logic.” The outcomes of UR were highly valued within the academic logic of the faculty, but largely invisible to the business logic of the college. The conflicting logics ultimately strained faculty and limited their ability to expand UR opportunities. This study suggests that expanding access to UR is particularly challenging because of the uneasy position it occupies within the multiple logics of higher education institutions.