The Impact of Undergraduate Research on Student Outcomes - Series on Student Engagement and High Impact Practices - January 2022 Iteration 2

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

We investigate whether student participation in undergraduate research—a high impact practice at TBR community colleges—affects academic performance, probabilities of graduation, university transfer, and student departure, and time to completion, transfer, and departure. Using enrollment, graduation, and course-taking data from Tennessee Board of Regents and National Student Clearinghouse, the study follows the 2017 freshmen cohort across twelve semesters. Propensity scores are generated with a machine learning algorithm, and outcomes are estimated with a doubly robust inverse probability weighting approach to reduce selection bias.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages54

Reading Time2 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Literature review

Dataset description

Methodology

Results

Discussion

Appendices

References

TBR WORKING PAPERS Tennessee Board of Regents Office of Policy & Strategy The Impact of Undergraduate Research on Student Outcomes: Examining High Impact Practices in TBR community colleges Series on Student Engagement and High Impact Practices January 2022 Iteration 2 Table of contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction................................................................................................................................................... 5 Literature review ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Dataset description ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 24 Results......................................................................................................................................................... 27 Discussion ................................................................................................................................................... 40 Appendices.................................................................................................................................................. 43 References ................................................................................................................................................... 49 Tables Table 1. Undergraduate research participation overall, by frequency, and over time ................................ 15 Table 2. Participation in undergraduate research by demographic and academic variables....................... 17 Table 3. Major in the first term of undergraduate research participation ................................................... 18 Table 4. Outcomes by undergraduate research participation ...................................................................... 21 Table 5. Average time to graduation and university transfer in semesters and attempted credits ..............22 Table 6. OLS estimates of impact of undergraduate research participation on final cumulative GPA ......28 Table 7. Predicted increase in the probability of graduation due to undergraduate research participation 30 Table 8. Predicted increase in the probability of transfer due to undergraduate research participation ..... 32 Table 9. Predicted decrease in the probability of departure due to undergraduate research participation.. 34 Table 10. Cox proportional hazards model for time to graduation by undergraduate research participation.................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Table 11. Cox proportional hazards model for time to transfer by undergraduate research participation.. 37 Table 12. Cox proportional hazards model for time to departure by undergraduate research participation38 Table 13. The impact of undergraduate research on student outcomes: Summary of findings .................. 39 Figures Figure 1. Outcomes for the 2017 first-time freshmen cohort...................................................................... 19 Figure 2. Outcomes by undergraduate research participation..................................................................... 20 Figure 3. Time to graduation in semesters by demographic variables........................................................ 23 Figure 4. Estimated effect of undergraduate research on final GPA: Binary and nonbinary treatments ....29 Figure 5. Predicted increase in probability of g

FAQs

What outcomes does the study examine regarding undergraduate research participation?

It examines academic performance, probabilities of graduation, university transfer, and student departure, and time to completion, transfer, and departure.

What data sources are used to track the student cohort?

The study uses enrollment, graduation, and course-taking data from the Tennessee Board of Regents and the National Student Clearinghouse, tracking the 2017 freshmen cohort.

How does the analysis address selection bias between participants and nonparticipants?

It generates propensity scores with a machine learning algorithm and applies a doubly robust inverse probability weighting estimator to compare similar students across groups.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel