National undergraduate research conferences have been commonplace in the US for many years e.g. the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), and are becoming more frequent elsewhere. Alongside national conferences many universities hold their own events, which are often institution-wide, so as to appeal to a large proportion of their…

This is the second of two Directions articles, which together offer guidance to help the reader gain the maximum benefit from participating in institutional and national multi-disciplinary undergraduate research conferences. The earlier article introduced undergraduate research conferences, summarized the key benefits of participating in such…

This paper reviews the opportunities and challenges for re-framing the purpose, process, product and assessment of final-year geography dissertations. It argues that the academic centralities of critical thinking, analysis, evaluation, effective communication and independence must be retained, but that the traditional format limits creativity and…