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Semester UTRA Awards

In 2008, the Office of the Dean of the College instituted a new type of UTRA: a semester-long Undergraduate Teaching & Research Award. The goal of the semester-long UTRA is to support projects that cannot take place during the summer. A semester UTRA would be especially attractive for students:

  • who want to collaborate with faculty unavailable in the summer;
  • who cannot themselves spend the summer in Providence;
  • whose work must be conducted during the academic year (e.g. Education or Psychology projects that require school to be in session);
  • or whose projects are shorter term and could be completed in 120 hours (summer UTRAs are approximately 350 hours).

Recipients of semester-long UTRA’s are required to work with a faculty member on a research project ten hours per week for 12 weeks during the semester.  The stipend for the term is $1000, paid in four installments, with the final payment subject to the faculty member's satisfactory midterm evaluation.

Please note that students may not receive an UTRA stipend for work for which they are simultaneously receiving academic credit. Students may not hold an UTRA to work on an honors thesis while they are enrolled in an honors thesis or independent study/research seminar course.

Students interested in the semester-long UTRA must complete the same application as all other UTRA applicants. However, your application must articulate:

  1. Why this project cannot be completed during the summer and
  2. Why it is best completed as an UTRA rather than as an independent study course (e.g. Biol 1950, Phys 1990, Hist 1990)

The Online Application Guide contains the application questions and can be used to guide your conversations with your proposed faculty sponsor.

The application deadline for spring 2012 semester UTRAs is Nov 16, 2011 by 5:00 pm. Notifications will be emailed by the middle of December.

The application deadline for fall 2012 semester UTRAs is May 1, 2012 by 5:00 pm.

For more information, Contact Janice Rego in the Office of the Dean of the College.