Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program

The Morehead State Undergraduate Research Fellowship (URF) program is designed to allow MSU’s undergraduate students to work as junior scholars with a faculty mentor and be paid to do so. Our fellowship program is committed to fostering our students’ academic, scholarly, and career aspirations.

“I’ve gained insight on the process of data collection and analysis, which is very important for going into any scientific field. I’ve discovered the importance of standardized data collection, so that sharing what I’ve learned with others is easier, and more progress can be made as a whole.”

Brayden Schwegman

Must be a full-time, degree-seeking, undergraduate student (Craft and Eagle Scholars are ineligible)
Must have a faculty mentor
Participation in the Annual Celebration of Student Scholarship (If work is incomplete, that’s okay! We understand some work might be ongoing.)
Evaluation/Reflection submitted by student (will be sent by the Coordinator)
Progress report submitted by faculty mentor (will be sent by the Coordinator)
Additional requirements are at the discretion of the faculty mentors and their academic departments.
Note: if the research involves human or animal subjects, the appropriate protocol forms for IRB or IACUC review and approval must be submitted before the research begins. Please see Research and Sponsored Programs for more information.
Classroom maintenance, office work, lab staffing, and assistance with classes/teaching are not considered undergraduate research

A request form must be filled out. The coordinator of undergraduate research will seek approval for the request from department chairs and college deans. When approval has been given, the coordinator will then submit a PAR to human resources to begin the hiring process (unless the request is for an honors student completing the URF requirement; they are not paid.) The student can begin their research ONLY when they’ve been approved by human resources – this will be passed along to the student, mentor, and ADS from the coordinator.

This entire process can take several days or weeks. Mentors should consider this when selecting a start date for the student on the request form.

Note: department chairs and college deans can make changes to your request. For example, they might want students to work a minimum of 10 hours a week instead of the six the request form indicates. If a change is made, this will be communicated to the student and mentor.

If you’re a student and can’t find a mentor, please fill out our UR Interest form.

If you’re a mentor and can’t find students to work with you, please reach out to the Coordinator of Undergraduate Research at ugresearch@moreheadstate.edu.

Students can work up to 20 hours a week. *If they have another on-campus job, hours must be split.
- Be accurate with hours. The amount of funding set aside for the student is shown on the request form. Our data shows that most students do not work 15 or more hours a week. If hours are dropped, please inform the Coordinator so the extra funds can be used to pay additional students.
- This is a reminder that two full semesters of work is 32 weeks. (If more weeks are desired, a new request for additional weeks can be submitted closer to the original end date, provided there is funding.)
- Funding for the URFs is limited. The more students work, the more they’re being paid, which means less money to pay additional students.
Pay starts at $9.00/hour and increases by $0.50 after each completed academic year (two semesters), capped at $10.50.
Honors students completing their requirement (two semesters) will be unpaid and should work 8 hours a week according to the Honors program. This should be completed no later than the end of the sixth semester.
Due to HR and payroll policies, students cannot begin working until they have been approved by HR and payroll. The Coordinator will notify students and faculty mentors when the student has been approved.

FOR STUDENTS

Expectations for the experience are up to the student and mentor, and are dependent on the research being conducted. Students are expected to present their research at the Annual Celebration of Student Scholarship whether the research is completed or not. There is also an evaluation at the end of the spring semester that students are expected to complete. The Coordinator of Undergraduate Research will send the link through email sometime in the spring.

*Note if you’re an Honors student completing your requirement (two semesters), the Honors program requires 8 hours a week. This should be completed no later than the end of the sixth semester.

Opportunities for Students

Opportunities to present and publish your research.

FOR FACULTY

Your level of involvement is up to you, the student, and the project, but we need some things from you.

Faculty mentors are expected to fill out the URF Request Form.

If your department/college expects you to be the time supervisor for your student(s), you’ll need to approve their time for every pay period. There is also a progress report mentors must fill out at the end of the spring semester. The expectation is that you must fill this out for your URFs to be able to mentor students in the future.

URF Request Deadline

The priority deadline for returning URFs: May 15
- The reminder will go out in April
Deadline for new URFs: September 15 or until URF funds are depleted
- The reminder will go out in July
- Requests for new student URFs are on a first-come, first-served basis.
URF requests are subject to approval by the department chair and college deans.
Additional funding for URFs may be available in the Spring – please speak to the Coordinator in January. Requests will still go through the approval process.

**The Undergraduate Research Fellowship is for full-time MSU undergraduate students; therefore, CRAFT and Eagle Scholars are ineligible.

Faculty, are you looking for students to mentor, or do you have questions?

Submit an inquiry

URF Request Applications

The mentor, not the student, should submit request forms, though it is recommended that the student and mentor work on filling out the form together. Please select the form unique to your college or situation to provide the necessary information for a student you wish to hire as an Undergraduate Research Fellow.

Faculty mentors should send the completed form to ugresearch@moreheadstate.edu when their mentees have completed their fellowship. The Coordinator of Undergraduate Research will send a communication about due dates.