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What is the QEP?

The Quality Enhancement Program(QEP) is an integral part of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) reaffirmation process for all institutions. SACSCOC calls for each institution to develop a QEP that enhances student learning and/or student success.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s 2020 Quality Enhancement Program (QEP), Advance: Student Research Experience, aims to create an environment in which undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity can flourish. Advance supports UL Lafayette’s Strategic Plan to increase student productivity and success through engagement in mentored research, innovative projects, and creative endeavors.

Advance resulted from a thorough idea generation, selection and development process that began in 2017 and included input from students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni. The University’s 2015-2020 Strategic Plan served as a guiding document in the development of Advance, which shares with the Strategic Plan the goal of providing “research opportunities for all undergraduate students, regardless of major.

View the QEP Report here.

QEP Goals

Goal 1: Provide more students with the opportunity to complete an SRE.

Advance aims to provide students in each undergraduate program the opportunity to complete an SRE, by developing curricula that allows students to acquire and demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities to complete an SRE. Advance asks programs to create curriculum maps with pathways for students to complete SREs.

Advance pathways will include four types of courses:

  1. Exposure courses that teach students to recognize the types of SREs available in a discipline and identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to complete them.
  2. Methods courses that allow students acquire and demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities to complete an SRE.
  3. SRE courses that give students the opportunity to apply knowledge, skills, and abilities to a research, design, scholarship, or creative project. 
  4. Dissemination courses that prepare students to articulate the results of an SRE in appropriate formats, venues, and delivery modes.

Goal 2: Develop a campus culture that supports and rewards participation in high-impact research, scholarship, and creative activities.

Advance aims to develop a campus culture that supports and rewards UR.

Advance establishes the Advance SRE distinction.

The Advance SRE distinction will recognize students who fully engage in undergraduate research by:

  • attending UL Lafayette academic community events;

  • completing an Advance pathway;

  • completing discipline-specific ethics requirements;

  • completing an SRE;

  • participating in professional development workshops; and

  • publishing, performing, and/or presenting an SRE.

Advance establishes a Student Center for Research (SCR).

The SCR will support all Advance activities and will centralize information on student research, scholarship, and creative activity, allowing students, faculty, and staff to learn about opportunities and resources.

Advance increase opportunities for students to present, perform, and publish their work.

Advance will promote programs and activities that allow students to disseminate the results of their SREs.

  • UL Lafayette Undergraduate Research Conference will develop into a showcase for Advance.

  • Advance Student Travel Grant Program will provide students with funds to present at regional and national conferences.

  • Advance Student Research Week will be a week-long celebration of SREs.

  • Advance Journal for Student Research will publish the products of SREs.

  • UL Lafayette Institutional Repository will dedicate space to showcase the products of SREs.

Goal 3: Prepare students to present or publish their work.

Advance will develop programs to support students as they prepare to disseminate SREs.

  • The Writing Lab will develop workshops and guides for writing in the disciplines.
  • The SCRCS will establish a presentation-skills workshop series.