Impact of Undergraduate Research Activities on Engineering Students' Persistence

To understand the effect of different research activities on the persistence of undergraduate engineering students, data for undergraduate students enrolled in research activities at Utah Valley University were collected and examined. The findings showed a strong correlation between student persistence and their involvement in undergraduate research. Undergraduate research participants had a 2.71 times higher persistence rate than non-research participants. A significant predictor of students' perseverance was their cumulative GPA. Persistence rates among students increased by 1.86 times for every point higher cumulative GPA. Demographic factors were not predictive after controlling for research and GPA levels. In particular, student level, race, and gender did not reliably predict students' perseverance. These findings emphasize the need to increase undergraduate research opportunities for engineering students.