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Engaged Scholarship and Learning
Follow us at engagedUTRGV
ESTAC 3.106 and BINAB 1.105
Hours: M-F 8am-5pm
Email: engaged@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 665-3461 Edinburg
Phone Alt: (956) 882-4300 Brownsville
Zero-Credit Course Options
Are you Mentoring ‘Unofficially Enrolled’ Undergraduate Students?
We encourage you to have students consider these options:
| An Internship or Directed Research course for credit, if they would like to incorporate into their degree plan and earn a grade | OR |
A Zero-credit hour Internship or Directed Research course if they do not need a course for credit. UNIV 3000 Internship and UNIV 4000 Directed Research can be opened for an instructor in any discipline. |
See Credit-bearing Courses within the course catalog by departments/schools.
UNIV 3000 Internship: The zero-credit internship course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to gain experience by working with a practicing professional with learning outcomes related to the student's academic background and/or career goals. The student must complete at least 40 hours of experiential learning. The student and a supervising faculty or professional staff member must agree to written learning goals prior to the assignment, and the student must complete written reports with reflection on the achievement of these goals. Courses must adhere to the Career Center requirements pertaining to unpaid internships. Career Center requirements
UNIV 4000 Directed Research: This zero-credit directed research course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to conduct faculty-supervised research in an area of mutual interest. The course will provide an opportunity to obtain hands-on research experience. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Zero-credit courses are not substitutes for paid student positions. These are distinct offerings specific to experiential learning, linked to a curriculum, and limited to one semester.
Benefits to Enrollment in Credit-bearing or Zero-credit Hour Courses:
- Allows lab access to students engaged in research.
- Provides a structure (e.g., in syllabus) for the student about what the learning experience will involve, clear expectations about time commitment, reflective component about knowledge and skills obtained, and with the intent to create more commitment to projects by students.
- Allows tracking of data of undergraduate researchers who do not enroll in courses for credit. This benefits faculty mentors by providing them with evidence of the quantity of mentoring they do this summer (for Tenure & Promotion documents, merit, mentorship awards, etc.) and students by providing transcript notation.
Are you thinking about unpaid service not directly linked to a course or curriculum? maybe it qualifies as volunteerism. Please see the Volunteer Service policy. If you have any questions contact the Office of Human Resources, Business Partners at 956-665-3814, and check out the website: Volunteer Application Form.