The campus strongly supports and encourages the integration of research, student learning, and service. A very prominent example is the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. It is presented by the UC Davis Foundation to a member of the faculty in the belief that excellence in undergraduate teaching combined with distinguished scholarly achievement sets great universities apart from good universities. In addition, other links give additional examples of recognition for outstanding teaching by faculty and graduate student scholars. Academic federation members, who make extraordinary contributions to undergraduate instruction, are also encouraged to contribute to the scholarly life of the campus.

However, the centerpiece of the linkage is the seamless integration of teaching, learning, and research in the academic lives of undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. Many research projects, especially in the experimental sciences, will find scholars at all those levels collaborating on the same project.

A large number of undergraduates are involved in research through research courses, senior theses, internships, and paid work. Statistics on this involvement and on students reactions to it are documented in SARI studies.

The linkage between student learning and community service is often established through internships. At UC Davis, internships are sponsored through the Internship and Career Center (ICC), which has a faculty Director. Considered an academic support unit rather than a student services unit, the ICC reports directly to the Vice Provost Undergraduate Studies and and indirectly to the Vice Chancellor Student Affairs.

There are three levels of internship that vary in terms of their academic rigour. At the lowest level are internships that do not carry academic responsibilities. At the intermediate level are internships that carry transcript notation written certification of that the student has met certain requirements in the course of completing the internship. These requirements include working under the guidance of an experienced mentor, identifying specific learning objectives, and mutual evaluation and feedback. At the highest level of rigor are courses with the 92 and 192 designations. Widely distributed across campus, these combine work in the internship setting with specific academic requirements. Depending on such factors as time commitment and additional academic requirements, students can earn up to 12 units for graduation. The Internship and Career Center places approximately 6,000 interns annually. Roughly 80% of these internships involve service by the Human Corps definition.

Two particularly noteworthy programs are the Human Corps and the Washington Center. Often freshman seminars and Davis Honors challenge courses are structured along research lines. Many research opportunities for undergraduates are in the listed links.

There are several awards for undergraduate research including the Chancellor's Award.

Each year the Undergraduate Research Conference is held in April.

For Ph.D. candidates, research is the primary focus of their UC Davis experience. The key requirement for the degree is the Ph.D. thesis, which is an original scholarly work. Our faculty take graduate student mentoring in research as well as preparing graduate student teaching assistants for their future in the classroom very seriously. In addition, many graduate students participate formally in TA training and programs like Professors-for-the future.

Since the integration of research and undergraduate education is a topic of our educational effectiveness review, we will have much more to say about it there.

Internships: Service, learning, and research

In Psychology alone somewhere on the order of 120 students annually complete PSC 192. In this course, advanced students relate experiences in the field to research and theory in the field of psychology and then compare their actual experiences with expectations based on their coursework and outside readings. Almost all of these internships involve service: students work in schools, domestic violence shelters, prisons, homes with autistic children, police departments, and psychiatric facilities of all types. Some of these internships do not involve service the way we normally think of it (for example, working in the human relations department of a large high tech firm) but the service component is the rule, rather than the exception.