International Research Opportunities Program (IROP)
Note to Faculty Mentors
The IROP faculty mentor helps students:
- Explore creative, research, or scholarly interests by refining their project and application materials, including the development of a timetable to ensure the project can be managed within the available time frame.
- Identify knowledge, experience, and skills (discipline-based, language, and cultural) required for the project, and develop a plan for acquiring these. The mentor should confirm that the student will have junior-level preparation in his/her major prior to conducting the proposed research.
- Locate a research site, arrange contact with a foreign mentor, and serve as the UNH/U.S. contact.
- Complete final reports and evaluations, and identify a forum for sharing the research experience with others in the discipline.
- Present their work at the October IROP Symposium for faculty, parents, students, and friends of IROP.
IROP requires ongoing communication between UNH and foreign mentors both in the preparation of the application and during the orientation and research stages. Informing students about appropriate research skills and making them aware of cultural differences that may influence the research process are integral parts of this guiding role. Faculty members may mentor up to two students each year.
Students may participate in faculty members' research. Students should not, however, serve merely as research assistants, but should be given a specific research problem to investigate on their own with the advice and assistance of their faculty mentors. Students should have the opportunity to participate in all aspects of professional research from the design and development of the project to the analysis and conclusions.
The primary responsibility for the IROP project remains, however, with the student. Students should make arrangements to review their applications with faculty mentors, and to deliver faculty recommendation documents to both their faculty mentors and other faculty recommenders. Faculty may then submit their letters of recommendation in sealed envelopes directly to the Undergraduate Research office, in Hood House 209, by the application deadline.
You may view the complete IROP application here.