Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: The Adventure of Doing Research

Abstract

This chapter elaborates on the way that the Maastricht Research-Based Learning (MaRBLe) projects are organised at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, an essentially interdisciplinary faculty that combines social and political sciences with humanities. The projects in this faculty all take real-life problems as a point of departure, which can only be solved in an interdisciplinary way. They all aim at making the students realise that they work for an outside audience. On the one hand, the students follow the full research cycle and aim to produce new (academic) knowledge culminating in a publication. On the other hand, most projects have external partners that are interested in the results and are present at the student presentations. Both elements create a challenging atmosphere which is stimulating and scary at the same time. We found that this challenge will be met successfully only if the project groups are turned into a real academic community. This was accomplished in a variety of ways. Students reflected on each other’s work during a constant process of peer reviewing, reflecting on literature, sharing sources and discussing research designs. Selection potentially played a more controversial role. In a good academic community, members trust each other’s capacities. The project coordinators felt that selecting the top 25% students was essential in facilitating this sense of mutual trust. As the MaRBLe projects are part of the excellence programme set up by the Ministry of Education, this chapter also reflects on the question what excellence is.