BCUR 2024 - Info, FAQs and workshops

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was delighted to host this year’s British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR). This gathering of undergraduate researchers from across the United Kingdom aligns with the School’s founding vision to understand the cause of things for the betterment of society as well as our commitment to ensuring a research-rich education for all our students.

About the BCUR 

The BCUR is an annual event dedicated to showcasing and celebrating undergraduate research in the UK and encouraging and aiding students in their explorations across all disciplines. The event, which is held every spring, provides a forum for students to share their research through posters, presentations, workshops and performances.  

A call for abstracts is published in the autumn, inviting undergraduate applicants from all levels across UK universities. The abstracts are peer-reviewed by qualified academics in the field and selected delegates are invited to present at the conference. Universities often provide financial support to assist their students in attending the conference.  

BCUR 2024 at LSE 

After a highly successful conference at Warwick University in 2023, LSE was proud to host this year’s BCUR, the first London-based university to host the event. The conference, which took place on 25 and 26 April 2024 at the LSE campus in central London, welcomed up to 350 undergraduate delegates and UK HE colleagues. It provided students from across the UK an opportunity to showcase their research, receive feedback from peers, find out about cutting edge research in a wide range of disciplines and hear keynotes from academic experts as well as experienced researchers and experts in the communication of research to the broader public. 

Useful workshops for students

• To support students in effective abstract writing, we held an online workshop on Thursday 7 December facilitated by our colleagues at LSE LIFE. Students from any UK HE institution were able to attend. This workshop was recorded, and subsequently posted on our LSE Eden Centre YouTube channel shortly. You can view the video here.
• We facilitated an online presentation workshop on Thursday 21 March for registered BCUR2024 delegates. This workshop was run by our colleagues from LSE LIFE, an organisation within LSE that provides resources and technical support for LSE students. It aimed to equip students with skills to excel in their presentations at the conference. We had a Q&A session at the end to answer any questions from you. The presentation workshop was not compulsory for BCUR delegates. This recording was shared with registered delegates.

 Presentation format

We have three ways of presenting your research at BCUR 2024: Oral Presentation, Poster Exhibition, and Performance. 

• Oral Presentation: a 15-minute presentation of your original research. You are welcome to use slides during your presentation if you wish, but this is not compulsory. For each panel session at the conference, there will be 3 presenters allocated to each room with a 15-minute Q&A session at the end.
• Poster Exhibition: a flash talk presentation accompanied by a poster. There will be a specific time slot for the poster exhibition during the conference days where you could discuss your posters with conference attendees. We will print out your posters and display them in our exhibition hall.
• Performance: a 15-minute original artistic expression of your academic research. The performance can be done via spoken word, poetry, dance, music, and multi-media tools. This is to encourage creativity within our undergraduate community and can be performed live or pre-recorded and played at the conference if necessary.