Are you a college student looking for a relevant research topic to explore? Do you find it difficult to figure out what you would want to pursue given the limited time you need to prepare your thesis? This article is for you. Here is a list of 10 college research topics to explore.
The article below provides tips on how to come up with your research topic in addition to 10 college research topics that you might want to pursue as you begin to write your first research paper.
What is a good research topic?
One of the things that college students find difficult in the course of preparing their thesis is how to come up with good research topics to explore. The identification of a good research topic is actually one of the most challenging activities that college students have to face as they begin writing their first research paper.
What topics are considered to be research topics appropriate for college students? As a professor handling research subjects in the university, I start off with questions that guide students in the course of developing their research topics. Among the questions I ask are the following:
- What problems or needs in the communities around you can you help address using research as a tool?
- What current issues do you know that have arisen in the past few months that caught your attention?
- Is the research topic you intend to develop relevant to the course you are pursuing?
- Are you working on topics that are related to the research agenda set forth by the university or college?
These questions have time and again stimulated the students’ thinking in such a way that they have come up with new research topics relevant to their course. These questions also touch on students’ responsibility in helping their communities adapt to rapid changes brought forth by both man and nature; such as rapid urbanization and sophisticated technologies and climate change, respectively. These two things greatly influenced everyone’s lifestyle.
Recently, I synthesized four research agenda after consulting with stakeholders and taking note of the national research agenda as starting points. I list below ten of the topics identified by college students as I gave them the four research agenda to guide them along the way namely
- biodiversity conservation,
- disaster risk reduction,
- pollution prevention and mitigation, and
- research enhancement, administration, and publication.
10 Research Topics to Explore
Here are research topics that you might want to pursue in the course of developing your thesis requirement based on the agenda I mentioned a while ago. These consist of those topics thought out by students. I also incorporate my own set of topics based on conferences I attended as well as personal observations.
- Saltwater intrusion effects to the health of coastal communities
- Distribution and status of endemic birds in (name of place)
- Adaptation of coastal communities to sea level rise
- Addressing the externalities of oil pollution
- Factors affecting the publication performance of the faculty members in (university or college)
- The role of hygiene in preventing disease outbreaks
- Common diseases suffered by evacuees in disaster prone areas
- Household adaptation options to typhoons and related disasters
- Endemic plants with curative properties
- The economic value of island hopping as a tourist activity
These topics are just starting points. Along the way, while you review the literature, consult with experts, browse the internet, among others, your knowledge about these topics will expand. This will mean that you will be able to make refinements on the research topic you are interested in. It is also good practice to see how researchers approached the problem, i. e., what their methodologies are in answering the objectives of their study.
If the above topics are not enough or relevant to your course, or if you need more information on how to generate your research topic, the following articles will prove handy:
- How to generate your research topic
- Brainstorming to generate research ideas
- 5 ways on how to generate ideas even when you are not inspired
Do you have other research topics in mind based on the research agenda? Post them below and start a discussion.