The research component of your semester takes you inside the world of community improvement as you explore an issue that particularly interests you. Under the guidance of your professor, you use London, UK, as a resource laboratory to gather data from interviews with social innovators and policy makers. Your sources will be both primary and secondary. Primary sources can include interviews with experts in community development, affordable housing, and other related areas; secondary sources can include studies of active community programs, current news articles and court reports, legal and congressional proceedings, and the Library of Congress. London offers unparalleled opportunities for compiling the most up-to-date facts.

Whether or not you design your research project topic and methodology with guidance from an instructor at your home school, when you arrive in London, a member of the London University faculty works with you in refining your topic and providing advice and feedback at various stages of your project. Of course, you have full access to the university’s computer labs and library to help you complete your paper. The research project is your opportunity explore an issue in transforming communities at a level of scrutiny only UK can offer. You become an expert in the topic you choose to research.