An evaluation between the research input and output of students’ research forum for social researches

Abstract

Today Research has become an essential phenomenon in the education, medical and commercial sectors. Accordingly, the Students’ Research Forum for Social Researches (SRF) is a registered Student’s Society which was formed under the Faculty of Islamic Studies and Arabic Language of The South Eastern University of Sri Lanka to promote and inculcate research culture among undergraduates and create them, good researchers. It executes under the vision of “Working as a research center for the best research in the country” and under the mission “Creating national and international level intellectuals with innovative thinking researchers”. To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, it organized many programs and research workshops among the students as input. Although, according to the observation of the researchers, the output is not enough to fulfill the intent of “Providing a platform for the publication of Research”. This research has been carried out with the objective of finding the correlation between the research input and output of Students’ Research Forum and identify the factors which influenced the following correlation state. This study is based on descriptive and qualitative methodologies. The data were collected by using primary and secondary data collection techniques. A questionnaire and discussion were used to collect the primary data. As secondary data; books, research articles, and documents from the internet were used. Charts and diagrams were developed through Google Sheet and prepared using MS Excel software. Finally, this study found that the research output is less than the input. The factors which influenced the following correlation state were, left in between the research sessions, lack of adequate background awareness on research, programs conducted by those who are experts in research, participation in workshops for the sake of attendance, and coverage issues. Hence, this research will be helpful for those who are going to take the responsibility of the Students’ Research Forum to evaluate its effectiveness and efficiency and lead it effectively.