The Student's
Research Companion
The Purpose-driven Journey of Scientific Entrepreneurs
Omid Aschari & Benjamin Berghaus
Oxford University Press · 2023 · ISBN 978-0-19-285531-2
5
Phases
50
Mindsets
10
Expert voices
349
Pages
From obligatory project
to a first genuine enterprise
Each year around 50 million students worldwide complete a final academic project — thesis, dissertation, capstone. Most experience it as a burdensome obligation at the end of long years of study. It does not have to be this way.
The book reframes the final project: not as an exam to be passed, but as a first genuine scientific enterprise. At the centre is the concept of the scientific entrepreneur — a person who uses research deliberately to help an audience solve a problem.
The book is not a methodology book. It addresses what methodology books are silent about: attitude, frustration, curiosity, self-responsibility — and the question of why all this matters in the first place.
Publication
The Student's Research Companion
Omid Aschari & Benjamin Berghaus
Oxford University Press, 2023.
349 pages · 5 phases · 50 mindsets
ISBN
978-0-19-285531-2
DOI
10.1093/oso/9780192855312.001.0001
Companion website
brghs.de/companion →„Writing is discovering. This book is no exception."
— From the preface
Where are you right now?
The book accompanies the final project from start to long after submission — in five phases. Choose your phase and find out what awaits you there.
For students. And for those who accompany them.
For students
The final project as an opportunity, not a burden.
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The project is not an exam to be passed. It is the first genuine scientific enterprise — and thus the beginning of everything that comes after.
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50 mindsets address concrete challenges: from the first writing block to the question of what completion actually means.
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Not a recipe, but a conversation partner — opened where it is needed right now.
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The book replaces no methodology. It addresses what methodology books are silent about: attitude, frustration, curiosity, responsibility.
For supervisors
Supervision as academic mentoring — and the little-discussed challenge that comes with it.
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Hardly any university systematically trains supervisors. The book wants to close this gap — not with rules, but with reflection.
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Every chapter contains an "Experienced peers' two cents" section: voices from 10 mentors from around the world.
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The book encourages rethinking one's own role — from administrator to fostering companion.
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Goal: supervision moments emerge that fully exploit the potential of the final project as a learning experience.
Ten mindsets from fifty
Each of the 50 chapters bears a title that simultaneously names both an attitude and a challenge — an invitation to open the book where it is needed right now.
Relevance follows audience
The purposeful scientific entrepreneur
Renewable research energy
Why even bother?
Frustration is a fuzzy teacher
Relaxation as a research methodology
Fear of writing
Be kind to yourself
Feedback eats grades for breakfast
Share the fire
From the introductory chapter
Companion site
All 50 mindsets, 11 mentor voices, and the research findings
The full companion site for the book — all five phases in detail, the mentors' perspectives, and the findings from two student research projects.
Aschari, Omid, and Benjamin Berghaus. 2023. The Student's Research Companion: The Purpose-driven Journey of Scientific Entrepreneurs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DOI
10.1093/oso/9780192855312.001.0001
ISBN
978-0-19-285531-2
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