Use the experts’ research
Universities in the UK want to be able to keep research on the internet and allow people to read and search though it for free.
At the moment, you can usually see this research in journals (printed or online) related to a particular topic of study, like nanotechnology or media, which you have to subscribe to in order to access them.
It’s their hope that other academics (studying at university) will be able to find more information and then go on to reference their work, which allows the people who published the original research to claim more funding.
The universities believe that sharing this knowledge with the public is very important.
But what does this mean for you?
Researching new ideas and explanations
If you want to research really deep things on the Internet, which you will usually do at A-Level rather than GCSE, looking at dissertations or the odd thesis is often a really great idea. That’s because these people are experts in what they’re writing, and will have been working on it for ages and ages.
Having access to fresh ideas opens your mind and gives you great experience for later, when you might need to judge new theories quickly and be very critical about it.
These kind of documents are excellent to quote in coursework because they show you are really switched on and know what you are talking about, plus they might even give you new ideas for what to write in some parts of your coursework.
Overall, they’re just a great help to research, and the sooner this happens the better.