In recent months, with the pandemic still impacting our ability to conduct research, there have been many discussions about the expectation that seniors submit capstone projects this academic year. The capstone has been a cornerstone of the NYU Abu Dhabi education since its inception, yet many students feel that the pandemic has affected their ability to conduct rigorous research due to limited access to labs, difficulty obtaining necessary resources and heightened stress and anxiety — among other concerns.

The discussion about the mandatory nature of capstone is not new. Throughout my time at NYUAD, students have time and again raised the issue with the administration and suggested that the capstone system should be modified. Many students argue that the capstone project does not necessarily make them better prepared for the careers they would like to pursue and that they could be using the time they spend on capstone developing other skills that are more relevant to their professional trajectories.

The pandemic notwithstanding, the capstone as a mandatory aspect of our education makes our degrees more valuable and gives prestige to NYUAD’s name, something a young university like ours needs. My contention, nonetheless, is that the capstone project, as it stands, requires that we revisit its structure and expectations such that it is more accomodating of students’ diverse interests and aspirations.

I believe that the capstone should become a more flexible pursuit, and the pandemic could perhaps push us to think more critically about the goal of the capstone project. With the limitations that the pandemic is presenting us, students and professors are being pushed to think about the essence of the capstone project — what makes a capstone, a capstone? What is the core learning outcome of the project? If, for example, a History major cannot travel to access archives, then what makes a history capstone if not archival research? What flexibility means will vary from one major to another, and it’s hard to generalize. But the scope for interdisciplinary collaboration may be necessary, nonetheless.

In addition, capstone projects and expectations vary greatly across majors and divisions creating an imbalance of labor. For example, humanities capstones tend to be 60 to 80 pages long and are often quite independent from the faculty mentor’s own research; meanwhile in the sciences, students often work on an already-running research project at their mentor’s lab. This means that science students need to do less independent research. This isn’t to say that science capstones are easier; science students still spend a lot of time and energy in the lab, but the nature of the labor involved is very different.

And even within divisions, some students are held to a higher standard than others, depending on who their mentor is and who their second and third readers are. Hence, there seems to be an urgent need for standardization both within and across divisions in order to make the process fairer. A good example of what might be helpful to implement is Swarthmore’s Honors program: part of the students’ evaluation is conducted by external examiners who independently evaluate students’ work, hence reducing the disparities that students feel.

More often than not, NYUAD — for good reason — is compared to Ivy League universities and other prestigious liberal arts colleges in the U.S. such as Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Williams, Swarthmore and other elite institutions. There are many ways that NYUAD is modeled after these institutions, including the low faculty-to-student ratio, the core curriculum, the small seminar classes and the focus on undergraduate research. What this often constitutes, in addition to research funding for undergraduates and an environment conducive to independent inquiry, is writing a senior thesis, or capstone, as a conclusion to the four years of learning students underwent in college.

In the American higher education system, the senior thesis differs in execution in two ways. At some institutions, it is mandatory for all students, as is the case at Princeton, Barnard and, of course, NYUAD. At other institutions however, the capstone – sometimes referred to as senior thesis – is optional, and if students choose to write one, they are usually awarded their degree “with Honors,” as is the case with colleges such as Williams, Swarthmore and Stanford.

From this brief overview, it’s clear that senior theses are not central to prestigious universities’ curricula. Yet it is important to note that pursuing an independent research project over an extended period of time helps students develop skills such as time management and critical thinking that are useful in a variety of settings, including nonacademic ones. Furthermore, NYUAD does not have the hundreds-year long legacy of institutions it is often compared to; I therefore think that having the capstone project be a defining factor of the NYUAD education may help dispel some doubts about NYUAD’s rigor.

As the capstone project stands, however, some students are not able to individualize projects due to the stringent requirements imposed by the curriculum and are given wildly different expectations for completion. In addition, even though the capstone is marketed as a learning experience, many students not only never return to or draw upon their capstone work, but also don’t feel proud of it — and that’s a shame.

Today, the Economics capstone project takes the form of a research paper based on either existing data or data collected by the student. However, some students are majoring in Economics because they would like to work in consulting, banking or business, or they would like to open their own businesses. Could there then be a way to present students with the option of doing a more practical “capstone” such that it’s more of a final year project? I speak as an outsider to the field, but it is important to consider if a capstone-as-research-paper should perhaps not be the only option available to students.

We should take the pandemic to be an opportunity to reevaluate what we want out of capstone. While making capstone optional may not be the way to go, adjusting expectations not just in the short-term due to the pandemic, but also in the long-term, is imperative.