307education, and the focus was mainly on issues related to school education. Higher
education has only a peripheral reference in their research and training activities.
Another development which helped research on higher education was special
research programmes and funding support extended by different ministries and their
agencies. The National Policy on Education 1986 and the Programme of Action
recommended for providing special assistance schemes to departments for promot-
ing research. The education departments in some of the universities were provided
special assistance under three different categories, namely, Department Research
Support, Department of Special Assistance and Centre of Advanced Studies. Further,
the University Grants Commission sets up interdisciplinary research centres for
Sociology of Education and Economics of Education in Bombay University. The
institutional expansion was further supported by ICSSR when it sponsored research
programmes at the Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore; Madras
Institute of Developmental Studies; the Centre of Social Studies, Surat; Sardar Patel
Institute of Economic and Social Research, Ahmedabad; and AN Sinha Institute of
Social Studies, Patna. These interventions helped in expanding research base in
education and in higher education in India.
A major share of the research in the education departments of universities
focussed on pedagogical dimensions and that too at the school level. It can be argued
that education departments of the universities devoted a major share of time and
effort on issues related to teacher development at the school level – mostly second-
ary level of education. The research carried out in these departments was also peda-
gogical and practice based in nature. These departments seldom focussed on
research on issues related to higher education. The research in the research institu-
tions, very often, focussed on higher education. Needless to add, the emphasis was
not on pedagogical issues but on higher education in its relation to social and eco-
nomic development.
Another dimension of educational research in India was the development of
research capacities – academic competencies and research training. Since education
researchers were limited in number and education was not an attractive area except
for teacher training programmes, provisions for higher studies and research degrees
in education were rather limited. From the 1950s several agencies, notably the
British Council, provided scholarships and financial support to many Indian schol-
ars to pursue their studies in education in the universities of the UK. On their return,
many of these scholars joined teaching profession, and they formed the leading
groups in teaching and research in education in India. This gave a strong research
basis too education departments and an intellectual basis for educational research
in India.
The expansion of research facilities and the number of research activities carried
out by institutions in India are impressive. At present more than 150 universities and
several research institutions are engaged in educational research, and they together
produced more than 80,000 theses and project reports (Rani et al. 2012 ). According
to the UGC sources (UGC 2014 ), the universities in India awarded 757 research
degrees (M. Phil) and 813 advanced research degrees – doctoral degrees (Ph. D) in
- These do not imply that research on higher education was a major focus of the
17 Education Research and Emergence of Higher Education as a Field of Study in India