303learning is also a growing area which is accounted by 20.7% of the centres and
institutions. Many of the institutions provide technical support for teaching in the
institutions affiliated to them. However, a smaller number of institutions are also
engaged in research in teaching and learning with the objective of expanding the
scholarship of teaching and learning.
The focus of programmes of study in the USA is heavily loaded in favour of
administration and management (99.5% of the programmes) and student identity,
diversity and multiculturalism (67.7% of the programmes). While the former is
common among study programmes in other countries, the focus on student affairs is
relatively weak in other countries. It seems there are 280 journals and publications
in higher education in 35 languages. Of this 190 are in English followed by 27 in
Chinese, 26 in Japanese and 15 in Spanish. Nearly 101 journals are published from
the USA followed by the UK (34) and 27 each in China and Japan.
Overall, the USA, China, the UK and Japan dominate the scene in terms of host-
ing higher education research centres, offering study programmes and bringing out
higher education journals and publications. In other words, higher education and
research remain a domain dominated by the developed countries with limited con-
tribution from developing countries. The unfortunate part is also that higher educa-
tion as a field of study is relatively underdeveloped in developing countries with
large systems of higher education (Rumbley et al. 2014 ).
Education Research and Emergence of Higher Education
as a Field of Study in India
With more than 750 universities, nearly 40,000 colleges, 1.6 million teachers and 34
million students, India has the second largest higher education system in the world.
With a gross enrolment ratio of only 23. 6%, it is still at an early stage of massifica-
tion (MHRD 2015 ), and its potential to grow further is higher than that in many
other countries. While state funding and expansion through public institutions char-
acterized the strategy of development of higher education in the previous century,
private institutions and household funding characterize the fast growth and expan-
sion of the sector in the present century (Varghese 2015 ). The fast expansion of
higher education accompanied by different forms of diversities and persisting
inequalities poses challenges to govern the system. In fact, these complexities war-
rant in-depth analysis and deeper understanding of the sector to govern it
effectively.
India emphasized on the development of higher education and research. The first
major committee appointed by the newly independent country in 1948 was on
higher education. The Indian higher education sector at that point of time was very
small catering to the elites only. The Committees and Commissions on higher edu-
cation in India implicitly wanted to maintain the elite character of higher education.
Very often than not, their focus was more on quality of research and teaching than
on expanding access (Mathew 2016 ). More importantly, the Committees and
17 Education Research and Emergence of Higher Education as a Field of Study in India