Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

The organization and financing of research 769
research institutes, schools and scientific bodies throughout the country and to sponsor
systematic investigation in new branches of learning or where work has been neglected
by lack of financial support.
The CSIC is a federation of research institutes which has developed some of the
attributes of the Academies of Eastern Europe. The independent institutes
include such bodies as the Instituto Nacional de Psicologia Aplicada y Psico-
tecnia. The Planning Commission and the National Council for Productivity
now sponsor social research of various kinds as do a number of industrial
undertakings.
16. Overall R & D expenditure in Spain is 0.9% of the net state budget and
0.02 % of GNP. The CSIC has a qualified research staff of 775 in the sciences of
man. How many of these are employed in empirical social research as distinct
from humanistic studies is unknown but the proportion is likely to be consider-
able. Overlapping elites concerned with industrial expansion and economic
growth and aware that these have social implications have provided the leader-
ship for these developments in spite of political restrictions. Perhaps the fact
that old Spain is on the move wil do something to assist the Spanish speaking
countries of the new world to lose the image of their ‘reference culture’ as being
inherently pre-industrial and semi-feudal, change-avoidant and averse to the
scientific spirit.
India as a large reference country for Asia
17. No material at all was received from a number of Asian countries. That
received from others was fragmentary except for India. For India several reports
were available including one specially prepared for the present study by the
former UNESCO Research Centre on Social and Economic Development in
Southern Asia. I Io From these documents and personal communications made
by both Indian and foreign social scientists it has been possible to construct an
outline picture of the organization and financing of social research in the sub-
continent.9’ India is developing a role as a scientific ‘reference country’ for
Asia. Apart from Japan, it is likely to be the first major society outside Europe
and North America to achieve extensive capability in the social sciences.
18. There were 55 universities in India in 1963 with over a million students
and 63,000 teachers, of whom 14% were professors. Universities are statutory
bodies empowered to award nationally recognized degrees. Most of them are
of the ‘teaching and affiliating’ type, comprising central departments responsible
for post-graduate training and research and affiliated ‘colleges’ responsible for
undergraduate preparation. The central departments are responsible for exami-
nations. Between them and the affiliated colleges there is little interchange of
staff. Some 90% of Indian undergraduates study in roughly 1,000 affiliated
colleges scattered throughout the country.
19. University funds are provided by annual grants from either the central
or the state governments. Central funds are distributed through the agency of a
University Grants Committee modelled after the British body. About a fifth
of total public expenditure on higher education in India is provided by the
UGC (1960-61). Of this over one third goes to four ‘central’ universities. Many