In 2001, the Faculty of Education made considerable progress towards implementing its research vision and plan established at the end of the 2000 academic year. The platform for our goal of creating a world-class research Faculty lies in developing a broad base of research capacity and sharpening a small apex of outstanding scholars in education.

The first step in the plan was the implementation of the Young Scholars Development Programme (YSDP) which placed 18 new academics in the leading education research schools of the world for periods up to one year; such institutions included Michigan State, Harvard, Stanford, Sussex, and Yale. The second step was to bring renowned scholars to conduct teaching and training for academics and students in various fields of educational inquiry; such persons included Professors Richard Elmore (Harvard), Gordon Kirk (Edinburgh), Tjeerd Plomp (Twente), and Willy Wielemans (Leuven). The third step was to review the curriculum for training researchers, and this resulted in a series of advanced research modules, including a new doctoral programme which, in addition to a rigorous and full dissertation, required extensive theoretical and methodological training of all students. The fourth step was to introduce new research policies that scaled-up the demands for research students; for example, doctoral students are now required to appear for the full defense of not only the final dissertation but also the preliminary research proposal (with external evaluators) before they are allowed to do the fieldwork for their studies. The fifth step was to recruit onto the staffing establishment outstanding education scholars with world-wide reputations; the recruitment led to the appointments of, among others, Professor Catherine Odora Hoppers (an international expert in indigenous knowledge systems and education), Carol Coombe (an international expert on HIV/AIDS and Education), and Sarah Howie (a leading expert on assessment who directed the South African component of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study). The sixth step was to alter the research infrastructure to enable advanced studies in education to be undertaken with ease; strategies included the annual Post-Graduate Research Indaba, the newly designed Post-Graduate Research Centre, the weekly training sessions in educational research for new academics, and the research seminar series, as well as a range of other activities in search of that elusive 'culture of research' in academic institutions. The seventh step was to identify a small number of focus areas for the concentration of research investment in education; this exercise led to the identification of focus areas in Assessment Studies, HIV/AIDS and Education, and Studies in Educational Change. The results of renewed investment in research is bearing fruit in the form of 'first time' achievements for the Fzculty: two of the Young Scholars received visiting professorships at Yale University - one of them was also listed as Exceptional Achiever in Research at the University - and two doctoral students won the prestigious Mellon Scholarships.

In 2001 the Faculty also organized its research under two prominent research Centres. A proposal was made for the establishment of South Africa's only university-based Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) that will conduct advanced research, including longitudinal studies, in the area of learning achievement and programme evaluation. An international body of distinguished assessment and evaluation researchers has agreed to serve on the advisory Board of this research center. In addition, the Centre for Education Law and Policy (CELP) has moved its work from the production of valuable education law publications to the conduct of several national research studies including education law and HIV/AIDS in schools, education finance and school law, and the development of an inventory of education law 'cases'. Under the auspices of CELP, leading jurists and education law scholars from Europe and North America have joined the research and deliberations of the Centre in 2001.

Finally, one of the most exciting changes in the Faculty has been the growing demand for research services in 2001, including requests from national and provincial governments, the World Bank, UNESCO and a range of international agencies. Such opportunities enable the Faculty to both generate greater capacity through doctoral students and to mark the arrival of the Faculty of Education on the international research and development scene.