RESEARCH IN HIGHER EDUCATION

With the emergence of the knowledge-based economy, countries worldwide are facing immense pressure and an increasing demand to strengthen their research and knowledge production capabilities. This has often implicated the need to review the role and current priorities of higher education in supporting the social-economic development of nations. Research today constitutes a very important facet of higher education. Over the recent years there has been an increasing need to bring teaching and research closer together, the majority of regulatory and accrediting bodies are including clear standards and requirements in relation to research expectations from institutions of higher education granting graduate degrees in particular, whether in relation to having clear research strategies and plans in place or by ensuring faculty and student engagement in research and scholarly activities and providing adequate resources and support to encourage such engagement . Furthermore, institutions have been encouraged to embed research within their graduate curricula and align their research activities to their purpose and society’s overall needs. Thus, Higher education institutions (HEIs) role have been typically associated with three major functions: Research and scholarly activities, instruction, and community engagement. Research and scholarly activities simply refers to the process of generating knowledge; the knowledge generated through research then needs to be disseminated through the process called instruction.