Research Productivity Through the Lens of Doctoral Guidance: A Study of Sanskrit Universities in India

Sanskrit, the voice of India’s soul and wisdom contains a vast repository of knowledge covering a wide spectrum. To what extent doctoral guidance in Sanskrit Universities have explored the multiple vistas remains un-investigated. The objectives included: (a) analysis of the quantum, trend in growth of doctoral theses in Sanskrit Universities; (b) Overview of the direction of doctoral research; (c) Finding out variance in research productivity between Single-Campus and Multi-Campus University; and (d) the impact of multi-topics guidance on the research productivity of guides. Following a longitudinal design, the dataset covered 1016 doctoral theses from two Sanskrit Universities spanning 2002-2016. In terms of topics, Sahitya was the most popular topic followed by Shikshashastra and Vyakarana. The coverage of topics and research productivity of the guides varied between the single and multiple campus Universities. The single-campus University had a higher per-capita productivity compared to the multi-campus. Guides who offered multi-topics guidance were 2-3 times more productive than guides who offered guidance in single topic. The Departments in Sanskrit Universities need to innovate in the way research is presently approached and carried out by them and explore the limitless opportunities that Sanskrit offers. The arena of doctoral guidance also needs to be revisited so that it gets its right orientation. The study has useful takeaways for the academic administrators.