In 1968, the Commonwealth Secretariat published a small booklet listing research programmes in the field of education then in progress at a number of Commonwealth universities. The response to this publication was sufficiently favourable for the Secretariat to be encouraged to publish a further volume on the same topic in 1969. The enthusiastic response to the 1969 volume made it apparent that such a publication should be a regular feature of the Education Division's information programme, and it was subsequently decided that a Register of on-going research programmes should be published biennially.