More students should take up research work after postgraduation, especially in streams such as psychology, said Apurva Varma, principal secretary, higher education department, on Thursday.

He was speaking at a two-day international conference on ‘Current perspectives in educational psychology,’ jointly organised by Tamil Nadu Open University and Women’s Christian College (WCC). “Educational psychology is an attempt to study the human mind. Students should be encouraged to do research in this stream,” said Varma.

Barbara Hanfstingl of Alpen-Adria Universitat, Austria, said unlike the study of psychology in western Europe where the stream is based on theories, psychology in India is mainly based on story-telling where the subject is designed as stories.

“There is a growing need to address emotional and psychological difficulties faced by students. It also remains a challenge to delegates to effectively empower themselves to manage the challenge,” said Chandrakantha Jeyabalan, vice-chancellor, Tamil Nadu Open University.

Ridling Margaret Waller, principal, WCC, said research shows nearly 10-15 per cent of children have difficulty learning and do not reach their maximum potential, one of the reasons being specific learning difficulty. The aim of the conference, she said, was to equip educationists and mental health professionals to identify and assess students with difficulties and provide effective modules for management.