Harvard's Graduate School of Education (GSE) has been awarded a $2 million grant to provide financial aid to students in doctoral degree programs.

The GSE is one of nine education schools nationwide to receive a total of $11.25 million in Research Training Grants from the Spencer Foundation, a Chicago-based philanthropic organization.

The Spencer Foundation has contributed more than $100 million toward educational research since its inception in 1971.

The amount of each school's grant was determined by the size of the student population affected, according to a news release. The GSE received the largest of the nine grants.

"We hope our grants mark the beginning of a renewed national commitment to training a new generation of educational researchers," said Patricia Albjerg Graham, president of the foundation.

According to the release, over the past ten years, the federal government has reduced its support for educational research by nearly 90 percent.

"Improving education depends heavily upon developing new ideas that work," said Graham. "We need a new generation of researchers who can undertake this formidable challenge."

"If we do not continuously train new scholars, there will be a dearth of qualified experts in the near future," Graham added.

All nine schools receiving grants will attempt to broaden the grants' impact beyond the students directly sponsored, the release said.

"Each university will experiment with a model tailored to its own needs," the Foundation said in the release.

Other recipients of the Research Training Grants are the University of California at Los Angeles, $1.9 million; the University of Michigan, $1.2 million; the University of Wisconsin-Madison, $1.2 million; Michigan State University, $1 million; Teachers College, Columbia University, $1 million; the University of California at Berkeley, $1 million; the University of Pennsylvania, $1 million; and Stanford University, $900,000.