This article is about the national project to gather together information about postgraduate education research (PER) in South Africa conducted over a ten-year period, namely 1995-2004, being the first decade in the democratic era for South Africa. The ideas informing the PER project are provided and the complex process of developing the PER database is discussed. Although it is too early to yield firm findings about the trends, the article offers a tentative first level of description about postgraduate education research.