Tertiary education outside the state university sector
Prof. J N Oleap Fernando
The two tertiary level programmes conducted by the College of
Chemical Sciences (CCS), (which is the educational arm of the Institute
of Chemistry Ceylon) over the past four decades have proved to be
typical examples of the type of tertiary education that can be provided
at low cost, without delay, efficiently, effectively and without the
constraining effects of state bureaucracy and political interference.
 The Graduateship Programme in Chemistry of the CCS today produces
annually well over 40 percent of Sri Lanka's Special Degree level
Chemists within a four year period at an average cost of about Rs 3
lakhs which surely must be the cheapest of any such programme in any
part of the world. With an average cost of well over Rs 1 million to
produce a similar graduate in the Sri Lankan University system, it
should be noted that the 822 Graduate Chemists produced by the CCS
through 29 batches (1983-2011) represent a human resource development (HRD)
which would have otherwise cost the national exchequer, well over one
billion rupees.
In addition to many Scholarships, Merit Bursaries and Need Bursaries,
Best Performer prizes are offered for every course which together with
numerous other awards, benefits and concessions provide a salutary
atmosphere and a good driving force for excellence in academic
performance. About 15 percent of the CCS student community of about 600
are concurrently following courses in state universities (including
Medical Faculties and Universities in the Provinces), which they usually
complete much later than ours.
Human resources development
Income generated from fees have been very carefully managed and
savings used not for individual benefits but towards enhancing the
quality and standard of the programmes and strengthening the necessary
infrastructure. Though the programme commenced operations in 1979
without any office, staff or a building, the Institute of Chemistry
Ceylon moved into their own premises in 2005 and now have a regular full
time staff of nearly 50. Library (air-conditioned) and other facilities
have been enhanced. Due to the difficulty and delay in obtaining an
additional piece of land nearby, CCS, after much delay, is about to
embark on a five storey building extension on the only available limited
space around Adamantane House.
Students can therefore expect more facilities and better services by
2013 when the extension is due to be completed. While savings are being
recycled in an extremely productive and useful manner, not a single
officer/official of the Institute/College has as yet gone overseas using
Institute funds. If only CCS had access to additional land at a
convenient place, we could have expanded further and made an even
greater contribution to Human Resources Development. CCS could then have
supplemented the insufficient and much more expensive production of
Graduate Chemists from conventional universities at a much lower cost in
larger numbers and faster.
Educational programmes
The service/need oriented, professionally based and non-mercenary
objectives and activities of the professional body of Chemists in Sri
Lanka can be well gauged by the fact that the very first formal
educational programme was at the technician level and remains, even
today after four decades, as the only such programme producing fully
fledged Chemistry technicians at the MLT level in Sri Lanka. That
programme which commenced in 1973 at Aquinas College was the first
priority of the Institute after incorporation in 1972 in order to meet a
much felt need at the middle level; the Institute did not levy any fee
even to issue the certificate of completion during the first decade of
the technician programme.
The College has also been able to strengthen the professional
activities of the Institute as a spin off result from the unforeseen
financial and academic success of its educational programmes. Training
seminars, quiz competitions, debating competitions, titration
competitions, exhibitions etc. have been conducted with increasing
regularity and professional competence. The interests of schoolchildren
have remained uppermost and multi-faceted activities have been conducted
to further their skills, abilities and knowledge. The Institute was also
able to play a crucial and important co-ordinating role during the
International Year of Chemistry (2011) as the National Secretariat with
the holding of two exhibitions and in many other ways with special focus
on schoolchildren and in other ways.
However, the incomes generated from the educational activities have
not been used for other Institute purposes for which alternate sources
of funds have usually been tapped. The several international conferences
held over the past have however been very successful and possible
largely due to the solid infrastructure and human resources now
available at all levels available within the Institute/College through
the conduct of its educational programmes. The Institute and the College
from the very inception fortunately got its fundamental priorities right
so that the CCS has been careful to ensure that funds generated from
educational activities were utilized essentially for furthering the
educational programmes with no profit making initiatives. The CCS is
therefore able to confidently go ahead with the proposed building
programme without serious financial problems. Educational programmes of
the Institute thus become the direct beneficiaries of these pragmatic
policies.
State sector
The very effective manner in which productively administered
educational programmes can perform a very useful and constructive
supporting role in HRD has been amply established through the academic,
financial, professional and social success of the educational programmes
of the CCS. It is a great pity that we note there is a general
resistance to the provision of similar alternate facilities outside the
state sector despite inadequate academic staff numbers in universities
and reluctance to increase salaries of senior academics to an attractive
level.
Recent events have unequivocally proved that the state university
system is clearly unable to expand any further except at great loss of
quality and efficiency. This has been well illustrated in the unplanned
expansion of state universities without planning and inadequate funds to
serve largely political ends. It is obvious that the quality and
equivalence of a university degree cannot be guaranteed merely through a
UGC circular that presently states that similar degrees awarded by any
university are equivalent to each other.
Knowledge hub
Therefore the government would do much better with greater
productivity and less expenditure if it recognizes and supports much
more alternate opportunities that could be made available outside the
bureaucratic and highly politicized state sector. Broad basing Tertiary
Chemical Education need not necessarily be profit oriented as it is
generally believed and expected to be.
Opening up educational opportunities outside the state university
sector in Sri Lanka, particularly through the non bureaucratic and non
politically oriented professional bodies, can in fact have a symbiotic
and synergetic effect as well. The College of Chemical Sciences of the
Institute of Chemistry Ceylon has convincingly proved how this could be
done in order to take Sri Lanka towards making it a knowledge hub in a
very practical and efficient manner. |
