Archives

by Professor Laksiri Fernando, Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies University of Colombo

Colombo University - centre for postgraduate education

There is an urgent need to strengthen and upgrade the formal postgraduate education in Sri Lanka to suit the changing circumstances of national and international trends. Otherwise, there is a great danger of not so reliable and purely profit-making agencies completely taking over the enterprise and doing an irreparable damage to the whole system of postgraduate education in the country.

First, the issues of postgraduate education need to be looked into within the broad framework of higher or the university education in general. There has been much talk about the reforms in higher or university education, but so far only little has been achieved in practical terms. Therefore, the gap between the higher education and the requirements of the country has widened day by day.

Importance

The importance of postgraduate education does not, however, arise merely because of the deficiencies or the weaknesses of undergraduate or general education. Postgraduate education is not at all a substitute to undergraduate education.

It is considerably a higher level of education and intellectual enterprise particularly with a focus on research and/or professional training in respective areas. However, the postgraduate education could fill some gaps or come to the rescue of lopsided undergraduate education when those deficiencies hamper the graduates in seeking employment or professional advancement.

The main rationale of postgraduate education is located elsewhere and not within the weaknesses of the existing undergraduate education. There is a particular dynamic in the development of human knowledge. It develops like in a spiral. Nonaka and Takeuchi called this 'the knowledge spiral'.

A particular feature of this spiral is its accumulation (of knowledge) throughout decades and centuries. This accumulated knowledge can be called the 'knowledge capital'. The level of the knowledge capital, which can undoubtedly be measured, is considerably important in the development of a country apart from the level of the fixed capital or the variable capital available at a particular time in social development.

The whole purpose of education, therefore, should be to develop, enrich and sustain this knowledge capital not only for the material but also for the cultural development of a country.

At the undergraduate level, it is increasingly becoming difficult to impart or acquire this accumulated knowledge or the methods of that acquisition given the sheer magnitude of the task.

This is one reason why a bachelor's degree is increasingly becoming a basic qualification worldwide. This does not necessarily mean that the quality of a bachelor's degree has decreased.

But it may mean that a mere bachelor's degree may not be sufficient for any meaningful professional career under the circumstances. A bachelor's degree may suffice in general terms to enter into a profession. But the progress in the profession and the contribution one could make to the enterprise whether it is industry, business, governance or education may depend largely on the postgraduate training or qualification that one acquires in the respective field.

There are other reasons why postgraduate education has become important. The expansion and universalisation of education itself has considerably propelled the situation. It is widely accepted that university education, mainly to mean both undergraduate and postgraduate education, should be expanded and popularised.

The developed countries target a 50 per cent of degree in the near future and some of the countries have already achieved that goal. It is regrettable that Sri Lanka is far behind this target even compared to some developing countries in the region. Only around 2 per cent of relevant age cohorts obtain admission to our universities and the bulk of them unfortunately get admitted to the dysfunctional fields due to the deficiencies in the school education.

Therefore, postgraduate education should be expanded along with the expansion of undergraduate education to be meaningful in the current international circumstances.

The difference

The exact difference between undergraduate education and postgraduate education is not easy to explain or qualify. Postgraduate education, like the term undergraduate education, is only a generic term. It comprises different gradations, and at least three main levels are prominent: postgraduate diplomas, masters and doctoral studies. The difference does not depend merely on the amount of knowledge that one acquires or the period that one spend on to obtain it.

The duration of a diploma or even a taught master course is usually shorter than the duration of an undergraduate course. But it is higher in quality and that quality is built on the basis of the knowledge that one acquires through undergraduate studies or equivalent education and experience.

This is one reason why graduates are encouraged to follow their postgraduate studies soon after their first degrees and otherwise it appears that the knowledge curve of many people tend to take a down turn as the time passes. It also appears that the knowledge acquired at the undergraduate level is not quite sustainable unless postgraduate training is obtained to nurture and nourish it.

It is a healthy tendency among new professionals particularly in the business sector to seek not only one but several postgraduate qualifications in diverse but interconnected fields. But all professionals are not graduates. Given the fact that only a small fraction of those who qualify to enter is in fact admitted to Sri Lankan universities it is generally accepted that the deserving people in this category should be given a chance to at least follow diplomas or short courses as a stepping stone to further studies.

In the fields of engineering, business or banking there are reasonable equivalent qualifications to merit admission to postgraduate studies. But this is not readily the case in science or social science fields unless proven research ability is established. Therefore, giving opportunity to a larger cohort should be balanced with maintaining high quality and excellence in postgraduate education.

There is a considerable difference between undergraduate and postgraduate education in terms of functions as well. The former is the first adult exposure to universal education in a specific field or combined fields of study.

The students are undoubtedly exposed to new knowledge in a given field. Of course they are also required to apply the acquired knowledge through elementary research, experimentation or practical exercises. At this level, however, the knowledge is mainly considered a matter of 'knowing about things'. But the scenario becomes substantially changed at the postgraduate level especially leading to M. Phil or Ph.D.

The focus of postgraduate education becomes more and more directed towards methodology or methodologies than on information. The meaning of knowledge becomes more profound to mean not only 'knowing about things' but more specifically 'knowing about how to know about things.'

The interpretation of knowledge has dramatically changed today to mean the methods and means of knowledge than the facts or information. This new interpretation might be introduced at the undergraduate level, but it could fully be grasped only at the postgraduate level.

Purposes

The main purpose of postgraduate education, therefore, is to make the students sufficiently equipped with the methodologies of knowledge acquisition in respective areas. It is to practise and check the grasp of these methodologies in practical terms that research degrees are particularly designed. Therefore, postgraduate education becomes a major contribution to the development of knowledge or the knowledge capital of a country.

At the undergraduate level the students, by and larger are 'consumers of knowledge'. But at the postgraduate level, they should be 'producers of knowledge' as well. Otherwise, the whole purpose of postgraduate education is lost. The investment in postgraduate education should be considered an investment in R & D required for overall development of a country.

This is something Sri Lanka has not grasped fully at present. That is why solely the demand driven proliferation of postgraduate studies are allowed to flourish instead of planned efforts to address deeper and longer term needs of the country.

There are other or soft purposes of postgraduate education as mentioned earlier. Considering the vast magnitude of knowledge capital in the world today, the undergraduate education cannot cope with all the tasks of higher education. Some areas and aspects are naturally left for postgraduate studies.

For example, and undergraduate in management or political science may study the basic theories and practices of public administration. But it is more likely that only the history and institutional settings of public administration are taught. Such knowledge may be sufficient along with knowledge on other subjects to be recruited to the public service in some way or the other.

But does that undergraduate knowledge sufficient for a public servant to become an effective policy maker or an implementer under modern circumstances or challenges? It is also the practice of all governments, for rational reasons, to recruit public servants from different backgrounds of undergraduate studies. Some may join without any knowledge of public administration as such. Of course there are possibilities of acquiring knowledge through practice and short-term in-service training.

But, for example, a postgraduate diploma or a master in public administration is designed particularly to cater to the needs, knowledge, requirements and skills of higher-level public administrators. This is not available at undergraduate level at all. Postgraduate courses in professional studies whether in business, sciences, public policy or technical areas are, therefore, designed to address more and more interrelated mixture of theoretical and practical issues.

The above examples about public administration is applicable to all types of professions and vocations from business to scientific studies. There are of course special courses in undergraduate studies in broad areas of academic disciplines. But postgraduate courses by definition are some specialised in scope (but interdisciplinary in approach) giving attention to required and demanding fields of research and study necessary for country's development both in material and cultural terms.

Last but not least are the importance and the need of postgraduate education in terms of continuing education.

The rapid change in knowledge is the order of the day in every field of study. There are major paradigm changes in many fields of study currently under way due to and/or parallel to the revolutions in information technology and genetic engineering. The knowledge that an undergraduate acquires this year may become somewhat obsolete in two years time. Therefore, postgraduate courses in many universities and institutions are geared to the upgrading and updating of knowledge in specific fields.

www.ppilk.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager