Development of Human Resources in Science and Technology

Vidya Nidhi Professor Lakshman DISSANAYAKE

This article is published to mark the 10th anniversary of the Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya

BASIC SCIENCES: Science is the shared heritage of all mankind. The basic sciences, applied sciences and technology form a continuam. The basic sciences - physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics - play a fundamental role in modern society.

It is through a deeper understanding of nature that mankind has learnt how to derive the greatest benefits from it - for good and for bad.

Importance of basic scientific research

Technological development and science are linked together in a complex manner, not only in a pure scientific or intellectual sense, but also through the scientific and technological awareness needed by the society as such.

Thus, a technological development of a country is dependent to a large extent on society's readiness for it, and this in turn depends on the ability of teaching institutions to transfer scientific knowledge to the society.

The Universities and research institutions therefore, have an important role to play in the development of human resources in science and technology related disciplines.

This implies that, at university level, academics should not only follow and understand the latest developments in science and technology and disseminate such knowledge to the society, but also through engaging in research, they must be able to teach scientific methodologies and approaches to the younger generation.

In this respect, developing endogenous research capacity in basic scientific disciplines is extremely important for any nation.

Technology needed for the national development of a country is becoming increasingly more and more scientific in nature, and more and more complex. This demands the need for more people with advanced scientific knowledge and training.

Such a scientifically trained pool of human resources is needed by any country, not only to develop and master any endogenous technology needed for national development but also to adapt control and utilize any imported technology.

In the long-run, science education of good quality and standard cannot be maintained in any country without linking it to scientific research. This is equally true for developed as well as developing countries.

In order to develop and sustain a research activity in science at national level, a country should have at least a critical number of well trained scientists and technologists and basic infrastructure facilities for research.

This "scientific platform" is needed in order to educate and train a sufficient number of scientists locally and to sustain the in-country base for scientific research.

The greatest significance of basic scientific research is that it provides a multipurpose general knowledge base on which a wide-range of scientific and technological services could be built.

Every country, without any exception. requires such a base, even if only on a very small scale. Without this, it will not be possible to achieve any independent long-term socii-economic development in a country.

Role of the universities and postgraduate institutes

In Sri Lanka, the universities mostly cater to undergraduate teaching and due to the extremely competitive nature of our university admissions, universities are burdened with admitting an increased number of students every year for their undergraduate programmes.

As a result, even the few very good research scientists in our university system are not only faced with problems of non-availability of research equipment, grants and other infrastructure facilities and strict administrative procedures, but also over-burdened with teaching and administrative obligations.

Lack of incentives for research in the university system has posed a great danger for developing research activity and training the younger generation of students.

All these factors will have detrimental, long-term consequences for developing the much needed platform of indigenous scientific research in the country, which is an essential pre-requisite for the long-term economic development.

In order to obtain the maximum benefit from the handful of active researchers in our university system, they should be given a lesser undergraduate teaching load, and provide facilities, research grants and other incentives for engaging in research work and training younger scientists.

The postgraduate institutes in Sri Lanka at present cater largely for training postgraduates at M.Sc. level in various specialties. At our postgraduate institutes, very few postgraduate level research scientists (at M.Phi./Ph.D. level) are trained.

This is largely due to the heavy infrastructure investments needed to set up well equipped, modern research laboratories needed for carrying out meaningful research and the lack of full-time senior research staff.

As a long term solution to this problem, fully equipped research laboratories with a permanent core cadre of senior researchers should be provided to each science based postgraduate institute in the country.

The non-availability of suitable employment even for the limited number of M.Phi./Ph.D research scientists is another problem that Sri Lanka faces at present.

However, when the "Research and Development (R & D)" phase, which is an essential prerequisite for industrialization and economic development emerges, not only these trained research scientists can easily be employed but more and more persons trained in scientific research and R & D work would be needed.

Reversing the brain-drain

A considerable number of bright, young university graduates with good academic standing who are passing out from science based faculties join foreign universities for their masters and doctoral studies. The tragedy is that most of them do not return after completing their studies.

This situation has worsened during the last two decades. A scheme should be set up by the government to get these trained scientists to return home and contribute to our national development.

Housing, schools for children, research grants to work in the universities, postgraduate institutes, research institutes and in industry can be a part of the package to attract these scientists.

South Korea and India have been very successful in launching such schemes for expatriate scientists by "reversing" the brain-drain and deriving the benefits for the country's economic development.

Strengthening the local postgraduate training programmes in science and technology related disciplines is another way of reducing the brian-drain.

Research facilities, postgraduate level scholarships (similar to Mahapola scholarships given to undergraduate students), research grants to senior academic who train younger researchers at M.Phil./Ph.D. level should be provided by the government.

At present the undergraduate education in Sri Lanka is more than 100% subsidized by the government while the postgraduate education in scientific disciplines is subsidized to a much lesser extent.

Reversing the brian-drain requires more than strengthening the local postgraduate programmes. It also demands the improvement of the working conditions of local scientists and providing other rewards and incentives that will encourage young researchers and academics to remain in the country.

Science and technology for national development

Investing in in-country human resources development in science and technology is important in several aspects. It reduces the cost of training compared to sending persons for overseas training.

The training received locally is generally more relevant to country's national needs. It reduces the brain-drain of bright young people. It helps to develop the in-country knowledge base which is vital for a sustained R & D work and commercialization of products and services.

However, building such postgraduate training programmes with necessary local infrastructure and scientific networks takes a considerable time, but it will be a worthy and essential long-term investment.

Several developing countries, including Sri Lanka have been unable to benefit fully from the opportunities provided by modern technology, which is why they continue to be a part of the "Third World".

In today's global, high-tech market, technologies and capital are extremely mobile. Under these conditions, it is the quality of the workforce, rather than its price, that largely determines return from investments in science and technology-based industrial and service activities.

Countries that are able to ensure a well developed, human resource pool of high quality are best able to attract large industrial investments as demonstrated by the "economic miracles" of East Asian Countries.

In this context, it is interesting to note that, in South Korea, the total number of researchers engaged in science and technology related work increased from 2,300 (1975) to 53,000 (2001) in industries, from 5,300 (1975) to 14,000 (2001) in research institutes and from 2,700 (1975) to 111,000 (2001) in universities! This is the secret behind the so-called "Korean Miracle"!

Research leads to generation of new knowledge and innovations. Not only in traditional basic scientific disciplines such as Physics, Chemistry and Biology and Mathematics, research is also needed in newly emerged and emerging areas such as Information Technology, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology, often known as the 3Ts.

It has been predicted that the future society will be a "Knowledge-Based" society where the knowledge and innovation, not so much the national resources and capital, will be the main driving force of long-term, sustainable economic development. The rich and poor gap between nations will slowly become a "knowledge-gap".

In such a knowledge-based society, the trained and educated human capital will be the precious natural resource. This has already been very well demonstrated earlier by Japan, later by South Korea and now by India and China.

In the emerging, competitive global market environment, the quality of products and services will have to be of high international standards.

This can only be achieved through research, R & D and innovation. The most important indicator of the emphasis of science and technology in a country is the funding provided by the State for scientific research and R & D activities.

Industrialized countries at present spend about 2.5 - 3% of GNP on R & D, while some fast developing countries like the Republic of Korea (2.9%), India (1.0%), Brazil (1.0%) and Malaysia (0.5%) also invest a significant amount.

However, it is disheartening to note that, Sri Lanka has been spending less than 0.2% GNP for R & D in science and technology during the last three decades! This amount is grossly inadequate and the government should consider increasing this to at least 0.5% GNP over the next couple of years.

Decision making at the highest levels, focused on the utilization of science and technology for national development has become an urgent necessity. It is only through such an investment, and an associated action plan, that Sri Lanka will be able to move forward to reach our development goals.

The writer is Director, Postgraduate Institute of Science and Senior Professor of Physics, University of Peradeniya; Chairman, Asian Physics Education Network (ASPEN)