Modern university:

A global centre of learning

Speech by Minister of Higher Education Prof. Wiswa Warnapala at the presentation of Research Awards organised by the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Directors (CVCD) on December 11 at the BMICH.

Since the main focus of this event is research, I would like to make use of the opportunity to examine the role of the modern University as a major centre of research; the reputation of a University, depends to a large extent, on its research profile. The main role of any University is to generate, disseminate and increase knowledge through teaching and research.

Today the University, as in the past, has a special role in social, cultural, political and economic development of a country. The research in a University may be shaped by a series of specific issues, and no University can survive and serve its own society well if it becomes isolated from the wider world of learning and research. It means that Universities should not remain ivory-towers alienated from the intellectual life of a country.

Eric Ashby, in his publication titled ‘Masters and Scholars’ (1970) says that ‘we talk about the University as a community dedicated to the preservation, advancement and transmission of knowledge’.

Research, scholarship and the development of professions are central to the University, and they, in the last analysis, are created for the benefit of the modern society.

Education in Sri Lanka is facing many challenges, and higher education is no exception. The generation of knowledge has become very important in the context of globalisation, purely because of the fact that economic growth of a country is integrally related to the accumulation of knowledge.

The development of a knowledge economy remains the major goal of both developed and developing countries, and the establishment of institutions of global excellence has become a priority.

In order to convert a University into a global centre of excellence, a University will have to work hard to obtain an international reputation through both teaching and research; such a reputation has to be earned by committing resources to become a global University.

The global University should have as its main agenda the development of scholarship as one of its core missions. Research and scholarship need to be given priority in the Universities of Sri Lanka as the creation of knowledge has become the fundamental objective of higher education.

The question is whether the Sri Lankan Universities, though based on the traditional Oxbridge model, are undergoing a transformation, under which the best of academic scholarship, excellence in teaching and research would take place.

It is on this basis of transformation that Universities could be converted into global centres of excellence. Such a University has the potential to create opportunities for the growth and expansion of knowledge.

The expansion of the knowledge sector will have an impact on the economy. In this context, each University has to understand its mission and role.

What are the essential characteristics of a Research University? A University is concerned with the advancement of knowledge and with the training of young people. These two objectives are complementary to one another. We know that teaching and research enrich each other, and provides a profile to the University where research may be done by one group and the teaching by another.

The principles on which both teaching and research are done include academic freedom of thought, combination of different disciplines and public needs. Academic staff must try to combine research with teaching.

The research Universities are classified on the basis of post-graduate education, for instance, extensive institutions are those that award 50 or more doctoral degrees per year in 15 disciplines.

There are Universities which award 10 doctoral degrees per year in three or more disciplines. In 2000, 261 Universities out of 4000 higher educational institutions in the United States, were classified as research Universities.

The following features are necessary for a University to function as an effective research University - higher quality faculty committed to research and teaching, high quality graduate students, an intellectual climate that encourages scholarship, research funding and a research-infrastructure.

An effective research environment could be promoted through a highly-motivated high quality post-graduate student body. The success of the research programme depends on a high quality faculty devoted to both teaching and research.

In the Sri Lankan Universities, there are faculty members who give both the functions equal weightage; there are faculty members who often complain that the teaching load-sometimes the over-load-interferes with their research output, and they, on the basis of this pretext, do not do any research at all.

The American tenurial system is the answer; the quantum of research needs to be tied to promotions. It is at the point of recruitment that a person’s ability to undertake research can be assessed.

In the research Universities, the members of the Faculty are promoted on the basis of a tenurial system; there are no automatic or quasi-automatic promotions as in the Universities of Sri Lanka.

The process of assessing the contributions of those being considered for promotions is a very rigorous one, and the assessment of research is done by scholars outside the University.

High quality academic staff can attract high quality students, and the Universities, which specialize in research, always admit graduate students of high quality. This is important because the graduate students are major participants in the research programmes of the Universities.

Research, as you know, is very expensive and requires adequate funding. In the Sri Lankan set up, this is a major constraint as the State, in terms of funding, gives priority to undergraduate education.

The post-graduate programmes, though exist in varied forms, have not been given much prominence, and this is a major drawback within the system. The relevance and utility of research has been a topic of importance.

Some time back, I invited the Sri Lankan academics to undertake research with a development-orientation, by which I meant, the country needs development-oriented research for the purpose of formulating public policy.

In any country, there are multiple and diverse users of knowledge generated from research; for an example, the research findings are useful to policy-makers, for the purpose of formulating public policy.

The concept of relevance becomes important purely because of the fact that the resources available for research are limited; the developing countries do not have enough resources for investment in research.

For instance, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan spend more than two per cent of GDP on research and China and India, which have lower GDP, spend around 1 percent on R and D.

The funds available for research vary from country to country, depending on the research culture in the countries, and the most important factor affecting research is shortage of all kinds of resources for research - they include such things as finances, facilities, infrastructure and trained manpower.

In our country, the higher education system encouraged the researchers to work on imported knowledge.

Research undertaken in many developing countries, Sri Lanka included, depends largely on the interest of the academics who are generally trained in the developed countries, because of which, the relevance is more often overlooked. By ‘relevance most people mean ‘social relevance’.

There are rising expectations that the Universities will do something to tackle the major issues confronting a country, and the Universities have responded with relevant research.

The experience shows that the University can do a great deal to improve society, but what it can do by way of direct action in a rural village is limited. Instead, the Universities, through relevant research, could help in the formulation of right social and economic policies; university scholars and scientists can serve as consultants in such matters, and the University, acting through its Departments and Institutes cannot make or implement such policies. To do so would be to lose its unique status as an institution that is free to generate and entertain all kinds of ideas and serve as an intellectual critic of the society.

The University cannot do everything expected of it by the public. Research is concentrated in some areas, while other important fields are neglected. Basic research resulting from pure academic interests are promoted while research which has no immediate use is treated as wasteful. Therefore, it needs to be emphasized that research, with both utility and relevance, needs to be promoted.

The relevance and utility of research in developing countries is, therefore, a challenge, and the appropriate criteria, governing both utility and relevance, needs to be highlighted. In addition to Universities engaged in research, there are other institutions such as Governmental Institutes for research and development and independent Institutes which perform the tasks now expected of the Universities.

We know that the modern University, to a large extent, depends on the drive towards a search for ‘pure’ knowledge and skills for specific social ends. In other words, it must serve the aims and purposes of the contemporary society.

A University could undertake different kinds of research, they could be categorised as essential national research, problem-oriented research and policy-oriented research and system research are essential for national policy research, and knowledge generated through research findings could be used for the formulation of public policy.

We, as researchers know, that effective and sustainable policies require comprehensive and inclusive information; knowledge from appropriate research is an essential element in the formulation of public policy. For instance, programmes and projects, which require research based knowledge, are planned, implemented and evaluated on the basis of knowledge acquired through research.

In my view, research utility is not limited to local users, for an example, the public policy makers. Depending on the nature of the research project and its global dimension, one can ambitiously aim for a wider international market as the University is today a global institution.

The development of soft-ware computer technologies in Bangalore, which has transformed India from an importing to an exporting country, illustrates this possibility.

In developing countries, education is the most important element in the development of human resources, and the Sri Lankan experience is an example.

Research, in such a context, is an empowerment tool, and the University graduates can gain knowledge and skills through research in the Universities. It is only through organised research that frontiers of knowledge could be achieved, and it is also through this process that the graduates could be prepared for the global market place.

The issues of relevance and utility vary according to the specific situations in a given country, primarily the state of socio-economic levels of development. The research essential for national development needs to be determined by the respective country.

It is in this context that we can discuss the issue of indigenisation, according to which the policy-makers of the developing world are finding fault with Western theories and methodologies.

The Western paradigm of development has been criticised, and the indigenous scholars from the Third World opposed the implantation of social sciences, as Yogesh Atal said, perpetuating the ‘captivity’ of mind. Since the seventies, academics from the developing countries have revolted against the dominance of Western concepts, theories and methodologies, which have been described as unsuitable and irrelevant.

Professor Ralph Pieris, writing on the ‘Implantation of Sociology in Asia’ stated that ‘the colonial Universities imparted a routinised ‘science’ which required no original research or creative thinking. It was ‘adaptive’ research which, at best, applied known principles to new situations.

The intellectual dependence of colonial social science on Western models continued after independence’. It needs to be noted that this dependence led to the introduction of disciplines which were outmoded; research undertaken during this period was far removed from the contemporary realities of the given country.