Importance of quality assurance in Universities - Part III:

Need for a quality assurance mechanism

The text of a speech delivered by Higher Education Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala at the launching of the ‘Quality Assurance Toolkit’ prepared jointly by the UNESCO and the Commonwealth Learning; at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute on June 22, 2009. The first and second parts appeared on Thursday and Friday.

Sri Lanka, when compared with other countries in the region, has the best human resource base, through which a responsible intellectual community could be produced, and this task has to be fulfilled by the Universities which, in my view, should emerge as global centres of learning. While globalization has created new opportunities for promoting growth and development in higher education, the focus of this growth and expansion need to be based on quality and competitiveness.

It is necessary to recognize the fact that Governments in developing countries like Sri Lanka are not in a position to wholly support required levels of financial commitments needed to establish reputed institutions of higher learning. It is in this context that we need to be innovative in promoting global collaboration among Universities. How can we enter into a collaboration with global centres of excellence without improving quality in our Universities? It is the fundamental question which needs to be addressed. Take for instance, the Indian Universities, they have carefully considered policies for establishing global collaboration and activities that promote global interaction. Such policies, in the Sri Lankan context where there is certain amount of resistance for innovations and reforms, need to be translated into concrete programs beneficial to both students and scholars.

There is a need to evolve policies in Universities as a part of their internal governance mechanism that will guide them in establishing systems of administration aimed at the protection of the institution and the student community. Mere stabilization of the administration of the University, through an effective internal governance mechanism, is not enough. The University agenda has to have the development of scholarship as one of its core missions. Research and scholarship ought to become a priority in our Universities so that the creation of knowledge becomes the fundamental objective of higher education.

Since I am speaking before an audience consisting of both policy makers and academics, I would like to raise a fundamental issue, afflicting our institutions of higher learning. Sri Lanka is going through a period of transformation, and as President Barrack Obama said at his inauguration, an era of responsibility needs to be inaugurated with bold policy initiatives and realistic policies. Therefore, in the sphere of higher education, it important to take steps towards establishing Universities that will bring together the best of academic scholarship, excellence in teaching and research aptitudes for promoting knowledge based initiatives for the formulation of public policy.

It is through this kind of reform strategy, which includes such fundamental things as quality assurance, that new opportunities could be created for growth and development in the knowledge sector. It would be useful at this stage of the discussion to refer to some issues in our Universities. The quality and relevance of research, teaching and learning have begun to decline, and Universities operate with outdated curricula, unqualified teaching staff, poorly prepared secondary students, absence of academic standards and systematic evaluation of performance and these features have affected quality.

It is part of a legacy. In certain countries, poor quality of teacher training programs has had a detrimental effect on quality of learning in primary and secondary education. The weaknesses in the secondary education sector, as I mentioned earlier, do not train the aspirant to the University with the necessary skills for tertiary level studies. This is a major malaise within our system of schools which could be rectified by enhancing the role of the teacher, whose role has deteriorated in the last three decades due to trade unions which are politically motivated.

In concluding my remarks, I would like to focus on the question of quality assurance in our institutions of higher learning. In the past, no much attention was paid to quality assessment and accreditation as there were very effective forms of internal assessment. For instance, the University of Ceylon maintained a system of assessment in collaboration with certain leading Universities in Britain. With the expansion of the system, monitoring of quality and excellence became a problem and no mechanism for the purpose was crated. The existing forms of quality assurance and assessment are not properly constituted; the reason for this was the absence of an intellectual debate on the matter. Now we realize that excellence cannot be enhanced without quality education in our institutions of higher learning. The improvement of quality has an integral relationship with the available academic and physical infrastructure, and this means that the improvement of academic and physical infrastructure is vital for quality improvement.

It is only a quality institution that can generate both creativity and innovation, and such tendencies should develop within the academic community and the student community. Good quality institutions would emerge as centres of excellence on the basis of both creativity and innovation. In short, no institution would emerge and grow without quality and excellence. An improved access to quality education will require special attention for improvement in the language skills and other capabilities so that they can cope with the challenges in the learning environment. The improvement of language skills is vital in the Sri Lankan context.

The improvement of quality cannot be achieved without an initiative for academic and administrative reforms in the Universities; the academic reforms in the Universities include such things as admission policy, the nature of the course structure, modernization of curricula, modification of the assessment systems, the examination methods, the semester system, grading and credit systems, teacher assessment and promotion schemes tied to research and teaching.

In the Sri Lankan system, the course unit system, specially in the Social Sciences and Humanities has been a total failure, and it, therefore, needs revision as the quality has visibly declined.

Sri Lanka, with the view to converting our institutions of higher learning into quality institutions, has taken certain measures to establish a Quality Assurance mechanism in order to deliver quality education.

It began as an initiative of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Directors (CVCD) in 2001, and a framework for quality assessment has been prepared. Standing Committee on Quality Assurance of the UGC was established and its main function was to coordinate and regulate the quality assurance systems in the Universities. With the World Bank funding, Improvement of Quality and Relevance in Undergraduate Education (IRQUE) project and Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council (QAAC) have been set up under the UGC.

All these institutions need a coordinated strategy and a realistic approach to the issues of quality improvement and assessment in order to help the Sri Lankan Universities to become global centres of learning. A global centre of learning has the potential to create new opportunities for growth and development in the knowledge sector which, in the given context of globalization, is the key to the expansion of the Sri Lankan economy.

Concluded