Reform strategy in higher education - Part III:

A system responsive to requirements

Text of speech delivered by Higher Education Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala at the launching of the World Bank’s Sri Lanka Higher Education Sector Report at the Hotel Galle Face on July 17, 2009.

Continued from yesterday

In addition to the need to improve quality and relevance, the external degree programs, which have expanded in the last decade on the basis of the need to expand the access, demand immediate reforms as such programs cater to a very large number of students. Universities register external graduates in large numbers, and students perceive the system as a means of obtaining a degree without much intellectual effort.

The quality of the graduate whom we produce through this programme is poor because of the way it is conducted and the poor quality of courses and programs; most unemployed and the under-employed graduates come within this category, and they, through a militant association, have been politically mobilized to clamour for jobs. I intend to recommend a series of reforms in this sector to enhance the quality of the graduate; policy initiatives are necessary to control the private institutions engaged in teaching the external graduate, and the tuition industry associated with it need to be properly monitored.

The decline in quality of the graduates produced via the conventional University is partially linked to student unrest or the violence in which they indulge in for the sake of violence. In most cases of student unrest, except those events associated with politics, there are matters pertaining to their welfare, some of which are intertwined with the social and economic issues in the country.

On the other hand, trivial issues, which are typical student issues, are articulated to mobilize students for action which, invariably, leads to destabilization of the University. I do not say that they do not have grievances, which could be easily tackled by the administration. Therefore, in planning a reform strategy, this aspect of student unrest and student violence, which is endemic within the system, needs to be addressed.

Decline in intellectual role

Sri Lanka has had an excellent academic enterprise from the days of the University College, and some of them earned an international reputation through their research and publications. This intellectual enterprise, in the early phase of University development, played a significant role in the intellectual life of Sri Lanka.

The academic community, in certain disciplines, has displayed a visible decline in its intellectual role, and this kind of intellectual retardation was entirely due to monolingualism. Because of which Sri Lankan Universities cannot play the role of a global centre of excellence. All teachers in the University need to be bilingual as the University is now emerging as a centre of global excellence.

Both teaching and research are affected due to monolingualism. The role of the University teacher has been transformed by expansion and specialization. The typical University Department has no more than ten academic members. Sri Lanka cannot have a high proportion of professors; Sri Lankan Universities rely on Associate Professors, Senior Lecturers and Lecturers for effective and efficient academic work.

The academic profession has grown with the expansion of the system but the profession, in terms of quality, has declined, and this needs to be rectified with the assistance of the World Bank. Language skills are of fundamental importance. As in the past, academics in the traditional disciplines in Humanities, for instance, need to be bi-lingual and this academic culture based on monolingualism needs immediate revision in the name of scholarship.

Specialized branches of knowledge and a division of labour has emerged between research and training and between undergraduate and graduate supervisors.

Traditional model

Arts Faculties have declined steadily as a result of the expansion and majority of the University teachers are in the Arts Faculties. I would like to quote Humboldt from Germany who said that “ the relationship between teacher and student is changing. The former does not exist for the sake of the latter. They are both at the University for the sake of science and scholarship”.

In the context of globalisation, it is now accepted that the traditional model of the University, which the world inherited from the medieval times, has proved to be expensive and inappropriate to meet the varied demands of economic and social development. On the basis of this projection, Sri Lanka, specially at this stage of her development wherein the major challenge is the expansion of access without compromising quality and relevance, needs to diversify the system with more and more non-University tertiary institutions; they can be in both the public and the private sector. In Sri Lanka, there are private sector higher educational institutions catering to a large number of students, most of whom are those students who did not find places within conventional Universities system.

It is through the expansion of the non-University tertiary sector that the country can meet the growing social demand for higher education and make higher education system more responsive to requirements of the labour market.

In my view, the private sector has already entered the higher education market as the State, in the given context, find it difficult to obtain public resources to finance higher education. Sri Lanka, therefore, cannot support significant levels of financial commitments needed to establish and sustain reputed institutions of higher learning. The country, therefore, needs a higher education policy through which it can bring about a realistic differentiation of the system, and this differentiation is likely to be driven by the growth of private institutions.

In the context of a differentiation through a network of non-university tertiary institutions, this is inevitable a development, without which access could not be widened in a country where there is a massive social demand for higher education.

Employability

In the last two decades, enrollments in non-University tertiary institutions, both in the public and private sector, had grown faster than in traditional universities; this is largely due to the nature of the courses offered and their relationship to the concept of employability.

It is here in this context that Sri Lanka requested the World Bank to assist the Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education (SLIATE) so that it can produce skilled personnel - the middle level technician - who can find employment in an expanding economy.

It is through its development with employment oriented skills qualifications that the access could be improved, and our policy strategy at present is to expand this system of colleges throughout the country with a view to producing more and more employable skilled personnel.

A single pattern

The Government proposes to build a similar college in Vavuniya as well, and this is in addition to the one in Jaffna. In my view, it is through such a network of Technological Colleges that a vital linkage with industry could be established.

All these segments within the higher education sector- the higher institutions of learning, the non-university tertiary institutions of technical education and the institutions of vocational education, though they have different fields of interest, need to conform to a single pattern so that they can compete for public resources with a view to improving both quality and efficiency.

In Sri Lanka, since the forties, the major source for financing for higher education is through the State budget, and therefore the allocation and utilization of resources need to be transparent, rational and efficient. There is so much of wastage in the system due to poor management; university administration has declined because the administrative institutions have not been assigned a proper role from the point of view of the overall objectives of a University.

It needs to be understood that the name University implies that it is a ‘corporation or community of scholars, many of them young intelligent men of critical minds, sturdily independent in character, who were less likely than some other contemporary groups to be subservient to authority’. Robert Aitken, writing in Administration of a University, stated that ‘the objectives of a University differ from those of the Civil Service or industry, and its administrative structure and operations are correspondingly different’.

The University administrator needs to understand the unique nature of University administration; university is an association of scholars engaged in teaching and research, the latter being a necessary concomitant of the former.

Role of Government

Yet another important aspect is the role of Government in the sphere of Higher Education and it needs to be re-defined in the context of the transformation that is taking place in the country.

The traditional role of the State, with its social welfare content, has its links, specially in relation to higher education, in the political and economic background of the 20s it was based on colonial objectives, according to which the higher educational institutions were expected to cater to the needs and aspirations of the limited elite of the period.

In addition to the political ideology which the country professed since the introduction of the adult suffrage in 1931, the social demand model of education encouraged the effective role of the State in higher education, and the higher educational institutions remained totally State funded.

Historically speaking, there are two important economic reasons which justified the continued support of the State for higher education, and they, in the emerging context, needs revision. It is now accepted that investment in higher education generate a variety of benefits necessary for economic development.

Social demand model

Next is the need to provide educational opportunities for the economically and socially disadvantaged; the view is that such groups could not be provided with higher educational opportunities without Government investment in the field of Higher Education.

The Sri Lankan experience in the social demand model of education is such that it, apart from its contribution to social and economic change, was a part of the political culture, the impact of which interfered with any attempt to adjust or dismantle the system which still remains State- funded, and it is this philosophy of education, based on a highly politicised welfare principle, which prevents the involvement of the private sector.

The Sri Lankan experience, as in many a developing country, the Government involvement in higher education has exceeded what is economically feasible and efficient; the investment in education and higher education, is a burden on the State as it is expected to divert a quite a bit of it for higher education whereas this sector cannot ensure the efficient utilisation of public resources.

In the emerging context, in which both public and private institutions operate as providers of quality higher education, the responsibility of the Government is undergoing a change as institutions in both the sectors are expected to stimulate both teaching and research.

On the basis of Sri Lanka’s experience since the forties, the country needs comprehensive reforms in higher education, which, in my view, should include a move away from the traditional system of State funding towards a more competitive system where public resources are carefully invested.

This strategy needs to be based on a long-term perspective. It is on the basis of this reform strategy, implementation of which is supported by the World Bank, that Sri Lanka can promote excellence in higher education. Globalization will offer Universities with a number of challenges and opportunities as it is a complex multi-dimensional process.

The result of this process is that no longer can Universities see themselves as only part of a national system, based on the rules set by the State. The concept of the global University should become the central focus of reforms in higher education. It is through a number of global Universities of excellence that a world class education could be promoted in Sri Lanka.

Yet another fundamental point which needs emphasis in the given global context is the Sri Lankan society, which is going through a transformation, cannot afford to lose all control over the activities and developments of higher education.

Sri Lankan society not only need well educated specialists in the labour force, it also needs to generate an intellectual elite to provide guidance to future processes of change.

It is only then the society will have an interest and a direct stake in providing an adequate supply of and access to quality teaching and research program in Universities.

Therefore the Universities must re-think their modes of governing, their financing, their internal structures and external relations, and this is specially true of a public university system like that of Sri Lanka.

Concluded