Internal governance of the universities in Sri Lanka -Part IV:

Should University be an independent institution?

Text of speech delivered by Higher Education Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala at Conference of Vice Chancellors in Wadduwa on August 28. Part III appeared on Saturday.

In Sri Lankan Universities, there are 86 courses of study for which students are selected annually, and the academic staff consists of 3727 members, of whom 1476 have Doctorates while another, 1254 have Masters Degrees. In the entire system, we have only 363 Professors. Therefore it would be useful at this stage to provide you with the relevant statistics relating to the academic staff of the Universities and their requisite qualifications.

This is important because a reputation of a University depends on the qualifications of the academic staff and the quantum of research which they do in the course of their academic career.

According to the information available, certain Departments do not have proper staff, because of which its intellectual life is stifled; for instance the Department of Economics at the Ruhuna University has only one PhD after nearly twenty five years. Similar situation exists in a number of Departments; Sinhalese Department at Peradeniya has one PhD, and this, in my view, has interfered with both teaching and research resulting in the production of poor quality graduates.

This, in my view, is tied to issues of internal administration in the Universities and therefore, effective measures are necessary to arrest this trend, which, in the end, contributes to the retardation of the intellectual life in the Universities.

It again is associated with the absence of an effective post-graduate intellectual culture in the Universities, and we now propose to develop it with the assistance of the World Bank. Specially the new Universities are under-staffed, and they have very few qualified staff; this demands a policy strategy on staff development, and the Higher Education Ministry, in consultation with the UGC, is in the process of formulating an academic policy to arrest this trend, which has contributed to the deterioration of standards.

Decision-making

In the Universities, as you are well aware, the decision-making is in the hands of the academic community, and it is up to them to look into such important requirements. As Eric Ashby has stated, the initiative must lie with the Faculty. In British Universities, there is the Committee of Deans which allocates from the University general funds to the faculties and departments, and the allocation must be related to the planned expansion of faculties and departments in terms of student number and staff members.

The Vice Chancellor, the Deans and Heads of Departments have a great deal of influence in the University but the full time administrators are more influential in day-today matters of administration, and they include such officials as the Registrars and Bursars. Yet the decision-making on major matters is preserved for the academics.

University	PhD	Masters	Bachelors	Total	Number of
							students
Colombo		245	138	89		472	8,509
Peradeniya	394	136	137		667	9,871
Jayewardanepura	159	163	130		452	8,958
Kelaniya	180	154	100		434	8,427
Moratuwa	98	84	60		242	4,768
Jaffna		69	100	80		249	5,559
Ruhuna		157	118	111		386	7,209
Eastern		23	63	45		131	1,992
South Eastern	9	40	31		80	1,307
Rajarata	17	22	31		70	2,196
Sabaragamuwa	22	57	49		128	2,070
Wayamba		25	36	32		93	1,643
Uva		1	2	18		21	167
Visual Arts	6	44	17		67	2,865

The University of Ceylon Ordinance, No.20 of 1942 created the post of Registrar, and the powers, duties and functions were specified in the Ordinance itself. The subsequent enactments too provided for a Registrar, and as far as powers, duties and functions attached to this office were concerned, the original structure of 1942 was followed.

Though the designation changed in 1966, the powers and duties remained as stipulated in the Ordinance of 1942. In other words, the powers, duties and functions of the Registrar did not undergo a change in the last sixty years, and the institution of the Registrar remains the main administrative centre of the University.

Competent and qualified persons are necessary to hold this office; mediocre cannot give true expression to this office which has an academic role as well. All University activities except those related to teaching, are associated with the office of the Registrar. I want to look at the institution from the point of view of its in internal governance of the University.

Administrative staff

The number employed in University administration has multiplied in the recent years and University administration has now become a career, which means competent men have to be recruited. The Frank Report of 1966, which reported on Oxford, wanted to enhance the status and responsibilities of the Registrar, specially his control over all administrative staff.

The quality of internal governance cannot be enhanced without making the administrative staff more efficient as the University administration is dyarchical with an academic administration as well as a system of general administration.

We know that each University decides what administrative staff it needs, and each University develops its own office organisation; the titles of administrative posts vary due to the responsibilities attached to them. Those who join the University administration find a career in University administrative work but still they do not enter an organized profession.

It is only an occupation which recently had an in-service program of training and it is this kind of training which needs to be promoted.

In the medieval period, there were small number of administrative posts in the Universities. For instance, the post of Registrar began to develop in the 19th century, and the position was held by teaching fellows.

Later the administrative element developed as potential bureaucrats, and academics looked at them with suspicion.

One could notice academic apprehensions about the influence of the administrative staff, but what the Universities expected from the Registrar and his staff was service without encroaching on academic control. As Frank Report recommended, the Registrar is responsible for the whole administrative work of the University.

He, as a permanent official, is expected to advise the Council and the Vice Chancellor on policy, and also thereby to ensure continuity.

He has a role in the formulation of a development policy for the University, and this is done in consultation with the academic community. On the other hand, a full time Vice Chancellor may think that initiative and continuity in policy are his concern rather than the Registrars.

A good working relationship is necessary between the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar for the proper functioning of the University; this kind of cooperation is necessary for the development and execution of policy.

In this respect, the Registrar must work as the ally of his Vice Chancellor and not his rival; some time back this happened at Peradeniya. In my view, such a relationship is a fundamental requirement for effective governance within the University.

Varied and specialized

The inadequacies, which came along with the British model of the University, need a change as the system has expanded in the last three decades. The University offices expanded correspondingly and their work increased in volume and became varied and specialized.

More attention has to be paid to office organization and management and this aspect, to a certain extent, has been deliberately neglected in our Universities.

Heads of offices, specially those in the category of Registrars, devoted themselves more to directing subordinates and less to the performance of executive duties.

In my view, Universities need to set up their own organisation and methods units in order to make the administration more efficient. Yet another aspect is the absence of forward planning and institutional research in our Universities, and even routine administration has a number of visible deficiencies. Modern management techniques are necessary to obtain good value for money spent on University education in Sri Lanka; major issues of instability are integrally associated with management techniques which, in my view, are outmoded and rooted in certain legacies of the colonial period; here in this context, I refer to the University of Ceylon of the forties.

In no University in the country has there been any attempt to break away from the traditional modes of administration and management, and some of the changes occurred in the United States have not been taken into consideration. For instance, University policy is not moulded in a forward planning office, and one is likely to complain that this is not possible as the financial allocations are made through the University Grants Commission, about which I do not propose to discuss in this paper.

During the last thirty years of rapid expansion, the Universities built up office staffs to change the character of University administration; institutions remain more or less the same but the techniques are different. Much has been improvised and this machinery worked well, and relations between academic and administrative staff were generally good. The confidence of the academic community is necessary for the administrative staff to function efficiently, because, with the expansion, managerial control of the University has increased, and administrative officers expected to take more decisions and wield more responsibility.

This is the type of change we witness today in the system, and cooperation with the academic staff and their confidence might be difficult to obtain in such a situation. The University, therefore, should remain an independent institution not dominated by modern methods and ideas of management. I advocate the formation the Conference of Registrars in order to plan an action program for their exclusive benefit.

The formation of such an organization to maintain standards or protect their interests of those employed appears reasonable and useful. The question is whether we need an administration or a form of academic management. In concluding my remarks on issues of internal governance of the Universities, I would like to quote Sir Robert Aitken, who published a book titled ‘Administration of a University’ in 1966. He says that “the peculiar nature of the academic enterprise must be taken into account.

It differs from an army, whose sole and simple object is the defeat of the enemy. It differs from an industrial firm, whose aim is the production of goods and services, subject to the overriding condition that it must make profits. It differs from these because its product is the work of a host of individual minds, each teaching and investigating in his own subject in his own way; their efforts can be laid alongside one another, but they cannot be added together into a sum total of victory or defeat, profit or loss.

It follows that homo academics needs relatively more independence and more individual responsibility than the officer or the executive in industry. For academic management the optimum structure lies near the democratic end of the range”.

Concluded.