Streamlining university education

Dr. Lal Mervin Dharmasiri

Government has recently taken a policy decision to bring the private sector for higher education system. Under this initiative, it is expected that international/foreign universities will be in Sri Lanka and provide their facilities on this basis, there will be a competition in the recruitments for higher education. Under this policy, one interesting question to be answered is “What would be the challenges faced by established universities in Sri Lanka?”

From the point of view of graduates produced by the established universities, they would be competing in the job market with graduates pursue to be produced by the foreign universities. Under this situation, the quality and relevance of curricular will play a major role. As such, the established universities should be looking at their existing curricular and make appropriate changes in order to maintain the quality and relevance which are expected by our society and industry.

Identifying the issue

People have already identified several issues that need to be addressed in the field of higher education in the country i.e., relevance and quality enhancement of the degree programs through curriculum development, academic staff training, upgrading facilities, improving learning environment etc.

Responding to the need of a more relevant curricular of its degree programs, a curriculum development process was implemented at the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) of the University of Kelaniya (UoK) under the Quality Enhance Fund (QEF) - Batch 3 of the improving Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE) under a project of the World Bank.

The undergraduates’ perception of the WB is not optimistic perhaps because of their concern over some of the adverse impact of ‘privatization’, ‘globalization’ and ‘capitalization’ on the higher education sector in Sri Lanka. Under the project on curriculum development seen on the academics also face some challenges in terms of ‘guide lines’ on project planning with the funding agency. The problems were identified in a scientific manner. Remedies suggested by beneficiaries such as undergraduates, academics, stakeholders were taken into consideration.

Postgraduate education

Several stakeholders have been criticizing the outcome of degree programs of the Sri Lankan Universities which does not match by and large with the current development needs of the country. A university is an institution of higher education, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. In addition, a university is a corporation that provides both undergraduate and postgraduate education.

Accordingly, it requires collective efforts for quality enhancement of the educational programs with adequate funds to carry out their functions smoothly. A widely accepted common suggestion is that the higher education sector requires some radical changes to improve the quality of output in terms of productive graduates. A good example is the curriculum development project of FSS under the WB funds of the UOK which gives a new paradigm to overcome some of the existing constraints hindering the quality of higher education.

In 2008, all Universities were asked to prepare development proposals for quality improvement in the undergraduate education, particularly, in the ‘arts’ and ‘social sciences’ sector with the competitive grants of the WB. Complying with this request, proposal was prepared by an academic team led by the writer of the FSS. Several surveys and SWOT analysis (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) have been done before preparation of the development plan.

Career graduation

It was found that the major weakness of the graduates was the ‘longer waiting time for getting an employment after their graduation’ due to various direct and indirect reasons such as irrelevance of curricula with the present job market, insufficient computer skills, lack of IT facilities, insufficient proficiency in English, pessimistic attitudes, lack of skills development, lower use of modern teaching materials and methodologies, weak personality, lack of career guidance and counselling and unfavourable learning environment.

The study program was prepared by the team to overcome these constraints. The proposed project was granted 15 million rupees by the WB under the IRQUE program. It was a big challenge for implementing the proposal with limited allocation of funds and achieves the goals of the program along with the mission of the FSS.

In terms of student population, the FSS is the biggest faculty among other five faculties of the UOK. At present, there are about 2,500 undergraduates, 2,000 postgraduates and 70,000 external degree candidates. The faculty has nine departments i.e. Archaeology, Geography, History, Economics, Philosophy, Mass Communication, Library Sciences and Information Sciences, Sociology, Sports and Recreational Studies, offering 14 degree programs.

Attention was paid to enhance the quality of the undergraduates and measures have been implemented for reducing the waiting time for the employment. Some of the measures taken were the curriculum development, institutional training, enhancing the learning environment and training of the human resources of the FSS.

Curriculum Development

The curriculum is the backbone of the technical, professional and graduate programs of academic institutions. It may be viewed as a ‘processing machine’ that determines the quantity and quality of desired outputs. In the university setting, all the activities undertaken may be directly or indirectly related to the curricular of the degree program.

Available curricular of the degree programs have not been revised during the last five years. Our undergraduates were also facing some of the weaknesses of the degree programs. They demanded the modification of curricular of the degree programs as seen in the above poster.

Academics of the FSS also have understood the necessity of quality enhancement of the undergraduates.

The WB (QEF) project of the FSS provided a formal mechanism by formulating an institutional framework. In addition, the project extended its support by providing experts and funding. Support of the external experts who are experienced academics gave an excellent opportunity to improve the relevance and quality of the programs.

New curricular

Development requirements of the nation, necessities of the private sector, similar experience in other universities in the world as well as the giving opportunities for new innovations and ideas were taken into account when formulating the graduate profiles along with the new curricular.

Although the time period given by the project was not adequate for completing the curricular, the stakeholders were able to ratify and finalize them at the departmental level. The Dean, the Coordinator of the program and Heads of the relevant Departments of the FSS and members of the staff have voluntarily involved with this activity as it was a vital need of the country.

The Consultants appointed for revising the curricular also gave a great support in this regard. About 85 percent of the curricular have been ready by now for implementation and the remaining is nearing to complete.

Another important feature of the new curricular of the FSS is the introduction of new course units for improving career and skills development such as ‘Survival skills for career planning’, ‘Psychology of motivation and personality’ and ‘Development of social skills’. Each degree program has a kind of course unit with at least two credits per academic year. After successful completion of the units, the undergraduates will be able to improve their personality, presentation skills and career development etc.

In addition, new course units introduced to meet the current requirements of the nation. For examples, in Geography; Land utilization and land evaluation, Geographical Information Systems and Environment hazards managements, in Development studies; Evolution of development strategies and Global shifts in development focus, in Mass communication; Gender studies in media, political communication and Terrorism and communication strategies, in Psychology; Development psychology and Sports psychology, in Library and information sciences; Networking and internet, Universe knowledge and Database management and internet programming etc.

Institutional Training

It was identified that the graduates from the fields of Social Sciences haven’t been given an appropriate institutional training during their undergraduate period or even after. Institutional training/interns/apprenticeship/practical training which have a more or less similar meaning i. e. ‘an intern is someone who works in a temporary position with an emphasis on ‘on-the-job training’ rather than merely employment’. Interns are usually university students, or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. Student internships provide opportunities for students to gain experience in their field, determine if they have an interest in a particular career, create a network of contacts, or gain credit. A pilot project was organized by the project with the financial support of WB (QEF). Students who follow special degree program were given training at the government and non-government institutions.

Training period was not less than three months and an allowance of Rs. 1500 per month was paid to cover their daily expenses.

An undergraduate was paid a maximum of Rs. 4500 for three months by the project. Government institutions such as Urban Development Authority, Environmental Authority, Ministry of Planning, Land Use Policy Planning Division, People’s Bank, Central Bank, National Archives etc, and non-government institutions such as World Vision, provided these training opportunities for our undergraduates. The pilot project was successful and the undergraduates have urged to continue the program for the next year too.

During the last two years, nearly half of the undergraduates who follow special degree programs have been trained by the project. About 360 undergraduates were granted 1.4 million rupees for the interns under the project.

The writer is the Head of Geography Department, University of Kelaniya.