Creating a knowledge city:

Coping with demand for educated labour

Establishment of a knowledge city will help to develop Sri Lanka as a destination for investments in higher education and position the nation as a centre of excellence and regional hub for learning and innovation. It will enhance the national economic development efforts through the development of a skilled and educated workforce and the creation of new jobs.

Priyantha RATNAYAKE

The proposed knowledge city would be integrated with townships, consisting of commercial and residential sectors. It will have mega technology and service centres, library facilities, science parks, food courts, hostels, supermarkets and residential units. The city should build a strong partnership with the community by way of generating new job opportunities, helping them to develop their knowledge and serve as a place of mental and physical relaxation. Currently 65 urban development programs in the world are working towards the establishment of knowledge cities.

The Government is in the process of exploring the possibilities of establishing a knowledge city with the participation of the private sector. The Government will designate specific area for the proposed city and provide the supportive infrastructure including necessary buildings and service centres while encouraging international research and education institutions to set up their affiliated institutions in the proposed knowledge city. This target will be achieved by offering a carefully designed incentive package. The architectural design of the city will be futuristic and more attractive to people.

Understanding future demand

The demand for educated labour will increase continuously over the next decades due to globalization and changing structure of the national and international economies. Accordingly, new economic sectors will grow and the demand for educated and highly skilled professionals in certain fields will significantly increase.

With the massive development proposed in the naval, aviation, commercial, energy and knowledge sectors, new jobs are expected to create in the areas of Internet marketing, construction, mining and oil exploration, telecommunication, transport management, ports and cargo handling, naval and shipping, bunker suppliers, airport and aviation engineering, food technology, international business management, knowledge management, space science, software development, business processes outsourcing, corporate governance, insurance, banking, tourism, sports and leisure, environmental management and engineering, pollution reduction, waste disposal and management, forest conservation, and research and development. Therefore, the universities and other higher education institutes need to be encouraged to develop and offer internationally recognized and market-oriented degree programs required by global employers.

University for Science and Technology education

When firms are shifting towards high value addition in services, industries, and agricultural sectors to improve efficiency and productivity, there will be an increasing demand from those sectors for IT professionals.

Therefore, the ICT sector stands out as one of the potential areas for development and income generation and for jobs creation in the country. Sri Lanka will continue to position itself as a preferred destination for shared services and outsourcing.

To meet this increasing demand for ICT graduates, new degree programs will be initiated as partnership programs with the private sector.

One of the prominent institutions in the proposed Knowledge City is the new modern ‘University of Science and Technology’ to be established in the near future.

This will be a dynamic and modern university, equipped with cutting-edge technology and committed to ICT and science and technology education. The university will provide world class education within the broad sphere of telecommunications, multimedia, computers, digital art, animation, information technology, software development and science and technology. It will capture and capitalize continual technology transfer from external industries, and create new inventions, innovations and technology to benefit the nation.

Improving the academic standards of higher education is vital for students to compete in the future job market.

Thus necessary support and regulatory framework should be developed enabling the higher education institutions to maintain international standards in relation to their academic programs. Formulation of a National Higher Education Qualification Framework and a Quality Assurance and Accreditation System for the higher education sector to maintain the standards of study programs, is of paramount importance.

In the context of the socio-economic development, universities and higher educational institutions located outside the metropolitan areas will be developed to expand access to higher education and mitigate the inequalities that exist in the university system. Facilities, equipment and technology required for accreditation will be provided to the academic institutions in the public sector.

The local universities will be linked up with the renowned academic institutions in the world for expansion of their academic programs and training their academic staff.

Market Intelligence Units

It is high time to establish “Market Intelligence Units” in each university to promote partnerships with the industry.

This unit will collect the information on the private sector needs and coordinate with the university administration to produce graduates accordingly. The unit, in collaboration with the private sector, will facilitate the student placement in industries as a part of the degree program. The much needed career guidance and counseling programs for students will also be implemented through the proposed Market Intelligence Units. Strengthening and improvement of mutually benefited partnerships and development of institutional arrangements and exchange programs with both local and foreign higher educational institutions will open up new avenues to promote innovation, research and development in local universities.

The country will benefit in long-run if the universities and research institutions explore the economic and commercial potentials of intellectual capital. This will enable Sri Lanka to effectively use intellectual resources available in universities for economic development.

Promoting online distance learning

Online distance learning is an opportunity to obtain an accredited degree, diploma or professional qualification through an alternative stream of higher education. The National Online Distance Education Service, jointly with partner institutions, will take more responsibility for enhancing opportunities for market oriented and high quality distance education program. The Open University will also expand facilities at its regional centres for distance education. Courses will be conducted mainly through the internet and video conference making public universities more competitive.

Postgraduate education

Post graduate education will be expanded to improve the tertiary education enrolment rate. The external degree programs will be more relevant to the needs of labour market. To ensure the relevance of curricular, the industry professionals need to actively involve in content designing and course delivery. This type of partnership will benefit both university students and industry professionals.

Recognizing autonomy of universities

It is obvious that the autonomy of universities is very important to effect the radical reforms expected from university system. Therefore, the autonomy and dignity of universities and their governance system will be respected and ensured.

The universities will be allowed to generate a substantial amount of financial resources for their activities. A major portion of Government funds will be allocated based on the performance of universities.

The writer is Finance and Planning Ministry’s National Planning Department Director.