Expansion of university education and graduate unemployment

Prof. Gamini Samaranayake - Chairman University Grants Commission

The paper is divided into five major sections. The first part examines the origin, development and present status of university education in Sri Lanka. The second part deals with the profile of graduate unemployment, the third part examines the causes of graduate unemployment, the fourth part examines graduate employability, and the responses of the government to graduate unemployment, the fifth part deals with the knowledge hub, advantages, opportunities and challenges, while the final part of the paper deals with the observations and suggestions.

Source: University Grants Commission

It is generally assumed, that there were 25,000 unemployed graduates in 1998.

It is evident that more arts graduates were unemployed than graduates from other disciplines and this trend continues.

Gender disagregated information indicates that female graduates have higher unemployment rates than their male counterparts.

In 1971, out of 3,898 unemployed graduates 2338 were females which indicate that 60 percent of the unemployed graduates were females. In 1989/91 out of 4,798 unemployed graduates 3,069 were female while in 1985 and 86 out of 5420 unemployed graduates 3417 were female. This shows a feminization of graduate unemployment.

In analyzing the perceptions and attitudes of male and female graduates some significant variations were noted. In terms of job preference unemployed female university graduates prefer school teaching than government administrative jobs or private sector managerial jobs. Male university graduates prefer government administrative jobs than teaching or private sector managerial jobs.

However, males and females prefer to work in the public sector than in the private or NGO sector. Moreover, more female graduates are reluctant to work in the private sector than their male counterparts. Graduates on the whole are reluctant to set up self-employment schemes and believed that the government should provide them with jobs.

The preference of female graduates for the teaching profession could be based on the fact that it is a profession with five to six hours of work coupled with three months of school holidays which permits women to balance their productive and reproductive roles.

Underemployment is a significant aspect of graduate unemployment which often remains unrecognized and is seldom analyzed as an issue. Unlike unemployment, underemployment eludes definition and assessment. It can be described generally as a situation in which a person is forced to accept employment below his or her educational level. It predominantly affects the social science graduates.

Definite statistics on underemployment are not available, but are identified on the basis of low earnings. Around 14,000 graduates were employed in the work force after 1970, but 80 percent of them received salaries between Rs. 200 to 300 per month, which placed them below the poverty line.

Graduates who were employed under schemes on the eve of the General Election in 1994 received a monthly salary of Rs. 2500. It is the salary received by a worker in a garment factory. Due to limitations in job opportunities, in the public as well as the private sector and widespread underemployment the real value of university education has eroded.

In this context, unemployment and underemployment is not the sole problem: the means of securing employment is another aspect of the problem of graduate unemployment in the country. There are three main avenues used to obtain employment. The first is applications for jobs in response to advertisements. The second is the assistance of family members and/or friends and the last but not least the assistance of politicians.

During the colonial period there was a trend towards white collar employment on the basis of one’s family and personal contacts. This system of obtaining employment enabled the students belonging to families with influence to secure stable jobs, while the students in the rural sector who invariably belonged to the peasant families were at a grave disadvantage.

Currently, the most prevailing avenue has been assistance of the government in power either voluntarily or through pressure of agitation.

Causes of graduate unemployment

To a certain extent we should also recognize that employment opportunities for graduates are highly dependent on the economic growth of the country. The slow rate of economic growth and the allied problem of providing increased economic opportunities for the growing numbers entering the labour market led to a high level of unemployment among graduates especially from the social sciences and humanities. Apart from national economic issues, there are a number of causes which have been identified as contributory factors to the origin and development of graduate unemployment.

Of these an ad hoc expansion of the universities and student population, the nature of the courses, and quality of the graduates is noteworthy.

Since these factors are related to the expansion of higher education in Sri Lanka, it is necessary to examine the context of the development of university education.

The University College that was established in 1921 expanded to the University of Ceylon by 1942. The university had only four faculties, and a limited number of students offering for the degree of BA, BSc and MBBS.

However, the entrance of students was limited compared to the enrollment of students in primary and secondary education upto the early 1960s. There were 904 students in 1942, 1294, in 1947 and 48 and 2471 in 1956 and 7. The language of instruction was English and its students were drawn from the English speaking urban middle class.

It was fashioned essentially on the Ox-Bridge model, and the curriculum, the teaching learning process and examinations of the university followed the pattern of British Universities. It was exactly the model of elite education.

However, university education underwent many changes especially with the granting of universal franchise in 1931, free education in 1945, the political changes in 1956 and the introduction of university education in Sinhala and Tamil Languages in 1959. It marked the beginning of the inclusion of students from a wide ranging socio-economic background. Consequently, the number of universities increased from one in 1942 to three in 1960. Two of these new universities Vidyodaya (Kelaniya) and Vidyalankaraya (Sri Jayewardenepura) were Buddhist pirivenas (monastic institutions) which were elevated to the status of universities.

To accommodate an increased demand of university education ad hoc measures were taken by the government such as elevating three affiliated colleges as Universities namely Rajarata, Wayamba and Sabaragamuwa. By 1970 the number of universities increased to five and by 1978 there were seven universities in the country. The rest were established after 1994. The number of students entering higher education thus increased from 1612 in 1948, to 5000 in 1959, to about 14,000 in 1970 and 17,449 student enrolments in 1978. By 1988 and 89 there were 29,781 students internally in university education.

At present, 80,000 students are in universities. Annually about 13,000 internal graduates pass out from universities and more than 50 percent of them are from the Arts and management streams.

The output of external graduates is around 6,500 and the Open University too has an output of about 500 per year. Thirty years ago 70 percent of the student population was admitted to the faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities.

In addition, since 1962, there has been a system of external examinations in university education and almost 200,000 students are registered with the eleven universities in the country. Table 2 shows the number of students and courses offered by the external students registered with our universities.

Not only did the number of students and institutions dealing with higher education expand but the socio-economic composition of the student population and the quality of education, too changed over the years.

The most significant feature of this rapid growth is the changing socio-economic composition of the student population in the period 1959 up to date.

There are a few systematic studies on the socio-economic background of the student population mainly by Murray A. Strauss in 1950, and J E Jayasooriya in 1965.

These students mainly belong to the urban middle class social background. Moreover, they had no anxiety about their own future because, after graduation, they were assured of employment in the higher echelons of government or the private sector.

This trend began to change in the mid 1960s. Since then a substantial proportion of students tended to come from the lower middle class, the working class and the peasant class.

The concentration of students from such social backgrounds is the strongest in the faculties of Arts, Social Sciences, Humanities and Commerce and Management.

Besides, a majority of the university students are by ethnicity Sinhala, by religion Buddhist and are from the rural sector. This trend further developed as a result of the “standardization”, and “district quota system” introduced in 1973.

According to the University Grants Commission (UGC) Statistical Hand Book of 1988/89, the occupational background of the parents of the students admitted in the academic year belonged to the low-income category.

Nearly 40 percent of the parents of the students earned a monthly income of less than Rs. 1000. As given in Table 3 an analysis of the University Entrants by parents Occupation for the Academic Year 1950 and 1977 shows the changing socio-economic background of the student population.

According to this analysis there is a decline in the number of students whose parents have a professional or managerial background while there is an increase in the number of students whose parents are small farmers or rural workers.

In spite of the increasing number of universities and the number of students the curriculum, the teaching learning process, and the relevance and quality of education remained unchanged.

A sample survey based on the student population at the University of Peradeniya indicated that 62 percent of students are disappointed of the highly theoretical lectures, lack of practical exposure to industry, lack of industrial training, poor teaching techniques, lack of application of education technology in teaching, and poor relations with the private sector.

The expansion of the student population, the introduction of Suwabasha education at university level and the changing socio-economic composition of the student population changed the education system from an elitist to a mass system.

An elitist system emulates the western model of education with a strong western philosophical bias. The students who undergo the elitist system of education expect to be assimilated to the elite circles and are therefore guided to conform.

Students in the mass system are more prone to political activities, and are less likely to align with the political elite. Thus, the transition of university education from an elitist to a mass resulted in a high level of political dynamism among the student population.

Source: G Samaranayake, 1992 p16

The universities in Sri Lanka depend solely on the state for funds. However, the budgetary allocations for higher education over the years failed to meet the demands of the expansion in the system leading to a concomitant reduction in facilities.

The lack of qualitative improvement in university education has been a major manifestation of the lack of financial resources made available for tertiary education. From 1959 to 1966 and 67, the total real expenditure on university education rose by only 27 percent while the student enrolment had increased as much as 278 percent or tenfold.

The available statistics indicate that government expenditure on university education is 1.4 percent of government expenses and 0.34 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). One can conclude, therefore, that university education has been provided for a significantly larger number with very little increase in the total resources diverted to it, thereby reducing its quality to a great extent.

Furthermore, the problem of graduate unemployment has increased due to limitations in the expansion of the State sector as a result of economic liberalization, structural changes and privatization of cooperation’s and other public ventures.

Graduates who have studied Commerce and Management Subjects are more open to the prospects of working in the private sector than Social Science graduates.

Graduates are unable to secure employment in the private sector mainly due to the mismatch between the skills of the Social Science graduates and the needs of the private sector which has expanded during the past decades,

One of the main criticisms aimed at university education including the Central Bank Report of Sri Lanka for 2009 is that higher education is of “low quality and low standards and that 32 percent of students admitted to national universities study social sciences and humanities and a substantial proportion of these graduates find it difficult to obtain productive employment.

The same report concludes that “the country has a supply driven education system with little relevance to labour market conditions and to entrepreneurial culture”.

However, graduate unemployment is not purely a university problem but universities have a responsibility and accountability to extend all their support to solve the problem.

Graduate employability

Currently at global level universities are very much concerned with graduate employability as a means of overcoming the problem of graduate employment. As an acceptable definition of employability, the best I could find stated that “employability is a set of achievements, understanding and personal attributes that make an individual more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefit themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy”.

Employability thus defined has wider interpretations and connotation especially for a developing country like Sri Lanka grappling with issues of political violence, poverty and rehabilitation arising from manmade and natural disasters.

A survey conducted by the Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka in 1999 has mentioned that the following attributes are expected by the private sector employers from the graduates in addition to their academic qualifications.

They are as follows: ability for effective communication skills along with English; ability of interpersonal relationships, ability of leading a team and getting the results within a short time; ability of prioritization of work; initiation of work and intention of its development; open, proactive and pragmatic mind; computer literacy, ability of logical and rational thinking, general knowledge and personal hygiene, office and social etiquette.

A similar study conducted by the Council for Industry and Higher Education in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2008 found that employers rate communication skills, team work, integrity and intellectual ability over literacy and numeracy.

It is suggested that students are provided with opportunities to access and develop everything on the lower tier of the model such as career development learning; Experience (work and life); Degree subject knowledge, understanding and skills; Generic skills and Emotional Intelligence; and essentially opportunities to reflect and evaluate these experiences, which will result in the development of higher levels of self-efficacy, self-confidence and self-esteem- the crucial links to graduate employability.

The above mentioned study and survey confirms that employers prefer social skills and personality type as more important than the degree qualifications to meet the demands of a market driven and knowledge based economy. This study also found that the services delivered by the university careers advisory services to be unsatisfactory.

In developing the strategic plan for the UGC for the years 2008-2012 we analyzed these issues in some depth. We were surprised to learn that none of the donors, policy makers and planners had conducted a comprehensive study of the needs of employers such as the study done in the UK.

The universities in the UK are also striving to address issues of employability as evidenced in their websites such as the University of Hull and Wolverhamption.

This is a gap that we in Sri Lanka need to fill to fully understand the employability of our graduates and the mismatch between the requirements of the employers and the education provided by the higher education system. The Ministry of Higher Education and the UGC has expanded IT facilities at our universities, introduced a system of lateral entry, revised the curricular and introduced new courses, placement years in collaboration with the private and public sector and established a system of career counselling in universities.

However, more in-depth analysis is needed on the current skills of our students, the needs of employers both in the private and public sector and the recruitment patterns and policies of employers for us to fully understand the issue of employability.

However, it is my contention that we need to consider some critical factors that are confined to our higher education system as well as our country context.

One of the main factors is that the universities cannot impart critical skills such as problem solving, analytical thinking and interpersonal skills required for employability within the three or four years that students spend at the university. Students need to acquire these skills through a Good Early Childhood Care and Development Programme that is regulated, has quality standards of reference and a sound system of assessment.

The formal education system needs to follow up with a well constructed curriculum that is implemented effectively across the country. The component titled preparing for the “ world of work” was introduced recently to secondary education but its implementation remained varied and poor. Therefore, the education system from ECCD to secondary education needs to be aligned to the basic objectives of increasing the skills of children. The universities can assign higher priority to imparting language and IT skills so that meaningful changes can be made in the higher education system concomitantly.

The second factor derives from our country context. What is the reality in our universities? Any form of change is resisted with political overtones and the policy makers and administrators are challenged every step of the way in bringing about changes in the system.

This subculture is manifest in the high degree of politicization in the universities which are currently the base for insurrectionary politics as exemplified by the violence in universities whether it is political factionalism or “violent ragging”. This subculture of violence resists any form of change and the silent majority is penalized by a violent few.

The third factor is that employers in the private sector and employer groups keep saying that universities need to do more to improve graduate employability. But employers too need to contribute their share by working more closely with the universities, the UGC and the Ministry of Higher Education to develop a system of identifying the skills young graduates need to prepare them for the world of work.

Currently, a few universities are trying to address the issue of graduate employability strategically. However, these universities need both financial and human resources to diversify and increase employability.

We also need to train our academic staff, to invite professionals from the private sector to teach at our universities and expand opportunities for graduate students to acquire skills.

Government’s response

In this context, it is necessary to examine the measures taken by the government to solve or contain the problem of graduate unemployment in the country. Since 1970, governments have introduced a special employment programme for graduates.

The government has recruited graduates as teachers, development officers and trainees in the graduate scheme in order to ease the problem of unemployment.

The government from 1970-77, found it necessary to address this problem and as a result introduced the system of appointing a political authority for each district. The political authority was a Member of Parliament belonging to the political party in Office.

The system further stipulated that a person seeking a job had to obtain a letter of recommendation from the political authority. This represented a form of patron-client relationship and proved to be a barrier hampering those supporting any Opposition political party from securing employment.

The UNP government which came to power since 1977 introduced the system of a “job bank”. This system also created ways and means of practicing corrupt practices such as bribery. The lack of personal contacts, political or bureaucratic patronage and corrupt practices in securing employment has posed additional barriers to graduates seeking employment.

However, the state has found it increasingly difficult to absorb graduates into the shrinking ranks of the public sector. Successive governments have been compelled to seek the assistance of the private sector to solve the problem of unemployment among graduates. Since the early 1990s, the government has set up a scheme for graduate trainees within the private sector.

The Programme offers two-three years of training in private companies at a monthly allowance of Rs. 1500. There is to be no guarantee of placement at the end of the training.

However, nearly 9000 applications have been processed for this programme.

Prior to the General Election of August 1994, the government opened a trainee scheme for unemployed graduates, which absorbed a majority of the unemployed graduates at that time.

In 1997, the government inaugurated a new scheme called the Tharuna Aruna with the private sector to address the same issue. The main objective of the programme was to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes of unemployed graduates in order to enable them to secure employment in the private sector. Under this scheme placements have been offered to 1130 graduate trainees in 345 companies during the period 1997-1998.

In 2004 about 42,000 graduates were absorbed as teachers and office workers. However, a majority of them do not have any promotion scheme or career path and are still underutilized.

The Higher Education Ministry has embarked on several programmes and initiatives to mitigate the problems of unemployed graduates. These initiatives among others are the introduction of skills modules to increase communication skills, leadership and team building into the students’ pre-orientation programme, basic entrepreneurship modules, industrial training programmes, and collaborative programmes with relevant professional bodies.

Various measures have been initiated by the UGC and universities to enhance graduate employability over the last few years. Carrier Guidance Units are established in each and every university under the supervision of the Standing Committee of the UGC. While increasing the number of university admissions into Science oriented faculties the intake to Arts courses in Universities has remained relatively static at around 5,000 students.

Steps have been taken to improve the quality of the degree programme on the basis of international bench marks. During the last few years, the Higher Education Ministry together with the UGC worked on Improving Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE) a project designed from a loan given by the World Bank to improve the quality of university education.

Furthermore, the medium of instruction has shifted from Sinhala and Tamil to English. Universities need to do tracer studies before convocations are held each year. The tracer study on graduate employability has shown significant improvement on the marketability of graduates in some universities.

A recent survey on Graduates of the University of Colombo has revealed that more than 55 percent of Science and Management graduates have found employment during three months after graduation while 12 percent and 16 percent of Arts and Education graduates respectively have found employment. A similar study done by the Moratuwa University too has revealed that more than 95 percent of the graduates of the Moratuwa University that are qualified in the fields of Engineering and Architecture have found employment within six months of their graduation.

The prevailing idea is that it is the duty of the government to find a solution to the problem of graduate unemployment. Although, the government has emphasized the expansion of the private sector as a solution to graduate unemployment, the graduates themselves are not willing to join the private sector as it is a competitive field where job security depends on performance.

The private sector on the other hand prefers proficiency in English, personality and social standing. Although the Sri Lankan education system produces a limited amount of human resources for Science and Technology, the industrial sector is not capable of absorbing all of the graduates from the disciplines of Science and Technology.

Many such graduates leave the country for foreign employment while some are employed in non-technical disciplines indicating the lack of a concomitant expansion in industry to absorb the Science and Technology graduates. The private sector and the state sector needs to reconfigure its recruitment, induction, training, mentoring and coaching system.

I have found that our graduates have the latent skills and capacity to compete in the labour market but the employers themselves lack the creativity, innovativeness, and capacity to develop a system of recruitment, capacity building and coaching and mentoring young graduates.

The solution can be found on a short-term as well as long-term basis. The short-term strategies are for the government to invest in training the unemployed graduates to acquire the competencies needed for the modern work place and develop systems to link them to the world of work.

The long term solution lies with all of the stakeholders of higher education: the government, private sector employers, universities and university students.

The university educational system has to be re-oriented to meet the challenges of graduate unemployment. The existing teaching and learning process relies heavily on rote learning.

Traditionally, students are passive listeners, and they rarely challenge each other or their professors in classes. Teaching focuses on the mastery of content, not on the development of the capacity for independent and critical thinking. Knowledge, skills and talent will be crucial factors for growth in the future, while innovation and willingness to change will be a driving force.

The university system needs to be re-structured, concerned with quality and relevance, and introduce job-oriented programmes. Therefore, the Ministry of Higher Education and the UGC plans to address issues through long-term plans of change. Establishing Sri Lanka as a knowledge hub in South Asia is one such option that is being explored.

Knowledge hub

A Knowledge Hub is broadly defined as a designated region intended to attract foreign investment, retain local students, build a regional reputation by providing access to high-quality education and training for both international and domestic students, and create a knowledge-based economy.

A knowledge hub is concerned with the process of building up a country’s capacity to better integrate it with the world’s increasing knowledge based economy, while simultaneously exploring policy options that have the potential to enhance economic growth. An education hub can include different combinations of domestic and international institutions, branch campuses, and foreign partnership, within the region. The main functions of hubs are to generate, apply, transfer, and disseminate knowledge.

The concept of a knowledge hub for Sri Lanka was proposed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa through his policy document during the presidential election in 2009. It is stated that Sri Lanka will “develop youth who can see the world over the horizon”. “We have the opportunity to make this country a knowledge hub within the South Asia region. I will develop and implement an operational plan to make this country a local and international training centre for knowledge”.

The Higher Education Ministry is grappling with the empirical implications of translating this promise into reality. The Ministry has invited foreign universities to set up campuses to provide a more diversified higher Education programme to increase access for local students and to attract students from overseas to study in Sri Lanka.

Just as in Singapore Sri Lanka’s strategy is to piggy- back on internationally renowned universities so that the process is cost effective and mutually beneficial.

Furthermore, it is planned that 10 branch campuses of “world class” universities would be established by 2013. The Knowledge Hub Agenda has given greater prominence especially to the fields of Science and Technology, Information and Communication Technology, Skills Development, and Research and Development in Applied Sciences.

Advantages

Sri Lanka enjoys several advantages to develop into an education hub. First, of all the ever increasing demand for higher education in the country is an impetus for growth and advancement. Annually, well over 250,000 students sit for the Advanced Level Examination and half of them are qualified for university education. However, only 22,000 are able to enter university education in the country.

Of them, 9000 enroll in vocational training through 12 Advanced Technological Institutes, 20,000 enroll at the Open University, 8000, access overseas education, 20,000 register as external candidates while 9000 are studying for a foreign degree via cross border institutes. Nearly, 60,000 students are looking for alternative higher education locally.

To be continued