Universities: A vitally important but untapped potential in Sri Lanka
I have never ever had any political clout in my life. The only politician known to me as a child was one ”Girigoris” who always contested from the SLFP ticket for the Village Council (Gam Sabhawa) and he was always the loser. When I was in public service I was always identified as a sympathiser of the opposition party whatever the opposition was. Who I am today is completely due to the free education provided by the state. There were more than 40 students in my class and they were all from low income families. Only three of us entered the university. We got better remunerated jobs in public sector. Others, except a few who joined as teachers, ended up getting back to their parents’ low paid jobs in informal sector. I was then ‘machang” (buddy) to my classmates and now am a “mahattaya” or “sir” to them. This is the inequality created between equals by the free education.
Sri Lankan economy now and then
Ceylon at the time of introduction of “Free Education” was a relatively prosperous country with manageable fiscal and trade deficits, acceptable levels of inflation and tolerable unemployment. The country was at par or ahead of its Asian neighbours. Sri Lanka today is a lower middle income country with a per capita income of nearly US$3000. The official data and statistics show a low and decreasing poverty ratio and an unemployment rate. There are many state run programmes to improve the infrastructure to modern standards. Seaports, airports, highways, flyovers, road rehabilitations, and multi- source electricity generation projects are all around us. Projections indicate increased numbers of tourists, FDI, export earnings, and foreign remittances. The country shows signs of modernisation. An average annual economic growth of 8 per cent is expected in the coming years. Sri Lanka is on the verge of becoming the Wonder of Asia.
Yet, reality often deviates from the story conveyed by data and statistics. Is our agriculture modernised? Have we introduced new technology in industry? Have we adapted inventions and innovations into our manufacturing process? Are we on a competitive footing in our manufacturing, trade and services? Does education and training cater to our needs? In brief have we adapted ourselves to the trends and needs of a new millennium and the global village? We can continue with such questions. Response to most if not all of them will be in the negative.
Who is responsible? Is it the politician, public service, corporate sector, donors, I/NGOs, universities or the general public? I believe that all of us should take a share of the responsibility. Since the cream of intelligentsia is within the university system (I hope the politician would not be offended for not referring to the least) I would like to examine the role played by the higher education/ universities in this scenario.
Since independence, there has been considerable expansion in university and tertiary education. The number of universities has increased with more faculties, institutes, schools, centres, departments and teaching streams. Staff and student population has risen. According to UGC records, there are 500 full time Professors and 200 Associate Professors among a large community of academics of other grades and academic support staff within the university system. Infrastructure facilities, funding availability, programmes, projects and activities have improved tremendously. There has been continuous curricula development and introduction of modern teaching techniques.
Universities can contribute immensely and in numerous ways to national development. Here are three ways.
= Generation of employable, entrepreneurial, skillful human resources (direct output)
= Conducting practical research which addresses the societal/industry needs.
= Advice and expression of critical, professional unbiased views on national issues.
Generation of employable,
entrepreneurial,
skillful human resources
University graduates can contribute to national development by being productively employed in gainful opportunities. Our university graduates except in a few streams are not in much demand. The corporate sector does not feel that graduates could add value to their enterprises, and prefers lesser educated urban based youth with extracurricular activities and skills. Graduates do not feel secure, and confident that they could deliver to the satisfaction of corporate sector employers. The public sector is overstaffed with no room for creation of additional effective employment avenues. Every successive Government has absorbed unemployed graduates as graduate trainees and attached them to Government institutions without any rationale. For instance graduates who have specialized in agriculture are looking after rural industry. There are many graduates who do not have a specific job or even a chair.
Universities have thus failed to produce skillful human resources equipped with modern technology, rational thinking, practical knowledge and readiness to take up challenges and leadership. Changes introduced to curricula and syllabuses over time are inadequate if not negligible. Skills and practical knowledge imparted on students other than narrow subject-specific knowledge is marginal. No soft skills are taught. The universities have little or no contact, rapport with industry, with the policy maker and with the society at large. Industry, policy maker, society and the university are in their own isolated silos. Graduates who are produced in one silo are lost and alienated in other silos.
Conducting practical research
which addresses the
societal/industry needs
Research is pivotal for modernisation, innovation, invention, initiative, technology and finally for change and development and to move along with global and local trends. University academic and research community produce a considerable volume of multi-disciplinary research. Producers (in agriculture and manufacturing), service providers and the public sector are the potential users of the research outcome. But there is a gap between the producers and users of research outcomes. What are the causes for this gap?
First is that there is no acknowledgement for the need and the importance of research across different strata of the society. Agriculture largely consists of peasants and smallholders. They are merely passive recipients and dependents of state subsidies and handouts. Their dependence of research is minimal.
The manufacturing sector has not shown much evidence of using research output. Foreign investment brings its own technology. The Small and Medium Sector Enterprises normally resort to their indigenous and conventional methods of production, and occasionally seek assistance of facilitating bodies such as the Industrial Development Board. The local industries more often than not depend on imported machinery and equipment which come along with the technology. Further, Sri Lanka does not have a large local manufacturing sector.
The Service Sector is modernised, mechanised and is the largest sector contributing more than 60 per cent to the GDP. The service sector has its own human resource development programmes and access to numerous training organizations, expatriate resource personnel, online services and information through Internet. The sector does not approach the academia for research and advice.
The public sector does not seek the involvement of universities and their outputs. One reason is that the public sector has its own research organisations. Interaction and links between these research institutes and universities is absent. There is hardly an opportunity to share the expertise and the experience between these two types of institutes. The Coconut Research Institute conducted research and studies on the coconut wilt disease spreading in the Southern Province. The University of Ruhuna which has a well developed Faculty of Agriculture and was readily available on site was neither consulted nor involved in any study or research. There is at least one university in each province. But no provincial council has involved Universities for their development programmes.
By and large research has not been given high priority by the society. The dependence on, and therefore, the demand for research is weak and erratic. Universities which are knowledge banks with a huge research capability and output and a pool of human resources have not been in demand by the society. Society has failed to acknowledge the need and importance of research, thereby leaving universities in the lurch in its development drive.
The second issue is related to the relevance of research conducted in universities. Society does not inform the universities what research is required. Universities do not search for what research is in demand by the society. The research conducted by universities is academically rich and theoretically sound, but practically of limited value. Most research is not multidisciplinary. There is limited awareness among the rest of the society outside the university on the research conducted. Research Symposiums are conducted within walls of the university lecture halls with limited access to potential users outside. Valuable and productive research will end up on a library shelf.
Acknowledgement, Availability, Awareness, Accessibility, Affordability and Adaptability are issues always related to research and restricts Application of research findings.
Advice and expression of critical,
professional unbiased
views on national issues
The global economy has been in turmoil since 2008. Being part of the global economy with an open economy model, Sri Lanka has, no doubt been, deeply affected by recent financial and economic crisis. Central Bank has been the sole spokesman expressing its own views and making interpretations and explanations. No alternative views came out. Universities have lost an opportunity to study, research, analyse and come out with alternative views for the benefit of the public. There have been no research or discussions conducted in university corridors on this. No professional alternative views and potential solutions seem to have been discussed. The public was compelled to accept the opinion of the international organisations.
In the face of the current widening trade deficit it is unfortunate that our universities have failed to make opinions or offer advice. The issues connected to current droughts which affected hundreds of thousands of farmer families in the dry zone, irrigation, power and drinking water are not discussed in our university corridors. It was only politicians and bureaucrats who expressed their views. They are excuses and explanations rather than views and solutions. This is in a country where there are many Faculties of Agriculture, Engineering, Science, Management and Economics.
How much do we hear from universities on the Geneva Fiasco, Debt Trap, Merger of financial institutions, widening trade, fiscal deficits?
Sri Lanka has failed to keep pace with global trends and challenges, and be responsive to local needs. The nation has invested heavily and pinned high hopes on education, especially at the university level. The dream of many children and parents irrespective of their social class, economic profile and location is the “University”. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Higher Education is not happy; the University Grants Commission is not happy; University staff, both academic and non-academic, are not happy; Industry is not happy; Parents are not happy; Under-graduates are not happy; and Graduates are not happy. There is hardly anyone who is happy about the outcome of the university education system.
The university system absorbs the cream of our education output. Students enter the university as bright, courageous, ambitious and promising youth and exit as desperate, pessimistic, and broken persons. Youth leave their familiar society and surroundings to join an alien society and environs. At the time they leave they are very much part of the society. They return to find an alien society unable to integrate with it. Their flexibility has disappeared with changed attitudes.
(The writer can be reached on
chandra.maliyadde@gmail.com)