New IT degree programmes at OUSL with support from AHEAD and IT industry stakeholders
The Sri Lankan Government has proposed a plan to provide higher education opportunities to all students who pass the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination.
The Open University of
Sri Lanka (OUSL) in association with the University Grants Commission (UGC), has taken steps to contribute to this plan by admitting 10,000 students to its popular Bachelor of Software Engineering (BsE Hons) degree programme, with the support of the World Bank funded AHEAD operation.
This initiative by OUSL is expected to radically increase the intake of students to IT study programmes with two key objectives:
(a) to support the governments’ initiative to provide higher educational opportunities.
(b) creating a large resource pool with IT skills in Sri Lanka.
The impact of having a large resource pool for the IT industry would have a direct impact on the growth of the IT industry in the country, and provide expertise required to assist the Government’s digitisation strategy.
According to an AHEAD spokesperson, currently only 20% of the students who pass the A/L exams enter national universities in Sri Lanka, while approximately 17% study at various non-state sector higher educational institutes.
The plan was drawn up after discussions were held with stakeholders, including the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) and Coursera.
As a result of these discussions, it was agreed to develop several IT degree programmes with industry demand in mind, in addition to the existing BsE Honours degree.
These study programmes will have a common basic curriculum during the first year, which would open further pathways towards multiple specialisations based on the need of the industry from the second year onwards.
Students will also have the option of various exit levels at the diploma, higher diploma and bachelors degree levels, after fulfilling the necessary credit requirements.
The curriculum of the programme will be carefully designed in such a way that up to a maximum of 50% of the credits could be earned by following recognised international academic certifications offered through Coursera by world-leading universities, for example, Imperial College in London and Duke University, John Hopkins University and Pennsylvania University in the United States.
Professional certifications will be offered by companies such as CISCO, Google and Microsoft. The remaining credits will be offered by OUSL. The programmes will use techniques such as online delivery and assessment methods to accommodate a large number of students.
OUSL recommends the initial admission of up to 10,000 students, for its existing and new IT degree programmes. The student numbers will gradually increase to 25,000 students after facilities are put in place.
The contents of the study programmes are carefully designed to enable a student who successfully completes the first year to seek entry level employment in the IT industry or work independently, for example, in mobile application development.
The general entry qualifications are three simple passes in any stream of the GCE A/L exams or equivalent qualifications. The qualified students will be selected through a selection test, the spokesperson said.
The AHEAD operation has agreed to finance the total estimated seed funding to the tune of Rs 300 million. This investment would provide an excellent return on investment for the Government.
Since the OUSL expects to form a strong partnership with the IT industry through SLASSCOM for mentoring and internships, most students are expected to be ready for industry employment at the end of their programme.
In this context of required assistance, the initial need would be the human resources, while the second need would be the infrastructure facilities.
This second step would involve upgrading of infrastructure facilities at OUSL regional and study centres and using the IT Labs under the purview of the Mahindodaya technical labs whenever possible.
The final requirement would be the content development support which would develop the internet-based materials required for programme delivery.
A spokesperson for OUSL said this programme needed to be implemented soon due to the current situation of the country and the expected rapid demand for IT professionals in the post-COVID era. The AHEAD operation is expected to support this programme within its mandate of promoting the increase of enrolment to higher education programmes.
(Tharushi Weerasinghe)