Timely issues for academics and policy makers of higher education

The University of the Future and the Culture of Learning by Senake Bandaranayake. Published by Kandy Books, 2007.

Senake Bandaranayake's book, the University of the Future and the Culture of Learning contains ten articles and memoranda based on his involvement with University education in this country at various stages of professional life, especially as the founder Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, as a Vice Chancellor, and as a member of the University Grants Commission.

The articles cover a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to university education. Six of them dwell on issues such as the role of the University Grants Commission, development of university education, postgraduate research, partnerships and the University of the Future. Three are related to the field of Humanities and Social Sciences while a short article reflects on sports and education.

The 133 pages that focus on the selected themes provide stimulation for thought and reflection and open up new possibilities for those interested in the much-needed quality improvement of university education in this country. In my review of the book, I wish to deviate from the order in which the articles are presented.

The role of the University Grants Commission, the apex body that sits atop the "autonomous" universities n the system is the focus of discussion in Article No.6. This article has immense relevance today in view of stakeholder perceptions of what the UGC should and should not be doing. The author states the objective of the memorandum as to initiate discussion within the UGC itself on the vision of the UGC regarding its role in the system. He identifies the major strengths and weaknesses of the system and the political, social and cultural dimensions before dealing with the UGC's role. Some of the possible changes proposed by the author, for example, the establishment of an autonomous accreditation and quality assurance agency has already seen the light of the day, though, perhaps not with all legitimate authority that it requires. The universities and institutions appear to be exercising their freedom to supplement income by expanding fee-paying courses etc. Similarly, the establishment of an autonomous Inter-University Admissions Board is also likely take place in due course, when the UGC realizes how such an agency could improve the efficiency of the UGC to manage other coordinating and overseeing functions it is expected to handle.

The area in which very little headway is being made seems to be in the devolution of the UGC role in recruitment, appointment and promotions etc. While the need for UGC to institute guidelines on the above matters to ensure that no dilution of quality occurs in the university system is not questioned, the issue is why the UGC should spend long periods of time in reviewing when decisions are made by the so-called 'autonomous' institutions having conformed to existing guidelines. It is also disappointing to note that some of the issues raised in this memorandum such as the private sector in higher education have not been widely and openly discussed in the higher education circles and the UGC. Prof. Bandaranayake also makes other salient recommendations such as strengthening the role of the Standing Committees, and that UGC and the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Directors (CVCD) should function as a Joint Council for Higher Education.

Postgraduate education and university research were areas discussed at length in the Standing Committee on Humanities and Social Sciences during the period when Prof. Bandaranayake chaired this Committee. His interest in the subject also stemmed from the experience of having conceptualised and successfully established a pioneer Postgraduate Institute - that of Archaeology in Sri Lanka. He analyses the research culture in the university system and bemoans the fact that over the years the proportion of research conducted by universities as well as the quality of research had declined. Building on Kirthi Tennakoon's statement that "University instructors who do not possess high credibility as researchers simply cannot be good teachers", he emphasises the contribution that research makes to teaching-learning and to the quality of postgraduate education and urges the relevant institutions, - the UGC and the universities to take new initiatives to promote research and a research culture. Of the recommendations made here especially worthy of note are (1) the recognition of research as a critical element in teaching-learning, (2) prioritization of research in budgeting, (3) funding of undergraduate and postgraduate research and (4) establishment of full-time research positions in university departments.

With Prof. Bandaranayake as its Chairperson, the UGC Standing Committee on Humanities and Social Sciences, had long and continuing discussions on the positioning of Humanities and Social Sciences in university education. The article on "Humanities and Social Sciences in an Age of Science" analyses how university-wide issues tend to affect Humanities and Social Sciences more than the other fields in university education. The article ends with a plea for a dialogue between the natural and social sciences and the humanities and between tradition and modernity in order to achieve the economic and technological development for which Singapore is acclaimed but without the 'Singaporization' of the mind.

The article on "University Education: Past, Present and the Way Forward" continues the earlier discussion in a similar strain. It touches briefly on the earlier experiments from 1960 to 1980s and goes on to discuss the new restructuring of university education - the reforms of 1995-2005 which he describes as pragmatic, structural and conceptual. It also refers to the 28-action plan developed by the Standing Committee on Humanities and Social Sciences which stressed that the intellectual dimensions and unfettered creativity at the apex as well as in the underlying values of a University system should not be diluted in the effort to re-orient universities in the direction of the employability of the university product. The reference made here to the National Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (NCAS) is followed up in another article.

Prof. Bandaranayake was directly instrumental in the establishment of the NCAS. In depth inquiry into the status quo of Humanities and Social Sciences within the university system indicated the need for a postgraduate institute in Humanities and Social Sciences as in the other disciplines for which postgraduate institutes had already been established. A major concern that had been expressed prior to the establishment of NCAS was that postgraduate education in Humanities and Social Sciences had lagged behind, especially in the context of dependence on university abroad for high level human resource development.

The need for the importance of foreign linkages to enhance Humanities and Social Sciences was recognized and the new Institute was specifically to ensure proper representation and integration of all universities and other institutions, target high quality environment, education and research, concentrate on Ph.D. level studies, attempt special accreditation and mobilize resources for link and exchange programmes with advanced international centres. That the NCAS was established and is functioning and that a large number of postgraduate awards locally and internationally have been made to support junior academics in these disciplines is heartening to note. It is important however, to ensure that funding for these initiatives be continued in the future at least until a core pool of academics is developed to contribute to quality enhancement of these disciplines.

The article on 'Landmarks and Challenges in University Education', starts with a brief introduction on the development of university education. The article demonstrates a solid understanding of the issues related to university education, where deficiencies in university undergraduate education are, quite rightly, linked to the issues of employability and the challenges emanating from the rapidly developing 'other tertiary educational institutions' and our responsibility towards the potential students who need and desire continuing education. It is opportune that these issues are widely and openly debated, confronted objectively and solutions are searched for.

The final article is aptly titled "the University of the Future and the Culture of Learning". The author probes into the implications of the now widely-accepted concept of the 'knowledge economy' and 'knowledge society'. Among the implications listed are the need for new ideals, creativity, discussions, technologies, organization and management, social understanding; emphasis on intellectual advantage and effectiveness of investment in education and development of a culture of knowledge/learning.

The need to initiate a fundamental change in the culture of learning which encompasses teaching-learning, attitudes and values, reformulation of the research vision and moving towards two opposite and sometimes contradictory goals - towards efficiency and professionalism and towards an imaginative, reflective, creative and conceptual world are brought out in the discussion.

I had the fortune to associate and interact with Prof. Bandaranayake for about 15 years in the broad field of Humanities and Social Sciences in which he stood out as an eminent, brilliant and committed academic.

It is rare to find a much-published researcher who has also been for many years a university administrator writing down his or her views on higher education at some length. The significance of the insights expressed herein cannot be over-emphasized and it is timely that policy makers, authorities and academics in the arena of higher education, study these articles carefully and seriously and identify action as relevant for the system, their institutions and professional lives.