Universities under pressure to be flexible and responsive to current needs

New breed of institutional leaders for internationalising SL Universities:

May 30, 2012, 8:18 pm , the island

By Professor Ranjith Senaratne
Vice Chairman
University Grants Commission
(E-mail:ransen.ru@gmail.com)

Origin of the post of Vice Chancellor

Continued from yesterday

In many parts of the world, universities are now powerful catalysts and agents of growth and wealth creators. They mobilize and channel their intellectual and infrastructural resources for industrial growth and regional and national development. Thus great cities naturally have great universities that contribute to their intellectual, social and cultural vibrancy as well as influence their development. In a knowledge-based global economy, there is even greater synergy between development of a city and that of its universities. Stanford University in California, U.S.A., Punjab University in Punjab, India, Fudan University in Shanghai, China, Chalmers University in Gothenberg, Sweden and the NUS in Singapore are some telling examples in this regard.

Thus the government encourages the universities to contribute to regional and national development. In Sri Lanka, the universities are almost fully funded by the Treasury. In other words, they are maintained by the sweat and toil of the people of the country of whom around 70% are still living in rural areas. But the immense intellectual and infrastructural resource base of the universities has hitherto remained almost untapped or underutilized for regional/national development. Our universities should, in line with new initiatives such as Gama Naguma, Pura Naguma, Divi Naguma etc. under the Mahinda Chintana, mobilize and channel their rich intellectual and infrastructure resources for regional/national development. Thus they could become catalysts and locomotives of regional development.

Moreover, the strategic location, salubrious climate, rich biological and ecological diversity and scenic beauty of Sri Lanka coupled with its high literacy rate and proficiency in English, the high reputation of its universities, and its relatively low cost of education and cost of living make it an attractive destination for higher education.

Nevertheless, the Sri Lankan universities have been developed to cater for the Sri Lankan students. Therefore, to attract foreign students and staff, there should be a step change in the higher educational institutions in Sri Lanka ranging from enhancement of the physical environment (i.e. landscaping and improvement of infrastructure facilities for accommodation, sports and recreation, cafeteria, e-library etc.), revision of curricula to give an international flavour and character (since much of the present curricula has only a national focus), raising the academic climate and intellectual atmosphere, establishment of an institutional structure on international affairs to changes in governance, management and administration in order to make them foreign-students friendly.

In order to strategically lead and effectively manage such systemic changes, institutional leaders of right mindset, attributes and skills are required. It is because of these reasons that as shown above, even countries like Uganda and Rwanda advertise high profile positions in universities in international journals so as to recruit leaders who can fill the bill in a highly competitive globalised environment abounding with opportunities.

New breed of institutional leaders required

The 1998 World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) reaffirmed that institutions of higher learning, and their leadership, have an unprecedented role to play in today’s society as pillars to endogenous capacity building and sustainable democracy. This reaffirmation was in recognition of the fact that institutions of higher learning are increasingly regarded, and rightly so, as the bedrock upon which nations build a better and solid future.

Dr. Kobena T. Hanson and Dr. Frannie A. Leautier of the African Capacity Building Foundation in their seminal paper titled "Enhancing Institutional Leadership in African Universities" have dealt with this subject in detail. I draw upon it here, given its relevance and value to the Sri Lankan context.

Global developments of the past decade, particularly the shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy, have engendered new challenges, opportunities and possibilities for the leadership of higher educational institutions (HEIs). These changes are calling for rethinking and reviewing of the role of higher education, and more specifically a thorough interrogation of the calibre and mandate of the leadership of HEIs. Leaders of HEIs are being increasingly held accountable, among others, for their support to growth and long-term success of dynamic learners (students and employees) and their ability to translate leadership competence into strategic assets.

Simultaneously, the marketplace for higher education is changing fast with the advent of information technologies, the growing demand for knowledge workers, and the rapid globalization of all sectors, both private and public. These developments reflect the shift in the international economy towards a global network organised around the value of knowledge, and the capacity of people and organisations to use technological developments wisely, effectively and efficiently. Therefore, as D.E. Hanna (2003) said, universities are being compelled to transform their structures, missions, processes and programmes in order to be both flexible and responsive to today’s emerging socio-economic and knowledge needs.

Thus universities no longer can afford academic insularity; they should embark upon strategic public-private partnerships and collaborative endeavours at home and abroad. Growing competition faced by universities in the areas of learning and research is compelling many to carve out niches with focus on intergenerational, cross disciplinary and societally-valuable learning and knowledge as well as to rethink their specific role in civil society to transform societies and enhance the transmission of appropriate values.

Therefore our universities must proactively take on the task of fostering institutional leadership so as to translate leadership competence into strategic assets for the development agenda of the nation. Such assets are the key to bolstering intellectual capital and strategic scanning, the capacity, that is, to recognise the behaviour of interconnected systems to make effective decisions under varying strategic and risk scenarios, and the transformation of knowledge as a lever for the achievement of specified societal objectives and goals.

The strategic rethinking of the role of institutional leadership in our universities is thus inevitable. In this regard, the dialogue should be articulated around issues of global competitiveness, knowledge utilisation, the changing geopolitical landscape, and paradigm shifts in the role of the university from one of control and regulation to one of facilitation and flexibility.

Universities being dynamic institutions do not function effectively if its constituent members do not have the right combination of skills, knowledge and attitudes (competencies) and a suitably structured system is in place.

In the context of the aforesaid interactions and complexities, the tools and frameworks that institutional leaders previously used to make decisions now seem inadequate. Sri Lankan universities, therefore, need a cadre of new leaders who possess the requisite leadership skills that empower them to navigate through the complexities and interconnectedness of the knowledge society of the 21st century. The specific skills required as identified by Dr. F. Lautier, Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation for African Universities are as follows:

a) ability to function in environments with low predictability;

b) preparedness to handle diverse potential futures;

c) capacity to generate strategic maps of pressure points and risk scenarios;

d) skills, set of values, and behaviours that guide them in making choices in challenging circumstances; and,

e) capacity to identify patterns of change (shifts), extract important relationships

(interactions), and select from a variety of approaches for handling challenges

Given that the nature and complexity of problems affecting the higher education in Africa and South Asia are comparable, the above hold good for Sri Lankan universities as well.

To be continued tomorrow