Sunday, August 19, 2012

Academics need fresh thinking

, The Island

The roadmap for Sri Lanka’s academics needs fresh thinking. The two articles by C.A. Chandraprema and Prof. Amal S. Kumarage, with the theme "University Dons in Cuckoo land" in the Sunday Island on the last two consecutive weekends deal with the subject. I am responding as a retired university teacher who joined academia after serving in industry for over two decades. The reasons for my career-transformation, I would not like to elaborate on, but it was definitely not prompted by any financial gain.

The two writers, with their own thinking based on their life experiences, refer to Cuckoo land of academics but the main thrust is on a flawed comparison of income and working conditions in academia and industry. The comparison of salaries does not take into account the nature of work and the motivation in the two disparate realms. Even if these crucial factors are discounted, both have not mentioned the privilege of taking Sabbatical full pay leave, the academics enjoy every seven years, which would amount to a 15% increase in accrued benefits. I am not taking into account the air tickets to any part of the world where one has got an invitation. The air fare includes that for the spouse and the possibility of earning extra income during the period.

This privilege may be illusive for most present day academics due to many reasons. But, I enjoyed two such occasions that took me and my wife to different parts of the world on work assignments and highly valuable exposure.

Teaching and Research

The academic world is one of teaching and research, which complement each other, and it calls for a commitment of a different nature to that of industry. Industry is motivated by profit-making and the salaries are paid based on delivery of services to meet this end. The extrinsic rewards for work of this nature, that could be assessed in the short-term do not apply to creative and self-directed work as found in the academia. There are several studies showing only intrinsic rewards that assist in the second category of work.

The main argument put forward by the academics is based on spending a minimum percentage of GDP on education. This assumes that GDP is a good measure of development in a country. What this type of measure would do to the universities is quite evident now: more buildings, laboratories and equipment but with internal decay promoted by politics, rivalry and jealousy.

The compartment with no water

An example I can quote comes from my own experience at the Open University working in water-tight compartments, highly protected by narrow thinking. We formed an Agricultural Engineering Department, with the help of the British Government, to cater to meet a dire need to infuse engineering to the ailing agricultural sector. Now, the department functions without a single engineer as the three engineers trained in the UK, including myself, have left due to many reasons, and no replacements have been done since then. Now there is only the compartment but no water!

Prof. Krishna Kumar of Delhi University says that academics now treat teaching as institutional work and research as furthering personal career. This seems to be the contention of Prof. Amal. S Kumarage too, when he says consultancy work is a distraction to teaching. Chandraprema thinks this is a way to solve the salary issue. I would think both are misguided in this regard. Any such interaction with the outside world is a must for better teaching.

Teaching based on reality

The lack of intellectual stimulation, among the students by attending the lectures and project work, stems from the dearth of experience of teachers based on reality. The answer to this is in the false measures, adopted in academic wisdom, of enforced attendance and the current ‘diploma disease’. This wisdom extends to teaching what is in demand but not what is needed.

The reported poor performance of foreign scholarship-students attending local universities may point to the obvious but sad situation prevailing in the local universities. It seems we are able to attract the worst students from other countries. This should be taken as a useful feedback and corrective action must be taken instead of carrying on with a captive audience of local A-level students who have no other choice other than joining the rat race.

The problem lies in treating education as an investment like operating a bus service. According to one writer the pay-back period in engineering education is just three years. Then why not ask the students to take bank-loans and pay tuition-fees as there will be no other such lucrative business opportunities elsewhere.

I feel the metaphor of RMS Titanic is very apt. If we go ahead without any change and even have wild dreams of producing 27,000 engineering graduates (equivalent to money spent on CPC hedging-deal!) the whole engineering profession will sink faster than the Titanic and the profession will be beyond any recovery, it may be too late.

Reassessment and soul

searching

What is needed is a reassessment of what the academics are doing, and assess whether it meets the needs of development, not mere accreditation mainly for foreign employment. Unless some soul-searching is done, the academics should not expect any support either from the public or the politicians. Instead, they could treat tertiary education as a business venture and continue to produce goods for the global markets.

Dr. Gamini Kulatunga

The Open University of Sri Lanka, Faculty of Engineering Technology retired)