The role  of State  universities

July 18, 2012, 12:00 pm , the island

A SAARC writers’ conference was held at the University of Peradeniya on August 25, 2005. I was a third-year student in the English Department at that time. This conference left a permanent mark in me for two reasons. The first reason is tied to the day on which the conference was held. It was the day on which the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, a politician with brains and a heart and probably the best diplomat the country has ever had, was gunned down. It was a black day in that sense. The second reason is tied to the conference theme, which was "Recognising Commonalities and Celebrating Differences". This conference theme resonated well, I thought, with the role expected of state universities, especially of the social sciences and humanities departments of those universities.

Universities, especially state universities, have a historical legacy of creating and protecting environments conducive to free thinking. They have always been sites of intellectual struggle, struggles aimed at making unheard voices heard. Dissension and criticism have always been the primary principles defining their modus operandi. The constant search for alternatives, a task that universities have historically been endowed with, makes it absolutely necessary to criticise the existing order with a view to creating space for alternative understandings of the realities governing human existence. Universities have always been a platform for dissenting voices. Being the Sri Lankan institutions that have inherited this historical legacy, the Sri Lankan state universities are expected to protect and uphold what the legacy stands for.

Given this historical legacy, the idea that universities are not being "productive", a charge that is increasingly levelled at Sri Lankan state universities, especially at their social sciences and humanities departments, indicates a complete misunderstanding of the role of the state universities. This allegation requires us to revisit the notion of productivity. In the current world order, which is predominantly defined by global capitalism, productivity appears to mean being able to produce immediate and tangible results. This conception of productivity conveniently brands any form of activity that does not produce immediate and tangible results as unproductive. The dominant capitalist mindset fails to understand that universities are engaged in a different kind of productive process, a process that produces ideas. Ideas, by virtue of the fact that they are neither immediate nor tangible, do not fall within the capitalist interpretation of productivity.

The capitalist interpretation of productivity requires universities to focus on developing a selected set of skills in students and producing graduates with a marketable value. It places employability over the critical thinking capacity as the primary virtue of the graduates. It views ideas as useless and dangerous products. It promotes conformity, while demonising dissension, difference, and criticism. In short, it violates almost all the fundamental principles of the concept of ‘university’.

As institutions trapped in the capitalist world order, universities have to empower their students with the necessary skills for them to survive in the market economy. However, this does not mean that the universities should change their trajectory and abandon the important role that history has endowed them with Universities should continue to create space for free thinking, provide platforms for dissenting voices, and establish and uphold criticism as the way to finding alternatives. Their primary focus should continue to be producing intellectuals who can think critically and aim at changing society, rather than producing skilled workers who can only perform a predefined role assigned to them by the system. The ongoing trade union action launched by university lecturers is important mainly because its main aim is to protect and uphold this historic role.

Nandaka Maduranga

Kalugampitiya

Reform of university education

July 18, 2012, 12:00 pm , the island

The Government has been compelled to take notice of the agitation by the University staff. Their demands not only relate to their remuneration but include outlawing private universities. One demand is that the educational budget should be 6 percent of GDP. These learned men should have examined the budget before making such a ludicrous demand. Only 20% of the budget is available for the government to spend at its discretion. The balance 80% is more or less fixed since they go to fund the salaries and pensions of government employees and to pay interest on the National Debt which is escalating beyond any control each year. There are also other demands on the budget like health and subsidies for fertilizer etc. So this demand is not only impossible to implement, but is also not desirable considering the other demands on the budget which are equally important for public welfare.

As far as I know there is no other country in the world which gives completely free university education to all students.  University education allows graduates who qualify to earn much higher incomes than the large majority of the people. Should the majority who are poorer subsidize those who would be well off in 3-4 years time because of university education? I think it is unfair. In other countries university students are required to pay fees but are assisted with student loans which are interest free. These loans are recovered from them after they are employed. Such a scheme should be introduced particularly for the medical and engineering graduates. The students should be given loans which would go as fees to the universities. This will enable the universities to pay higher salaries for the lecturers and university staff. This will enable the university authorities to improve the quality of the university education. This to my mind is perhaps the only way to improve the quality of university education. It is of course not necessary to charge the high level of fees levied by private higher educational institutes.

As for private universities   they should be encouraged by granting them tax free status and legal recognition. We may be able to attract well known foreign universities to establish campuses locally as the universities in Britain did in China (University of Nottingham educates Chinese in English medium). It is only through competition that public sector universities can improve the quality of university education. If the Government does not take bold decisions to levy fees and pay more to university lecturers our universities are doomed. University education has an important role to play in economic development.

R.M.B Senanayake

FUTA strike continues

July 18, 2012, 10:49 pm 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, the island

University teachers were disappointed that Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga had not called them for the third round of discussions, which was earlier scheduled to be held on Monday or Tuesday evening, at the Presidential Secretariat.

President of the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said that their strike was continuing as the government authorities had failed to address their demands so far.

Dr. Devasiri said that FUTA executive committee decided to boycott the GCE (A/L) paper marking if the government does not provide an acceptable solution to their demands before September.

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa proposed to appoint a presidential commission to investigate our problems," he said adding that the FUTA executive committee had rejected that proposal too.

He said that there was no need to appoint new commissions as all relevant officials, including those in the Higher Education Ministry, University Grants Commission, Treasury, Finance Ministry, National Salaries and Cadre Commission and the Presidential Secretary were well aware of their problems as it was a longstanding affair.

The senior academic said that this time they would not end the strike until government provides a permanent solution.

JVP takes up Uni. teachers’ battle

July 18, 2012, 10:25 pm 

By Saman Indrajith, the island

The Higher Education Minister must not allow the ongoing crisis in universities to aggravate further and must take immediate action to find answers for the grievances of university teachers, the JVP demanded in Parliament yesterday.

JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, making a special statement, said that the university teachers were on a strike with four demands which were reasonable and those demands should be granted to sort out the current crisis situation in universities.

Dissnayake said the first and the foremost demand of the university teachers was for an allocation of six percent of the Gross Domestic Product for education. The government which boasts of converting this county into the Miracle of Asia has been pruning down the allocation for education since 2005. It has been cut down by 50 percent.

The total allocation for education in 2005 was 3.5 percent of the GDP. In 2011 the corresponding figure was 1.86 percent. This had placed the university system in difficulty. The teachers have expressed their willingness to shelve their demand for a pay hike, if the government agrees to increase the GDP allocation for country’s education system, he said.

Their second demand was to stop political influence in the education sector. The recent examples of ministers messing up with the country’s education system could be cited to justify their demand. The education sector must be free of government influence.

The university teachers also demand that they must be consulted in preparing the national policy on education. Any responsible government should do so without waiting till the academics ask them to do so because they are stakeholders in the country’s education and without their contribution no success could be expected in any programme implemented in the education sector, he added.

The fourth demand put forward by the university academics was to provide a solution to their salary problem. Even the higher education minister had once accepted, in this assembly, that the demand for a better salary from the university teachers was reasonable. The country’s university system needs at least 5,800 academics but has only 4,200, a shortage of 1600. Many academics have left the country. Therefore, the onus is on the government to increase the salaries of those who remained here to prevent their following the example set by their colleagues to find greener pastures in foreign universities, the JVPer said.

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, responding to the issues raised by JVP MP, said that the pay hike demanded by the university teachers was not reasonable at all.

The Minister said that the current salaries being paid to the university teachers were sufficient as they had been given an increment recently.