The role of state universities in the knowledge hub in Sri Lanka
April 30, 2013, 6:24 pm, The Island
by Professor Gamini Samaranayake,
Senior Professor/Chair,
Department of Political Science,
University of Peradeniya
(Convocation speech delivered at the convocation of the Eastern university of Sri Lanka on the 20th of April 2013)
The
Hon, Deputy Minister for Higher Education, the Chancellor, the Vice
Chancellor of the Eastern University, Deans of Faculties, Heads of
Departments, members of the academic staff, The Registrar and Bursar,
the members of the non academic staff, other invited guests, the
graduands, parents and well wishers, ladies and gentlemen. I would like
to thank the Vice Chancellor for inviting me here today to deliver the
convocation address.
I would like to depart from the
traditional convocation speech and would like to focus on the role and
trajectory of the Sri Lankan Universities in the envisaged Knowledge
Hub in Sri Lanka which gives me an opportunity to focus on the changing
role of the academic staff, the undergraduates and all of the
stakeholders of the universities. The speech therefore looks at the
contribution universities should make in Sri Lanka’s bid of becoming a
knowledge hub. The specific analytical considerations are:
- the viability, potential and trajectory of the universities
- and how the knowledge hub will address some of the problems and challenges currently facing the higher education sector.
The
basic argument therefore is that the way forward in addressing the
multi-faceted issues in higher education is by implementing structural
changes that are aligned to the changes that are taking place at the
international level in higher education. However, it does not mean that
we depend on external forces to determine how we address some of the
salient issues but it is more about how we think strategically in
aligning and forging our own solutions.
The speech is
logically structured into five major sections of analysis. The first
examines the factors which have contributed to the current nature and
scope of university education at the global and local level. The second
part deals with the origin, development and present issues of
university education in the country. The third part deals with the
changing landscape in higher education providers including foreign
campuses or transnational higher educational institutes which has a
bearing on state universities, the fourth part deals with the knowledge
hub, advantages, opportunities and challenges, The fifth part of the
deals with the observations and suggestions and draws on generic
conclusions.
Changes in the Global Higher Education System
University
education is not an isolated phenomenon but is subject to the vagaries
of external and internal factors. Let us consider the external factors
first. The external factors stem from the processes of globalization,
internationalization and multi-nationalization of university education.
Globalization comprises of broad economic and political changes that
are supported by the rapid advancement in communication and technology
or ICT, the use of the English language as the language of learning
followed by French and Spanish, the rise of private universities, the
marketisation of higher education, and related aspects that are more or
less inevitable results of the rapidly diversifying and changing
global environment.
Internationalization means a package of
policies that a government or education institutions develop to cope
with the global environment such as providing academic programmes in
foreign languages and sponsoring students to continue their studies
abroad. Multinationalization means offering a country’s programmes in
other countries. It covers the application of another country’s
education programmes, and adapts courses and syllabi in a country’s
context responding to the needs and the desire to be part of
globalization. Multi-nationalization functions by means of branch
campuses, franchising, joint degree offering institutions called
twining, establishing partnership, and university centers, online
programmes, distance mode of delivery and e-learning. As a result, well
established universities are setting up offshore or branch campuses in
other countries. It is referred to as the McDonalization of higher
education.
In the case of internal factors, it is
undoubtedly tied to the post independence trajectory of the country.
The demographic structure of the country underwent significant changes
with the expansion of health and education services. The maternal,
child and infant mortality rates declined, the primary health care
system expanded and delivered services to all parts of the country,
life expectancy increased and the mortality rate declined. The
concomitant expansion of education as a right with free education from
primary to tertiary level facilitated human development to such an
extent that we are now on par with developed countries in terms of the
Human Development and Gender Parity Indexes.
What are the
implications of such a development on higher education? Undoubtedly
there was a bulge in the youth and child population in the demographic
structure. This young population made maximum use of the education and
health services and Sri Lanka is left with a youth cohort that aspires
for higher education and white collar employment. Education is the only
means of upward social mobility for the educated rural youth and it
continues to be so in the future.
This demand for education
has reached another stage today. We have near universal coverage in
primary and secondary education and the issue at hand is no longer the
provision of services but the quality and governance of services. In
higher education we have a different problem. We have not expanded
higher education at the same pace as the demand and today only about 16%
access education as a right free of charge provided by the state.
We
have all of the other conducive factors in place for the knowledge hub
such as a bulge in the youth population though declining will remain
relatively static till about 2020, a primary and secondary education
that has reached near universal coverage though it requires significant
modernization and a human development and gender parity index that
ensures equal opportunity for all. According to the current assessment
of our Human Development Index Sri Lanka is placed with the developed
countries. The end of the civil strife in 2009 has made it possible for
me to stand here and address you today and your university is now
connected to a wider network rather than being isolated. I think your
current Vice Chancellor has returned to the country as part of this
peace dividend.
The area where the peace dividend is most
evident is in the economic development of the country which has also
given rise to an expansion in the use of technology in communication
and mobility. The economic stability has fostered an environment for
enterprise development which has influenced the higher education sector
where the supply does not meet the demand. The rapid development in
transport infrastructure, the increased internal mobility and
emigration and immigration have widened the horizons of the youth
population.
The formation of trade alliances and trade in
higher education services by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) the
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the European Union
(EU), and the Bologna process has further revolutionized the
understanding and practice in higher education globally as well as
locally.
There have been various efforts to meet the demand
for Higher Education in the country and all over the world. In the late
1960s there was no country in Western Europe that had a Gross
Enrollment Rate (GER) that was higher than 8 percent. Currently, the
GER is more than 50 per cent. As a result, the model of university
education has changed from elite to mass and to international. At
present more than 2.8 million students are studying outside their home
countries. This number will increase to eight million by the year 2020.
What
is noteworthy in this context is that the quest for higher education
is accompanied by a demand for quality, recognition and employability.
The quality of higher education is measured by the following criteria:
modernized classrooms, libraries, laboratories, study halls, syllabi,
and methods of teaching and evaluation.
Currently the
strongest British and American universities receive worldwide
admiration and respect for their leadership in research and education.
They excel in the advancement of human knowledge of nature and culture,
they provide the best training to the next generation of scholarship;
and they provide outstanding undergraduates, postgraduates and
professional education for those who will emerge from all walks of
life. Consequently, many universities in both countries are referred to
as World Class universities. Simultaneously, Asian countries such as
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and India seek
to expand the capacity of their system of university education.
The
Global changes have also made a significant impact to improve equity
in higher education but in the case of Sri Lanka the advantages are
mostly confined to those who can afford higher education. Maintaining
equity in Sri Lanka is more complex as higher education is provided as a
right and is a politicized processed. Therefore to improve equity Sri
Lanka will have to continue to invest in state universities to align
the courses and the skills set that students acquire to the labour
force demands, the private higher education institutions will have to
offer scholarships and fellowships to the high achieving students from
poor families or disadvantaged regions and the state universities will
have to focus on increasing efficiency, effectiveness and
accountability. It is widely believed that poor but talented students
get more opportunity to enroll in higher education through scholarship
programmes where tuition fees are charged than in countries with free
education
Thus, the main challenge before university
education is to increase access and quality while maintaining equity.
The initiative of the member countries of the European Union (EU) is
referred as the "bologna process" which proposed a restructuring of
under-graduate and post-graduate programmes and a credit transfer
system, among the EU countries. The World Trade Organization (WTO)
through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has
encouraged private higher educational among its member countries. It has
already contributed to a world-wide debate on whether higher education
is for public good or private good. If it is provided as a private
good higher education should be up for sale as a service like any other
product.
Sri Lanka cannot remain insulated from these
changes and global debates and they do reach us in many forms and means
and we are compelled to seek solutions within this framework of change
while being mindful of the many social and political implications.
Origin and Development
In
this context it seems relevant to have an overview of the system in
Sri Lanka. The origin and development of university education in Sri
Lanka goes back to the latter part of British rule. The establishment of
the University College in 1921 marked the beginning of university
education in the country. It prepared students to sit the external
degree of the University of London. The University of Ceylon
established in 1942 by the amalgamation of the University College and
the Medical College in Colombo was the first native university with
power to offer degrees. The university followed the model of Oxford and
Cambridge popularly known as the ox-bridge model. From the inception
up to recent times university education was dominated by state
universities.
Currently, there are 14 conventional
universities, three campuses, one Open University, 9 undergraduate and 8
post-graduate institutes, 9 degree awarding institutes under the
purview of the University Grants Commission. Besides, there are two
religious universities under the Ministry of Higher Education. There is
one university under the Ministry of Defense, and one under the
Ministry of Vocational Training. The 19, universities provide higher
education under the principle of Free Education but the right to
education defines free education as equity in access and quality which
we find questionable. The exact statistics are not available regarding
the number of students in universities overseas. According to estimates
of the UGC nearly 8000-10000 students leave the country for higher
education annually.
The biggest challenge facing our
university education is ensuring equal opportunity in access and
quality. In 2010 54,000 applied for 22,000 placements at our
universities. The Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) which means the ratio of
students enrolled in higher education in the age cohort of 18 to 24
yeas is close to 16 per cent. The UGC is planning to increase the GER up
to 20 per cent in 2016 and 30 per cent in 2020. It is essential to
maintain the GER to the level of 20 per cent to move to a knowledge
economy.
The challenge before us is to increase access to
higher education while improving the quality of education. The
curriculum and courses we offer should contribute to the production of a
skilled labour force that meets the demands of the new millennium. The
answer lies in changing the traditional model of teaching and learning
measured by where we study and what we learned. New pressures such as
alignment to industry and the demand of the workforce, the move to mass
education, a geographically fluid workforce and mass communication
have exacerbated the need to move away from rote learning to competency
based education. Therefore, we need to redefine our programs to
provide competencies for a new generation of learners.
The
state monopoly in higher education has come under increasing pressure
as the state has not been able to keep pace with the demand for higher
education and diversify and increase access and quality at the same
time. The UGC has been grappling with issues of expanding access and
quality and it is a well known fact that the state cannot allocate the
financial resources required to meet these challenges and neither can
the country find the human resources required to increase quality.
Defense, countering adverse propaganda by a well organized
international network and post conflict recovery continue to monopolize
a large part of our resources and the state cannot maintain an
extensive welfare package while stimulating economic growth.
Transnational National Higher Education
The
transnational Higher Education in Sri Lanka is a result of the
above-mentioned changes in university education and the needs of the
country. The 86% of students who fail to gain admission to universities
have to seek an alternative to continue their higher studies. The
majority of these students generally opt for accessing overseas
universities and transnational higher educational institutes or
undertake professional courses such as CIMA, SLIT, and CIM etc. It has
to be noted that most of these students are high achieving students who
are excluded from state universities due to the District quota system.
In addition we also have a large number of students who study at so
called international schools which are registered under the Board of
Investment. Most of the large scale schools provide quality education
that equips the students to compete at an international level.
Therefore the young population is increasingly compelled to seek
international and transnational university education.
In
the recent past, it is estimated that 4,000 to 6,000 Sri Lankans have
sought education in the UK. Another noteworthy feature is that it is no
longer those form the upper middle classes and the rich who are sending
their children to study abroad. There is an emerging middle class,
which is striving to give their children and educational advantage over
the others. While parents and students value higher education, they
are far from happy with what is offered by the Sri Lankan universities.
They seek private higher education and overseas educational
opportunities with a growing sense of urgency.
The Ministry
of Higher Education and the UGC are compelled to rethink its policies
and strategies and as I said before forecast change and plan for
change. If not we will be left behind and the forces of change will
continue in an unplanned and unregulated environment which is not
conducive for the development of the country. Establishing Sri Lanka as
a knowledge hub in South Asia is one such strategy that is being
explored as an option to address the pervasive issues affecting higher
education in Sri Lanka.
Knowledge Hub
A
Knowledge Hub is broadly defined as a designated region intended to
attract foreign investment, retain local students, build a regional
reputation by providing access to high-quality education and training
for both international and domestic students, and create a
knowledge-based economy. A knowledge hub is concerned with the process
of building up a country’s capacity to better integrate it with the
world’s increasing knowledge based economy, while simultaneously
exploring policy options that have the potential to enhance economic
growth. An education hub can include different combinations of domestic
and international institutions, branch campuses, and foreign
partnership, within the region. The main functions of hubs are to
generate, apply, transfer, and disseminate knowledge.
The
concept of a knowledge hub for Sri Lanka was proposed by His Excellency
the President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his Election Manifesto of 2009 that
later became the national plan of action for development. It is stated
that Sri Lanka will "develop youth who can see the world over the
horizon" and the commitment is stated as "We have the opportunity to
make this country a knowledge hub within the South Asia region. I will
develop and implement an operational plan to make this country a local
and international training centre for knowledge".
The
Ministry of Higher Education is grappling with the empirical
implications of translating this promise into reality. The Ministry has
invited foreign universities to set up campuses to provide a more
diversified higher Education programme to increase access for local
students and to attract students from overseas to study in Sri Lanka.
Just as in Singapore Sri Lanka’s strategy is to piggy- back on
internationally renowned universities so that the process is cost
effective and mutually beneficial. The Knowledge Hub Agenda has given
greater prominence especially to the fields of Science and Technology,
Information and Communication Technology, Skills Development, and
Research and Development in Applied Sciences. Sri Lanka has a projected
target of attracting 10,000 foreign students by 2014 which would
increase to 100,000 by 2020.
The edge in the demand side
The
Education Hub is necessary for the long-term viability of a country’s
economy and to generate employment. Sri Lanka is moving fast from an
Agro-economy to a service economy and to a knowledge-based economy. To
establish as a knowledge based economy, Sri Lanka has to prepare for
intense competition from countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand
and Hong Kong. These countries have not only developed their higher
education system but have focused on good Early Childhood Care and
Development programmes as well as primary and secondary education so
that they create a local pool of high quality academics.
They
have diversified their courses, modernized the curriculum and updated
the teaching learning process. The physical infrastructure, the legal
framework and the social infrastructure is well developed and they have
invested in an efficient and effective bureaucracy and service sector.
Therefore, Sri Lanka should be able to groom and attract talent
locally, regionally and internationally and the whole country has to
gear up for a paradigm shift including the political ideology.
Sri
Lanka also needs to develop high level skills due to her skewed
demographic and labour force. Currently, Sri Lanka has an unusually
large pool of labour force. At present, 83 percent of the labour force
have educational attainment at GCE (O/L) or below of which19.3 percent
have a primary education or below. This problem is compounded by the
aging of our population. Currently, for every elderly person aged 65 or
over there are almost ten (10) people in the prime working age
population (15-64) but this trend would reverse after 2020.
Consequently, it is imperative for Sri Lanka to continue to elevate the
overall skills of the general population. In order to develop the high
end of the skills set, it is necessary to create an Education Hub in
the country and consider the re-skilling of the labour force as well.
Furthermore,
by making Sri Lanka as an Education Hub the country can facilitate a
process of integration with the region and at the international level
which is the key to our economic future. The presence of regional and
international students at our national universities or foreign branch
campuses can enhance the quality of teaching and research faculty. It is
a recognized fact that the importance of university based scientific
research drives economic growth. It would also increase the exposure of
our students and enhance their knowledge on international affairs.
Opportunities and Challenges
In
this situation, it is imperative to examine opportunities and
challenges ahead before the foreign campuses in the country. Given the
unique context of Sri Lanka international universities have shown
interest in expanding their education. More than 60 transnational
higher education institutes in the country are linked to the
universities and higher education institutes in Australia, the United
Kingdom (UK), Malaysia, India and United States of America (USA) offer
certificate, Diploma and Degree programmes in the country. They are
offering subjects ranging from Business Management, Information
Technology, Bio-medical Sciences, Design and Engineering.
The
end of the war against terrorism has opened new doors for attracting
foreign universities to establish collaboration with local institutions
or establish branch campuses in Sri Lanka. However, we need the
social, academic and physical infrastructure to attract foreign
universities and professional organizations to extend their services
from Sri Lanka and set Sri Lanka on the path of becoming a knowledge
hub.
We also need to change the narrow perspectives of our
local academia and students to facilitate such a process as they have
to be prepared to compete with such institutions and produce graduates
who are on par or exceed those from the cross border or branch
campuses.
Constraints
However, we have to be
mindful of the limitations. We do have examples where private higher
education with state patronage has been met with stiff opposition.
Student unrest, destabilization and propensity for violence in
universities are a major threat to university education in the country.
The
existing University Act of 1978 does not have provision to establish
private universities either local or international. Therefore, a
separate Higher Education Act for national and international
universities and branch Campuses as in Malaysia and Bangladesh may be
placed before Parliament.
The need to change the role of the
State, the Ministry of Higher Education and the UGC as the main
provider of Higher Education to a regulator and protector of higher
education is imperative. Therefore, an Accreditation and Quality
Assurance Board has to be established to monitor quality in both state
and non state sector providers of university education. The said bill
is being prepared.
State universities must be responsive to
changes of higher education that flow from changes taking place in the
global and regional spheres. Currently, they are concerned with
academic and intellectual development but they have to change the
teaching and learning process as well as governance and management
which call for a very high level of efficiency and effectiveness.
As
discussed above, the state universities will continue to play a vital
role in providing the human resources the country needs but not in its
current form. Our courses need to be diversified and reorganized and the
skills set that our students graduate with are equally diversified so
that they have the edge to compete in a global market. The universities
can no longer play the traditional role of delivering lectures but
need to build partnerships with a range of stakeholders so that they
can make this transition. If not the foreign campuses will become the
pivot of the knowledge hub in Sri Lanka. After working for nearly 7
years at the UGC I feel that the more recently established universities
such as yours can make this transition much faster than the long
established universities that have to shed a lot of myths and
unproductive traditional forms of thinking to make a meaningful
contribution to the knowledge hub and gain from it at the same time.
The Eastern Province is ear marked as one of the provinces with a high
growth potential and the university has to re charter its course to
make sure that it is well aligned with the regional developments and
provides the opportunity for the students to benefit from it. One such
step is to re-think about the courses you offer. The fishing and marine
industry as well as the tourist industry is some of the industries that
will be ear marked for development and your graduates need to be
prepared to find their niche in these industries. Apart from the local
market you should think about how you will attract researchers and
students from other countries for such new courses. Of course I know
that the main problem is finding the human and financial resources but
we cannot be held down by these factors due to our own limitations in
being innovative.
At present we are going through a
transitional state in the Sri Lankan higher education particularly
university education. Currently, the government monopoly of higher
education is relaxed due to the presence of the cross border or
transnational sector which accommodates processes of globalization,
internationalization and commercialization of higher education.
Consequently, a two tier higher education system has emerged. The
prospect looks good for the development of Sri Lanka as a regional
centre for educational excellence but we cannot be fully complacent
because we need to recognize the risks of opposition arising from the
politicization of higher education. Therefore our universities will
continue to be the pivot on which the knowledge hub will emerge or not
emerge.
