The university and he maintenance of academic standards
April 10, 2012, 12:00 pm
, The Island.
Address by Prof. K. N. O. Dharmadasa at the 12th convocation
of the Rajarata University on April 5, 2012. Degree of D.Litt. Honoris
Causa was conferred on him on that occasion.
The
University is an institution which produces and disseminates universal
knowledge. According to its design various arts and sciences are
studied as grouped together in its various units termed the Faculties.
It is because of its diversity of intellectual concerns that it is
called "university" in English and: vishvavidyalaya in Sinhala. The
generally held view is that the scholar who has undergone a university
education is a person with a wide knowledge and a universal vision.
It
is opportune here to quote what Sir Ivor Jennings, the father of Sri
Lanka’s university education had to say on this subject. I should
mention at the outset that in this talk today I will be referring to
him as well as to the experiences of the first university in the island
established by him nearly seventy years ago. Fourteen more
universities were established in Sri Lanka subsequently. The University
of Ceylon established in 1942 can be considered as the common heritage
of all those institutions. That is why I thought it proper to refer to
those pioneer experiences. While each and every university in Sri
Lanka today has its own identity which all of us should honour, it will
also be useful to find out where we began and how we faced some
pertinent problems which are vital to all university institutions even
today In the handbook prepared by Vice Chancellor Jennings in 1948 the
aim of university education is described in the following manner. That
is, to,
"Produce educated men and women in the fullesst
sense of that phrase, men and women who are capable of fulfilling any
function in the world that may fall to their lot, citizens of high
intelligence, complete moral integrity, and possessing energy,
initiative, judgement, tact and qualities of leadership"
As
such the aim of university education was to create people who were
complete in every way. It was to be ensured that the university graduate
was not merely a person who had obtained the knowledge necessary to
engage in a profession, but one endowed with a personality which was
beneficial to the society at large.Very importantly, the there was an
emphasis on the moral integrity of the product of university education.
Whether it be in the field of arts, science, medicine or engineering
the university was to be capable of producing a good citizen who had a
cultured vision going beyond the narrow confines of his particular
discipline. This task of producing "educated" men and women Sir Ivor
and the pioneers of the University of Ceylon sought to do during those
early days.Although established as a pragmatic step in Colombo in July
1942, the university was shifted to its destined site in Peradeniya in
October 1952. The fervent hope of Jennings and many others who took the
"road to Peradeniya" was that in its promised site the university
would evolve into an institution worthy of its name.. As the university
was a residential institution it was possible to utilize all 24 hours
of the day to mould "men and women who were educated in the fullest
sense of the phrase" That was accomplished by means of students
interacting among themselves, student = teacher interactions and other
activities outside the classromm such as seminars, discussions, special
lectures, religious and cultural activities etc.
Different environment today
We
know that the environment in the universities today is very much
different to what was there in the days gone by. We do not have fully
residential universities today. Hence we are not in a position to
accomplish some of the things that were achieved at that time. But I
believe that many of the things said in that statement are valid even
for today. We should be able to produce graduates of high moral
integrity. For that. not only the university as an institution, but the
whole society should get together. Furthermore, the requirement of
academic standards is a factor common to both then and now. I am
particularly keen to bring up the issue of academic standards today
because when we are about to celebrate seventy years of university
education in Sri Lanka in July 2012, we hear often about the poor
quality of the graduates produced by the universities these days.
It
is a truism that a university degree should be of the highest academic
standard. Leaving aside matters concerning the moral character
mentioned above, the graduate should be competent in the field for which
he has obtained the degree whether it be language and literary studies
or history, sociology and other social studies, or chemistry, physics
and other pure sciences, or medicine or engineering, If not, the
"degree" he has obtained will be a mere scrap of paper. It needs be
emphasizes that this matter of academic standards is common to all
university degrees whether it is the Bachelor’s Degree, B.A. or B.Sc.,
which is only an entrance to the world of scholarship, or it is the
Master’s ,M.A or M.Sc.,. which means a "master" of the subject, or the
M.Phil., meaning special insights into the subject, or the Ph.D. which
signifies an original contribution to knowledge. The holder of the
degree should be an embodiment of the meaning signified by the degree.
If that is not so, the public funds spent to give that degree would
have been a mere waste. If an institution were to employ him giving
credence to that piece of paper which he flaunts, he will be a burden
to that institution and it will be a national crime to pay him wages.
What I want to say is that our universities should not be accomplices in
such crimes.
I mentioned earlier that my speech today will
be based on some of the experiences of the first university is our
country. Also, as I said earlier,the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka,
which holds this convocation today, and all the other universities in
our country are progenies of that pioneer institution. I hope therefore
that reflecting on those experiences will at least induce us to aspire
to some of those ideals reflected in such experiences.
India
While
our neighbour India under colonial rule was able to open several
modern universities such as Calcutta and Madras in the 19th century it
was only in the third decade of the 20th century that a tertiary
educational institution was opened in Sri Lanka as a response to years
of agitation by our intellectuals. It was the Ceylon University College
(1921) an affiliate of the University of London whose degrees were
those of that university. After 20 years of its existence Sir Ivor
Jennings who was assigned the task of establishing an independent
university for this land observed that he saw no university atmosphere
in the University College in Colombo ( see his Autobiography The Road
to Peradeniya, pp. 88-107). Before coming to Sri Lanka he had wide
experience of university institutions, in England as well as abroad.
While basically an expert in law he was considered an authority in
other disciplines such as economics and political science. When we read
his autobiography we note that this man of high academic caliber, once
he understood the potential held by the proposed institution took up
the task in earnest. It became his mission to establish in "Ceylon" a
university of the highest academic standing which would have the pride
of place in the world of learning..
Arriving in the island
in the last week of March, 1941, he assumed duties as the Principal of
the University College, and lost no time in going to inspect the site
of the proposed University on the first public holiday in early
April.The State Council had decided in 1938, after a protracted "battle
of the sites," to seat the university in Peradeniya. When Jennings
confronted the proposed site, standing on a hillock near the New
Gampola Road, the vision of the Lower Hantana hills tapering into the
thickly foliaged valley ending in the banks of River Mahaveli
enthralled him. Spreading the site plan of the university buildings
that were to come up there and picturing in his mind the completed
campus he exclaimed,
"I began at last to see the
magnificence of the scheme. There was no doubt about it...in a few
years time the view from the Nanu Oya bridge will be one of the most
famous in the world. …No university in the world would have such a
setting" ( pp.178-9)
It was as if he had determined to
create in that magnificent setting a great academic institution which
was worthy of that setting. Therefore he stayed here not five years, as
he had originally planned, but fourteen long years, first establishing
the university in Thurstan Road as a pragmatic measure, and overseeing
the building work in Peradeniya while functioning as the Vice
Chancellor, and finally shifting it to the destined site in October 1952
and seeing to it that it would take firm roots in that ideal setting.
He wrote in his autobiography,
"There is not the slightest
doubt that if the university is worthy of its location that it would be
one of the finest small universities in the world. I should feel sure
of my own judgment in this matter even if the whole world denied it."
(p.183)
Sir Ivor could speak with such confidence about the
institution which came up under his guidance because he saw to it that
it was established on firm foundations. Overseeing the buildings which
were coming up he said "this university is to last a thousand years, so
we do not want shoddy work" (p.183).The same determination was
extended to other aspects of the university. He knew that if proper
academic standards were not established at the outset itself that the
institution he had founded would have no standing in world academic
circles. What were the steps taken to ensure those standards?
Expatriate teachers
Those
recruited to the academic staff were ones who had First or good Second
class passes from the well known universities. In the early years the
University of Ceylon, therefore, had a good number of expatriate
teachers. A recruit to the staff had to obtain a post-graduate degree,
normally a Ph.D. from a highly recognized European university. As for
the examinations, the final year papers were sent for second marking to
universities in England such as Cambridge, Oxford or London. All this
was possible because the medium of education was English. The academics
were expected to do research studies and expand the horizons of
knowledge. Sir Ivor set the example himself. While being extremely busy
building up a university and helping in the drafting of the
constitution of independent Sri Lanka as well as sitting in various
government consultative committees and drafting umpteen memoranda, some
of which were in effect miniature books, he found the time to write
and publish five books on constitutional matters, the British
commonwealth and the economy of Ceylon in addition to revising and
re-publishing several of his previous books on British law and the
British constitution.
Competitive examination
In
the new University of Ceylon, the students were selected by a
competitive entrance examination ( consisting of four subject papers and
one essay paper) conducted by the university itself, the setting of
papers and marking done exclusively by the university academics. Those
who obtained the highest range of marks were admitted directly. Others
who had got borderline marks were given the opportunity to prove
themselves at an entrance interview conducted by a panel of senior
teachers chaired by the Vice Chancellor or a Dean. Once within the
university, one could study three subjects in the first year and one
had to face a Qualifying Examination at the end of the year.
The University...
If
an A or a B pass was obtained in a particular subject one could apply
to be admitted to a Special Degree course, which lasted three
additional years, or, otherwise, do a General Degree course lasting two
years. Those in the Special Degree programme had to face Special Degree
Qualifying Examination at the end of the second year, and the two
subsidiary course papers at the end of the third year before sitting
the finals at the end of the fourth year. The final examination
consisted of nine three hour papers.If a student was not up to the
mark, he would be failed. When we read the Annual Reports of the early
years we note that there were a fair number of failures .
As
for the teaching, there were lectures and tutorials. At the lecture
only guides to study were transmitted and a list of references was given
which were to be consulted in the library. There was no dictation of
notes. Even if one was able to write down all what the lecturer had
said, it was not of much use when writing tutorials or in answering
examination questions. In fact those who scored the highest marks at
the examinations were those who displayed their conversance with the
scholarly literature in the subject and thus proved their originality
and initiative.
University students were expected to read widely. I can quote again what Sir Ivor had to say on the matter:
"Two
books a week is a normal ration; three not unusual….This is the main
part of the education of the undergraduate, and indeed, a student who
does not read at least two books a week ,ought not to go to a
University, because he lacks education, no matter how many examinations
he has passed" (The Jennings papers in the Peradeniya University)
We
can understand why the university is expected to build up a good
library to which the latest publications are added regularly and which
sees to it that current knowledge is made available by subscribing to
the most noteworthy academic periodicals and journals from all over the
world.
I hope I have given a glimpse of the manner in which
the pioneering university in Sri Lanka attempted to maintain academic
standards. In order to give an illustrative example how rigorously
those standards were maintained please permit me to narrate a little
story provided by Peradeniya’s former librarian, H.A.I (Ian)
Goonetilaka who edited the Autobiography of Sir Ivor for publication.
Mr. Goonetileke got the story from Clair, the elder of the two
daughters of Sir Ivor. The education of the two daughters was disrupted
by the father having to leave England. The younger Shirley, however,
managed to graduate after studying in India and Australia. Claire,
worked as a journalist and having worked for sometime as a BBC
correspondent in Colombo sought admission to the University of Ceylon.
Sir Ivor’s curt response was "You are not intelligent enough" For him
the maintenance of university academic standards was supreme. Filial
love did not come into the picture.Clair, however was not disheartened.
Back in England, several years later, she passed the Cambridge
university entrance requirements, entered it when Sir Ivor was its Vice
Chancellor and graduated in June 1965, six months before his death.
This little story is illustrative of the qualities "educated men and
women in the fullest sense of that phrase" are endowed with. Here we
have a father displaying his "complete moral integrity" and a daughter
demonstrating her "energy and initiative" among other things.
One
might raise the question whether talking about the good things of the
past is of any use today where conditions are so much different. My
response to that is that if we are keen to create a better tomorrow we
should have ideals to which we can look up. Ideals are not bound by
time and place. They are universal and timeless. When some human beings
have demonstrated that they can be practiced we are encouraged to so
ourselves. We know it could be done I like to end this speech with that
positive note.
