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)
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
