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| Sunday, 14 July 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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There are rules and regulations -Prof. B.R.R.N. Mendis - Chairman University Grants Commission
"There are rules and regulations in the University Grants Commission (UGC) for a national policy on universities in the country. We have to protect it. National universities will never be privatised. "Every year, about 200,000 students sit for the A/L examination in the four streams Bio- Science, Mathematics, Commerce and Arts. Around 98,000 students get minimum qualifications to enter universities. But only about 33,000 students, one third of the eligible students applied at closing date. Others give-up the idea of higher education and look for jobs. But when the UGC releases, the cut-off marks only about 13,500 students (2.3%) actually get the opportunity to enter universities. Then, what happen to the rest of the students?, They have two options. Enter to Open University or sit for the External Degree". "The government or the private sector should open new avenues for those who missed out on university education. At least then they will get a diploma certificate. "The treasury donated 217 million rupees for the universities as financial aid last week. We should get the support from the government to broaden the university system in the country. The UGC has just cleared a 2 year backlog - the students who did the A/L in 2001 August and in April 2002. Both batches will enter to universities in October this year. The Explanation Prof. Tissa Kariyawasam, Actg. Vice-Chancellor, University of Sri Jayawardenapura I don't think at present there is a necessity to privatise the universities but unfortunately, in this country the words "private" and "privatisation" are used in very different contexts. Universities are not money-making institutes and if they are to survive, we have to think of their future. Matters of the universities are handled by the Universities Grants Commission started on par with the British model. In 1989, the British changed to a Universities Funding Council which grant money to autonomous universities to run their own affairs and earn money. But, we haven't changed and our university system has stagnated for the last 14 years. The question we must ask is, "What problems are our universities facing today?" Forget the word "privatisation" which is part of the political jargon. If universities are to run smoothly, we need good governance. Vice Chancellors should be good governors, educators and administrators and must not look through politically-coloured glasses. The students, teachers and the non-academic staff must get together to uplift our university education. In face of the economic situation of the country, we have to make adjustments and thanks to the Minister and the Treasury, we have money to survive for the next six months. We spend about Rs. 29 m. per month and the Treasury has given us Rs. 27 m. Through our fee-levying, MA and post-graduate courses and external exam agencies, we earn money and we only have to make adjustments to suit our needs. Next year, we can get a better grant than this year's. The Accusation: Government is planning to privatise national university -University Students The Inter University Student Federation (IUSF) organised a protest campaign against the privatisation of national universities last week. The convenor of the IUSF Ravindra Mudalige said, "Ninety nine percent of students in this country have benefited from the free education system for so many years. Most of the children selected for universities are from ordinary or middle class families. By privatising the universities, 99 percent of students will miss the opportunity for free education. It is also a violation of their human right". Mudalige alleged that financial aid provided to universities had been drastically reduced. " As a result universities have no money to pay electricity, telephone or water bills, he said. Explaining, 'The Finance Minister' in his budget proposals, recommended that public utilities running at a loss should be privatised. The Chamber of Commerce recently proposed that private universities be set up to compete with national universities" . He further alleged that the proposal report was handed over to the Minister of Education Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku two weeks ago, and that Minister Milinda Moragoda who visited Malaysia recently, has requested the Malaysian government to help set up a Multi Media University here. 'This will be an institute from where students can get buy an Information Technology Degree" he charged, but pointed out that according to the university act of 1978, it would be difficult to change the rules and privatise the national universities. Mudalige vowed never to stop their struggle to ensure free education in the country and said that they will join with the other institutions such as Sri Lanka Insurance Co-operation, People's Bank, Bank of Ceylon, and Postal Department which are also in danger of being privatised and go for a mass protest campaign throughout the country before the end of this month. The Rebuttal: We have no such Intention "We have no intention to privatise the national universities. Free education in this country was introduced by our forefathers. C.W.W. Kannangara is the founder of the free education policy. We have a fifty- nine- year legacy of free education system in this country. We intend to protect it, not to abolish it. At present, a small number of students are admitted to universities. We want to increase that number. But not by setting up of private universities, but by strengthing the education opportunities", he said. Statistics : UGC Admission Policy Academic Year 2002/2003 Two categories of candidates sat the GCE (A/L) examination held in August 2001. 1. Those who offered three subjects under the new scheme, 2. Those who offered four subjects under the old scheme. A standard statistical procedure, viz, "Z Score" is adopted as selection criteria for Admission. Local higher education facts: *Subsidised heavily by over 90 per cent. *Annual govt. expenditure on universities = Rs.5,000 Million = 0.4 per cent of GDP. *13 Universities and 13 higher education institutes are funded through the UGC. *Audit Reports revealed a defraud of Rs.100 million in funds allocated for staff welfare and improving university education. *In 2001, 2.3 percent in the 20-24 age group of Sri Lanka received university education. This is the lowest figure in a South-East Asian developing country. *58 per cent of our A/L output is unemployed. Only 17.5 per cent of university-entrance qualified enter the universities. *The education system has: 40,000 undergraduates, 19,000 in distant studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka and 160,000 in external degree programmes. 'Z' Score System: At present the z scores system is based on by converting the raw marks obtained by students in different subjects with a standard scale called the 'Z' distribution. The General Consensus: Hasalaka Sanjeewa Thushara, Law student, University of Colombo If the entire country is becoming a commercial venture, there comes a point when you have to market even the churches and temples for profit-making. But would privatising serve the purpose for which we set up the Universities? What would happen then to the "free education" process? A country is not a commercial company and therefore, raising quality of its services, one of which is education, should be the topmost concern, overriding profit-mnaking. If the graduates produced by our universities do not qualify the industry needs, why blame the university education which is only four years? You should understand that the reforms should start with the 12-13 years of school education system. Reform that first before you make the universities a scapegoat for the fault of an entire system. The competition from the international educational institutes will not necessarily make the government educational institutes more efficient as the government educational institutes have no targets to chase, like the private ones. Therefore, for a short period after privatising, they might show signs of effiency but are likely to lapse to their former state again. N. Egodage, Law Student, University of Colombo More than 3/4 of students who enter the local universities are young men and women of the soil, born and bred in rural areas and they are getting the opportunity of entering a university because of "free education." If you privatise Universities and make them "tuition classes", they will find it very difficult to have access to higher education. You find undergraduates who are already employed somewhere, as without that income they cannot afford the hostel fees and other expenses of attending the university. Privatisation would be very unfair by all of them. It is wrong to penalise students for the inefficiency and unproductivity of the universities. The fault lies with those responsible for educational reforms. Ramesh Shanmuganathan, CEO, Keells Business Systems Ltd., Colombo I don't think our universities should be privatised. In developed countries such as USA, there are both private and state-run universities and both types are essential for the development of a country. A parallel can be drawn from Singapore which has a Government-driven policy for growth. If we have total privatisation of universities, the input from many sections of society is not going to be received. State-run universities are necessary for research and development in a localised context as a private university, as an affiliation to an overseas university, might mostly follow the overseas curricular. And the best needs of our country will not be met. The downside of not privatising is that a student's language and personality development will not be rounded. In USA, Engineering undergraduate studies are supplemented with other social subjects and PTA, making the undergraduate a fully-rounded person. They have a grading system with a viva so that he can convince the university of what he has learnt. In Sri Lanka, he gets only a written test and ultimately, cannot express himself. The local university curricular do not get revised as frequently as they should, to meet the needs of the industry. The major portion of our graduates are unemployable in industries, as their education needs were different, and employing them involves high costs in training. University courses should invariably tie-up with the industry needs. Dr. Lawrence Perera, Chairman/CEO, Micro Cars Pte Ltd. and Transmec Group of Companies, Colombo. I feel that our universities should be privatised, for the following reasons. 1. For improving their efficieny and productivity. 2. For uplifting course standards and raising our universities to the international level. Privatisation can do this swifter, as remaining a public institute could take this process years and years. 3. For limiting the course period as scheduled, to motivate the students. Now it drags on for 5-6 years.4. For greater flexiblity to develop courses to meet the current demands of the country. Eg. Automobile Engineering, Design Development. 5. For separating universities from political influence. Privatising will deprive higher education to the lower end students who have no means to get into a university. They can be supported by scholarships or long-term loans. The most important result of privatisation is that it will raise the level of English of graduates from the state-run universities. Many of them have the knowledge but fail at job interviews as they can't express themselves in English. R.I.T. Alles, Chairman, Gateway International School My proposal is let the present universities exist and pick out from them the viable ones capable of producing what the country wants. And allow private universities to compete with them. Instead of spreading our resources through all the universities, concentrate on the real viable ones. A commission can conduct a research to see how many of their graduates are employable. Are we going to produce graduates for merely Sri Lanka, or for the global village? Our Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma was accepted in America as a scientist. Asians are very intelligent and we should send Professors from here to other countries but our universities are still in the stereotyped situation. North Colombo Medical College has students who missed the Medical Faculty by 2-3 marks and they are doing very well. They are not only the English-stream but have had an all-round education in core-curriculum and extra-curricular activities. Do our university children receive such education? If yes, why then are the campus playground empty in the evenings? You must produce leaders for the country, not book-worms. Let's go for a justifiable blend of public and the private sectors to solve the problem. Every child should have the right to enter a state-sponsored university or a private university. When our students go to India, Delhi and Bangalore for overseas degrees, our foreign exchange also goes with them. So allow them to study in a private university here. |
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