Money spinner for ‘unscrupulous’ academics

Post Graduate Institutions:

By Ranga Chandrarathne

[email protected]

Universities are considered as factories that produce knowledge. Apart from producingknowledge, universities also produce skilled persons, in diverse disciplines, who in turn contribute to the wellbeing of the nation.

The notion of universal education and character building is synonymous with the red-brick universities such as Cambridge and Oxford which had been the model for the University of Peradeniya set up in the idyllic hill country surrounded by misty mountains.

However, one may not be surprised if the lofty ideals of a university is eroding from the minds of prospective students against the backdrop of mushrooming post graduate Institutes which reduced the idea of very education to issuing degrees and qualifications in return for fees.

Perhaps, the prime motive behind these colleges, is to make quick money exploiting the signature of the universities.

Qualifications for better employment

As these colleges are autonomous from the universities and lecturers are paid handsomely for teaching, post graduate institutes are more concerned about attracting more and more students by introducing courses than worrying about the quality of the graduands.

One of the salient characteristics of post graduate studies in Sri Lanka is that prospective students seek post graduate qualifications with the intention of either entitling them for a promotion in their respective careers or advancing their upward mobility along the chosen paths adding another feather to their caps.

There are some instances where institutions bear the cost of their employees’ post graduate studies and on completion of studies, the employees will be given due promotions and salary increments.

The employers do not worry about the quality of certification they earned from universities. It seems that PGIs are not concerned about the quality of the certification as their prime motive is perhaps money and attracting a large number of students for the plethora of courses offered.

However, in the long run, the employers discover, to their utter dismay, that those employees who earned M.A. and M. Sc. are, at times, worse than their colleagues who hold only a Bachelor’s degree.

It has been concluded that this mismatch between qualifications and degree of skills on the part of students is caused by the money motivated PGIs and some unscrupulous academics, who profited by these courses.

PGIs Vs PGIs

The ever intensifying competition among PGIs for luring students for prospective courses has, perhaps, reduced the PGIs to mere money making mechanisms that churning out courses of studies at a drop of a hat to changing fancies of some unscrupulous academics, going even against the mandate granted to these institutes.

For instance ,the Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture (PGIA) of the University of Peradeniya offers a MBA (Master of Business Administration). PGIA is reportedly planning to offer an M.Sc. in Economics.

However, it is estrange how PGIA can offer courses outside its mandate and so far no one has questioned its mandate. Money plays a major role not only in designing courses for prospective students but also the very subject combination and nature of the course.

The students who follow MBA (Master of Business Administration) have to pay a sum of Rs. 20, 000 as membership of an organisation called MBA Association of Peradeniya on the very day of registration.

The students get a letter at the time of registration stating that it is mandatory for them to obtain this membership. People are at their wits end as to how newly registered students become fully fledged members of an Association.

Needless to say, this is an additional burden on the poor student who has to pay a staggering Rs. 80,000 as course fees for four semesters to follow this programme. They also pay about Rs. 15000 for library facilities etc. during the programme.

There are reported instances that the students who failed to pay the sum for the so called Association are forced to become members by their seniors. Though the Association has apparently no formal connection with the teachers (The President and the Secretary are students themselves), it is envisaged that at least part of the money raised seems to have ended up in the pockets of lecturers.

The exact amount of money collected as membership fees from the students and what becomes of the money is not properly accounted and the contributors are unaware as to why such a huge sum is collected every year from the students who keep registering for this programme.

Fair deal

The argument mooted by the Association is that part of the money given to lecturers as the service of quality lecturers can not be obtained at stipulated rates. Though the argument holds some water, it is not clear whether ideology behind the methodology of taxing the student in the is end justify the means.

Prescribed books

The coordinator of the MBA programme seems to have connections to set up an exclusive bookshop at Peradeniya University premises. It is mandatory for students to purchase text books from the bookshop. They are told that there is a process of calling quotations and the lowest bidder is chosen to supply books. What is puzzling is that, every year, this “lowest bidder” remains the same.

Moreover, students are not allowed to obtain photocopies of the textbooks or to share textbooks for reasons best known to lecturers. The bookshop offers certain books which are not available in Sri Lanka.

In a Gestapo like scenario, the shop keeper maintains a list of students enroled in the MBA Course and if the students did not purchase the prescribed books from the particular bookshop, the coordinator was said to have come to the class and allegedly asked those students who did not buy books, and to purchase them immediately with an apparent threatening tone.

The tone signals that those students who didn’t they books will get their marks cut off if they did not heed to the call. Recently, the students were forced to buy a book from the association (by paying additional money of course), although the book is available on the web for FREE down-loading.

So the students have to spend a sum of 20,000 rupees per semester, amounting to Rs. 80,000 for the course, as the ritual is repeated through at least four semesters, only on purchasing books, from the “designated seller”. Students do not raise their voices in fear of reprisals thus becoming silent sufferers. It is also questionable whether the subjects taught for courses are, really relevant to the course.

Semester-based coursing system

One of the salient characteristics of Semester -based coursing system which is employed in the West is the system of continuous students’ evaluation.

Course Semester is conducted within fifteen weeks; mid-semester examination which accounted for 20-30 per cent of marks, assignments accounting for 20 -30 per cent and the final examination which accounted for 40-60 per cent of the aggregate marks. So the students should know beforehand how much marks he or she may have to obtain at the final examination.

However, in this course students are not given marks before their final examination which goes against the very spirit of the semester-based coursing system, except for one subject.

Exhausting resources

In the MBA Course, Business Law is taught by an Accountant with a practice in UK and uses books that are supposedly not relevant to Sri Lanka. One example for the subjects that has slight relevance is GIS (Geographic Information Systems) at MBA Course.

Instead of increasing the volume of research at the universities, PGIs have contributed to reduce the volume of research while claiming for sizable resources from the University. As the lecturers are lured by additional fees, teachers tend to neglect their regular duties and the inevitable result is that research has been adversely affected by so called PGIs.

After the PGIA, Peradeniya has set up one more PGI, attached to the Faculty of Science. The university is also in the process of starting one affiliated to the Faculty of Arts.

The effect of these institutes on the overall academic programmes, including the traditional undergraduate programme, for which the government is spending a colossal amount of money, is yet to be seen.

However, in all likelihood a change for the better cannot be expected, judging by the route PGIA is taking. It is clear that PGIA not only wastes hard earned money of the students, but also spreads like a cancer to erode the good name of the university.

This is not to undermine the importance of the Post Graduate programmes which are essential. However, if the programmes at PGIA is an addiction, the country is better without them.