New epoch for higher education - UGC Chairman

By L.S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

Higher Education in Sri Lanka is moving towards a new era, said University Grants Commission (UGC), Chairman Professor Gamini Samaranayake.

There are fifteen universities, three campuses , one open university with twenty four centres, sixteen undergraduate and post graduate institutions, eight degree awarding institutions with a student population of 80,000 in Sri Lanka at present.

Sunday Observer interviewed UGC Chairman.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: What are the challenges for the university education?

A: Challenges are manifold. However, the key issue is how to maintain the core values of university education such as autonomy within the universities and academic freedom while keeping pace with globalisation. This has to be done while finding solutions for increasing access to and improving quality and equity of university education, It is time to review the trajectory of education itself and learn from our successes and failures so that we can charter our future.

Q: The government was compelled to change the system of university education to meet the increasing demand for higher education due to the expansion of access to primary and secondary education, your comments.

A: Education continues to be the only means of upward mobility for the poor in eliminating gender disparities. However, our policy makers have failed to address the anomalies that persist in access, equity and quality of higher education mainly in old universities and the newly set up ones. This problem was exacerbated by violence that gripped the North and the East of Sri Lanka over the last three decades resulting in restricting the number actually registered with those universities.

Q: What is the consequences of this situation to the country?

A: The widening gap between the demand and supply in access, equity and quality in higher education continues to breed a young educated lot disenchanted social force in the country.

There is evidence to prove that there is a strong correlation between the youth unemployment and the lack of access to higher education and skills development.

The political manifestations of which are the on set of the social and political unrest of youth erupted in the South and the North of Sri Lanka.

Given this specific history, it should be emphasised that social unrest of the youth and access to higher education and skills development have been critical issues in the country which subsequent governments had to address.

Q: There is an allegation that certain extremist political forces such as the JVP exploited this situation. Your comments please?

A: Yes. The intervention of political parties to create disturbances through indoctrination has created new forces to the detriment of the peaceful environment in universities.

This has its impact on university education and policy and as such the university authorities have to continuously address the casual factors of these issues since such a fluid state exists due to these politically destructive forces.

Q: The aim of university education is to meet the standard of global knowledge. Are the university authorities in Sri Lanka aware of this challenge?

A: Sri Lanka is well on its way to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for education such as universal enrolment in primary and secondary education. An advanced form of modern education is what Sri Lanka is in need of at present.

Higher education has to keep pace with the changing world. Globalisation includes broad economic, political and other trends, Information Technology (IT) the use of English, the rise of the private sector, the marketisation of higher education and related aspects that are more or less inevitable results of a changing global environment.

Q: Sri Lanka wants to be the knowledge hub in Asia. Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake has said that Sri Lanka's higher education sector wishes to admit large numbers of regional and European students. What is the present position?

A: Sri Lanka has received a significant response from several established universities that they were interested in setting up offshore campuses.

This is being processed at the moment.

Q: Some universities in the West have been designated as world class universities what does it mean?

A: The quality of higher education is measured based on aspects such as modernized classrooms, libraries, laboratories, study halls, syllabi and methods of teaching and evaluation.

Currently the foreign universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, College of London, Imperial College of London, Yale, Harward staford and Berkeley are recognised for research and education. They excel in the advancement of human knowledge of nature and culture providing the best scholarship training for the next generation.

Q: What is your opinion about the local universities, colleges, and higher education institutions.

A: I believe we should explore all options and means of expanding higher education while addressing the deficiencies in quality. Poor quality is defined as the poor alignment of course content with the country's development goals lack of availability of qualified and trained human resources.

Academic and non-academic in providing quality higher education and lack of effective and efficient management of resources and infrastructure facilities.

To improve quality we need to diversify our courses, and reform curricula develop corporate plans with strong human resource development strategies, increase efficiency, and effectiveness through better management of resources and introduce an element of performance based funding as well as an academic and administrative audit.

Q: Can you explain what is a good university in the context of the future university education in Sri Lanka?

A: A university is an educational institution where all stakeholders work collectively and in harmony towards achieving the vision and mission of higher education.

The success of a university is measured by the funds it raises, recruitment of staff and students and the availability of freedom of autonomy and leadership. The challenges ahead of policy-makers of university education are not in meeting demands of the quantitative change of university education, but in managing and focusing on qualitative changes.