Private universities to be a top forex earner:

Sri Lanka can be a regional education hub

By Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Minister of Higher Education S. B. Dissanayake

UGC Chairman, Prof. Gamini Samaranayake

Michael Ranasinghe, Director, Synergy School of Marketing

Sri Lanka boasts of one of the highest literacy rates (92%) in Asia and also ranks the best in South Asia. Education would play a vital role towards making Sri Lanka the “Wonder of Asia” as the country can easily be transformed in to a regional education hub.

Exploiting the unique education track record Sri Lanka possesses, foreign students too could be promoted to have their higher education in Sri Lanka bringing in foreign exchange to the country. This would also entice foreign education institutes to invest in Sri Lanka through the Board of Investment opening new vistas of higher education bringing numerous benefits to Sri Lankan students as well.

Education in Sri Lanka has a long history dating back to 300 BC and the Western touch was introduced during the British period. The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides for education as a fundamental right.

The University of Ceylon was established by the State Council in April 1942. The nucleus of the University was formed by amalgamating the Ceylon Medical College founded in 1870 and the Ceylon University College founded in 1921, both of which were incorporated into the University. Therefore, the history of the university goes back to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

During that time, the University had ample slots and today the 15 government Universities and the three campuses can meet the demand of only 20,000 students out of 100,000 that qualify to enter the university each year.

It is a very sad scenario that 100,000 qualified students are shown the door by the government universities. The affluent students take the aerial route to either UK, Australia, Russia, USA or some other countries for higher education while others join universities in India, Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia or Cyprus.

Each year over 15,000 students seek higher foreign education draining billions of Sri Lankan funds to these countries. A degree program in UK would cost a Sri Lankan student over Rs. 6 million while an engineering degree would cost in excess of Rs. 8 million. The investment to obtain a medical degree would be over Rs. 18 million. In addition, this also creates numerous social problems for both students as well as parents.

No student loan scheme

Parents on their part mortgage their, property and live a torrid life while students overseas sometimes stoop to many vices to meet their financial ends.

The new Minister of Higher Education, S. B. Dissanayake is looking at broadbasing the higher education system giving more opportunities for the private sector. He said while developing the present Universities more universities are the need of the hour and the private sector can assist in this regard. “This would also create more opportunities for students to study within Sri Lanka saving foreign exchange and it would also see foreign students coming over to Sri Lanka,” he said.

Michael Ranasinghe, Director and Senior Lecturer, Synergy School of Marketing also endorsed this view.

“I am glad that the new Minister of Higher Education is thinking out of the box and this is where we as a nation should be heading. We have come a long way and our generation has seen the worst times this country has been through. Now if we do not make a new start with renewed vigour we are once again losing an opportunity of a lifetime. An innovative and progressive education system prevents social dissent.”

“We have been in the professional education sector for over a decade and have seen the transformation of the industry in both positive and negative directions. I have been lecturing for over 12 years and having commenced my career in a Japanese Fortune 500 company, I am well aware of the gaps that do exist between the education system and the expectations of the corporate world both local and international.”

“One thing that goes without saying is the fact that the education sector must evolve with the trends in the business environment. When I say business environment I mean in every sector,” he explained.

“The medical profession for instance has to evolve with the trends in that sector. Private universities, international qualifications in a way put pressure on our local education sector to change with the requirements of the employers.”

“Take for instance CIMA, ACCA and CIM which are the much sought after professional qualifications by students as corporate sector has accepted these qualifications as the standard when recruiting candidates. The high quality of these qualifications has helped the local qualifications to step up their standards and make them aspire to by the students and the corporate sector.”

“This being said we cannot ignore the fact that a critical analysis should be done to our local curriculum. For this we need the infusion of ideas from the private sector and also have a few selected overseas countries against which we can benchmark our local curriculum. I do not mean western countries.”

“Take Malaysia and Singapore for instance. What should be designed is a hybrid that suits the local as well as international requirements. A student who has completed his education locally should be as competitive as his counterpart who has chosen the international qualifications in Sri Lanka.

Privately delivered qualifications are good as long as they conform to the standards expected and not resort to short-term financial gains by adopting unethical practices. The government should have an effective mechanism to monitor this and those involved in education should be conscious that they owe it to the students and society to produce men and women of stature.”

Meanwhile, UGC Chairman, Prof. Gamini Samaranayake said that reputed world Universities listed in Commonwealth Year Book and International Handbook should be asked to invest in Sri Lanka so that they could also entice foreign students.

“What we want to do is to improve the quality of local university education so that they would be in a better position to meet the demand of the future world,” he added.

An educated workforce is an asset to any country and many say that the time is right to set up private universities to produce more job oriented graduates to make Sri Lanka the Wonder of Asia.

‘No loan scheme for higher education students’

Veteran Education administrator of Sri Lanka’s largest private education institute, International College of Business and Technology, popularly known as ICBT Campus, Mohan Pathirana CEO/Executive Director, says that it’s ironic that the country’s banking sector does not have a special student higher education loan scheme. “If a student is to take a loan he or she has to offer the same collateral and is given the same high interest that is given to other creditors,” he said. “This is very sad.”

Pathirana said that in other countries there are schemes where students could sign a bond and pay the loan once he completes his education,” he said.

With the dawn of peace there would more competition to gain university entrance as more students would sit the GCE A/L exam. He said that it is to meet this demand they set up ICBT IIS campus in Jaffna.

“ICBT provided courses from Diploma to Doctorate level for almost a decade in Sri Lanka. It expands from North to South, Western and Central regions in the country and has affiliations with many foreign Universities and Educational Service Providers. We also see a very good student response for our Jaffna branch,” he said.

“The mission of ICBT campus is to collaborate with internationally reputed Universities and Educational Institutions in order to provide high quality educational programs, which will enhance the quality of the human resources available to the job markets at an affordable level, and thereby contributing to the development of the economy and society,” he said.

Pathirana says that the Sri Lankan universities should also produce more graduates with practical knowledge and they should have better leadership qualities and they should also be job oriented. “Today in the private sector there is no position called trainee as the mercantile sector aspires for more dynamic recruits,” he said. Due to this the ICBT which celebrates their tenth year, makes it compulsory for students to present their own CSR project before they pass out.

Due to the quality of their education they have many foreign students bringing foreign exchange to the country. “Similarly we also have our operation in Dubai and Oman”.

He said that the private sector should be given bigger openings in to the higher education sector but cautioned that there should be a proper monitoring and regulatory system.

ICBT Campus is regularly monitored and regulated by the respective foreign universities and Edexcel International and neutral quality assuring agencies for the quality while ICBT Campus is one of the very few institutes in Sri Lanka with ISO 9000:2001.

ICBT Campus has over 20,000 passed out students and over 7000 current students in their programs from diploma level to doctoral level in the areas of Management, Information Technology, Engineering, Languages, Quantity Surveying.

He also suggested that the government must re-think over imposing of VAT and other taxes on the private sector education as they are forced to take it from the students, thereby raising the course fees.

No opposition from varsity students

Colombo University

A protest, a very common occurrence at State universities

A Colombo University student R.C. Jayasekera said that they are not opposing more students gaining university degrees through a private institution. “However what we say is that quality should be guaranteed,” he said.

Citing an example he said that today one could get a doctorate by attending a few online classes and there are private education schools that pass students irrespective of his or her preferment at the examination. “It is a burden to teach the failed student again and hence they pass the student,” he said.

The student’s union member also said that even in a small country like Maldives an education seminar cannot be held without the written approval of the government’s education accredited Board and in countries like UK over 100 private courses were banned as they were not upto the standard. “Even in India there is a Education Council that monitors the private sector educational institutes but sadly in Sri Lanka one could get BoI approval and start an education institute,” he said.

“The government has set up many higher education institutes like the NIBM and Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology. (SLIIT) and more similar ones should be set up,” he added.

The NIBM has been authorized to award the BSc in Business Management, Human Resource Management, Logistics, Project Management and Industrial Management and the BSc in Management Information Systems degrees.

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) is the largest IT degree awarding institute in Sri Lanka in the field of Information Technology, recognised by the University Grants Commission under the Universities Act. The SLIIT was established in 1999 to educate and train IT professionals required by the fast growing IT industry in Sri Lanka.