NSBM Magazine “Business Dialogue”

World University Rankings

Interviews withStakeholdersInterviews withStakeholders

HIGHER EDUCATION&

GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY

World University Rankings

Ministry of Youth Affairs& Skills Development

BUSINESSBUSINESS DIALOGUEDDDDIIIIALOALOALOALOGUGUGUGUEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDIIIIALOIALOIIIIIIIIIIALOALOALOALOALOALOALOALOALOALOALOALOALOALOGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDIALOGUEDIALOGUEVolume 01 Issue 01 July-Aug-Sept 2012

ISSN 2279-185X

Rs.

200

/-

About the‘Business Dialogue’The Magazine of National School of Business Management

National School of Business Management (NSBM) is the degree awarding school of NIBM. NSBM is a fully owned subsidiary of NIBM, which offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs in the fields of business, computing and engineering. With its ambition to become the most inclusive ‘Business School’ in Sri Lanka, NSBM intends to introduce important academic and physical development programs to its agenda.

Thus, in order to establish a continuous dialogue among academics, political leaders, business leaders, practicing managers and business students, NSBM will publish its magazine ‘Business Dialogue.’ Business Dialogue will include articles on business, IT, and engineering, business discussions, opinions, viewpoints, interviews of local and international key figures, etc., to guide the nation in the proper direction to face the business challenges of the 21st Century in the process of globalization.

Business dialogue is a quarterly publication in English. It welcomes worthy articles from the experts in the fields of business, IT and engineering for publication. All manuscript copy should be double spaced, including quotations, footnotes, references, and table headings. Margins should be at least one inch on all sides. Maximum length for text is five (05) printed pages.

Manuscripts should be sent to:

Soft Copy: [email protected]

Hard Copy:J Baratha DodankotuwaNational School of Business Management309, High Level Road, Colombo 05, Sri Lanka

NSBMTel: 94(11)5672545, 567 3535E-mail: [email protected]: www.nsbm.lk

The Inaugural Issue NSBM Magazine

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Bandula GunawardanaMinister of Education

Dullas AlahapperumaMinister of Youth Affairs &

Skills Development

SPECIAL DEDICATIONSPECIAL DEDICATION

Thus it is inscribed for the information of posterity, that on this day of 25th of July 2012, the NSBM is being

established with great solemnity, as a symbol of a

remarkable turning point in Sri Lanka Higher Education,

based upon

Mahinda Chinthanaya.

Dr. BMS BatagodaDeputy Secretary, TreasuryMinistry of Finance and Planning

Mr. Sanjeewa BandaraPresident, Inter University Students

Federation

Mr. Upali GunasekeraPrincipal, Royal College, Colombo

Hon. Sunil Handunetti Member of Parl iament, JVP

Prof. Gamini SamaranayakeChairman, University Grants Commission

Hon. Bandula GunawardanaMinister of Education

Mr. Sujeewa Devaraja Chairman, Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies

Mr. Asoka HettigodaChairman of The National Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka

Dr. Sunil Jayantha NavaratneSecretary, Ministry of Higher Education

Hon. SB DissanayakeMinister of Higher Education

Hon. Dr. Harsha De SilvaMember of Parl iament, Main Opposit ion, UNP

About the Business Dialogue Message from the Chief Executive Off icer World University Rankings

Editorial Higher Education and Graduate Employabil i ty:An Overview

Launching Ceremony of the NSBM

Degree Inauguration of the NSBMThe Future of Higher Education in Sri Lanka:Business Dialogue

Dr. Nirmal Ranjith DevasiriPresident, Federation of UniversityTeachers’ Associations

37

Hon. Dullas AlahapperumaMinister of Youth Affairs and Skil ls Development

71 60

71

75

79

Interviews

31

27

23

41

45

94

83

89

2 154999

102

78

9

CONTENTS

68

5JULY / AUG / SEPT 2012

Message from the Chief Executive Officer

National School of Business Management

It is with great pleasure that I submit this message to the inaugural issue of the ‘Business Dialogue,’ the quarterly magazine of the National School of Business Management.

First let me introduce the National School of Business Management (NSBM) and the proposed magazine of NSBM, ‘Business Dialogue.’ NSBM is the degree awarding school of the National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) affiliated to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development. NSBM is a fully owned subsidiary of NIBM, and offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs in the fields of business, computing and engineering.

With its ambition to become the most inclusive ‘Business School’ of the nation, NSBM intends to introduce important academic and physical development programs in its agenda. Among them are the creation of a green campus and academic city with state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure at Pitipana, Homagama, and improvement of academic programs on par with international standards. It is also of paramount importance to introduce such activities as business discussions and opinions by interviewing national and business leaders, etc., to guide the nation in the proper direction in order to face the business challenges of 21st Century. Thereby, the graduates produced by NSBM would become the future national and business leaders with proactive attitudes and behavior. Thus, in order to establish a continuous dialogue among academics, national and international business leaders, practicing managers and business students at NSBM and other organizations, it is proposed to launch a business magazine, namely, ‘Business Dialogue’ a quarterly publication in English.

The proposed magazine of NSBM has the following objectives.

1. To provide a forum for publishing related articles, opinions, interviews, review of books, etc. in the fields of business, computing and engineering.

2. To expose the students and academic staff members to a continuous business dialogue.

3. To establish links among research institutes, universities, the industry and NSBM.

We fervently hope that the ‘Business Dialogue’ will become a highly interactive forum for proactive academics, professionals, national leaders, business personnel, students of universities and higher educational institutes and the general public.

Finally, I take this opportunity to thank all the distinguished persons who were instrumental in making ‘Business Dialogue’ a reality, both at NSBM and outside.

Dr. EA WeerasingheChief Executive Officer


EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

Mr. J Baratha Dodankotuwa

Editors

Mr. DMA KulasooriyaMs. Kishani WijesiriwardeneMr. Chaminda RathnayakeMr. Chaminda WijesingheMs. Leshika Samaraweera

Journalist

Ms. Dilshani Samaraweera

Designed & Printed by

Softwave Printing & Packaging (Pvt) Ltd.Colombo 05www.softwave.lk

Published by

© National School of Business Management309, High Level Road, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka

Tel : 94(11)5672545, 567 3535E-mail : [email protected] : www.nsbm.lk

‘Business Dialogue’ is published by National School of Business Management (NSBM). Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. All opinions and ideas appearing in the articles, interviews, and discussions are the responsibilities of respective contributors. Accordingly, editorial board, officers and employees at NSBM accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the consequences of any such opinion, idea, or statement.

Editorial

It is with great pleasure that we publish the first issue of the ‘Business Dialogue’, the quarterly magazine from the NSBM. The central theme for this inaugural issue is ‘Higher Education and Graduate Employability’, which we believe is a timely topic. Sri Lanka is aiming to become a ‘Knowledge Hub’ in Asia while some parties have their doubts and concerns. The Business Dialogue intends to reveal the personal and professional opinions of selected dignitaries in this context and generate an important dialogue.

This dialogue into higher education and graduate employment is a long-felt need of the country. Some eminent academics, researchers, professionals and national political leaders may opine different views. We believe, it is necessary to obtain different views of important people when we design higher educational institutes and academic and professional programs on par with international standards. This proactive dialogue may lead to the formulation of a ‘National Higher Education Policy Framework’ on par with the developed world.

We are of the view that education or the learning process is the most valuable life experience for any person who aspires towards dignified living. Developed nations usually maintain the best education system for their future generations with continuous change and upgrading whereas less developed countries are struggling to introduce an acceptable education system for their future generations.

While most of the well established higher academic and professional institutes are household names, some are not well recognized. Certain degrees, diplomas, and professional qualifications have remarkable recognition while some do not have an acceptable level of recognition. Graduates with certain specializations find their future career paths soon, whereas some wait for years, perhaps until the Government supplies jobs.

The Sri Lankan higher education system needs a strong feedback from all interested parties, namely, politician, academia, bureaucrats, business leaders, alumni and present students in order to revive it. The inaugural issue of ‘Business Dialogue’ is dedicated towards this worthy cause.

J Baratha DodankotuwaEditor-in-Chief

8 JULY / AUG / SEPT 2012

Higher Education and Graduate Employability:

An Overview J. Baratha Dodankotuwa - Senior Lecturer, Nat iona l School o f Bus iness Management

Overview

It has been heavily argued whether the higher education, more specifically university education, is for direct employment or not. Academics, researchers, professionals and general public opine the relationship between higher education and employability based on their individual attainment and interests whereas students might opine based on their future aspirations. While the human development index calculated for Sri Lanka shows remarkable achievements, the actual scenario with respect to the overall education system is lagging behind when compared to developed and recently developed nations. Some developed nations may comprise more than 50% of adults having obtained a higher educational qualification or equivalent, while Sri Lanka’s population has less than 05% of qualified persons in its adult age cohort. The representation of aspiring youth in the higher education sector, both state and private, is also marginal in Sri Lanka. National universities are able to enroll less than 20% of those qualified for university education, while it is about 7% of those who sit for the GCE A/L examination. On the other hand, Sri Lanka is in a dilemma on employing graduates. It experiences negative

aspects for both the percentage of university enrollment and graduate employability. Further, some expertise such as IT, Management, Medicine, Engineering, etc. is lacking in Sri Lanka, while some graduates wait for years to obtain their first appointment, possibly until the Government fulfills this as an election pledge.

Developed nations identified the importance of developing ‘human capital’ or ‘human asset’ a few decades ago, while recently developed nations followed the same or modified route. Those countries maintain highly positive relationships among the criteria coming under ‘the human development index.’ For example, the higher the university enrollment, the higher the graduate employability, the higher the national productivity, the higher the per capita income, the higher the life expectancy, the higher the literacy rate, (not only reading ability but application of technology) and the lower the infant mortality rate, etc. It has been a proven fact that if any country wants to improve the index for the above aspects, education in general and higher education in particular is vital.

No Description Sri Lanka Malaysia Australia

1 Total Population 21 million 28 million 22 million2 Population Growth Rate (World Bank) 0.73 1.66 2.053 Economic Growth Rate 8.30 5.20 1.804 Per Capita Income (Nominal) (US $) (IMF estimation 2011) 2,800 8,600 66,0005 Per Capita Income (PPP) (US $) (IMF estimation 2011) 5,700 15,568 40,2006 Life Expectancy 72.40 74.20 81.207 Literacy Rate 94.20 92.50 99.008 Infant Mortality Rate 09.47 15.87 04.559 Human Development Index* 0.691 0.761 0.929

10 HDI Country Rank 97 61 211 Number of University and Higher Educational Institutes

Students (Estimated 2012)90,000 850,000 1,200.000 (includes

350,000 overseas students)

12 Number of National Level Universities 15 32 4314 Other Higher Educational Institutes 50 60 130

Table 01: Main Socio-economic Information

*The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, standards of living, and quality of life for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian economist Amartya Sen.

Sources: Reports of Central of Bank of Sri Lanka and University Grants Commission, Malaysian Higher Education Documents, Australian Higher Education Documents, and Times Higher Education, UK.


Table 01 shows some important socio-economic data and information on three selected countries, namely; Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Australia, where the population is approximately equal. Some of the achievements of all three countries indicate equal level, e.g. population, literacy rate, growth rates, etc. while some shows vast inequality, such as per capita income, HDI index, HDI country rank, etc. In addition, three countries show the diverse picture for student enrolment for higher education, Sri Lanka - 90,000, Malaysia - 850,000 and Australia - 1,200,000. This scenario of each country represents the current nature of higher education; mainly the Government sponsored higher education in Sri Lanka against Government sector with private sector engagement as of Australia and Malaysia. This situation poses a vibrant dialogue among policy makers, academics, professionals, students and general public. In this context, Sri Lanka faces an extraordinary challenge, mainly how to increase the student enrollment while safeguarding the graduate employability. Further, will Sri Lanka change the present policy of higher education for future course of action? Sri Lanka, at present, embarks on this important engagement at different forums; some are cordial while others are hostile. In view of the future direction of higher education and graduate employability, the dialogue among all stakeholders – policy makers, academic, professionals, students, and general public, should be well established.

What is higher education?

Many people are confused about higher education, because there have been a lot of changes recently, including higher educational institutions changing their names, titles and academic and professional programs. In fact, there is no simple definition of higher education. The international definition of tertiary education divides it into two parts, i.e. Type A for higher education and Type B for further education. A higher education qualification at degree level takes a minimum of three years to complete, more typically four. It will have a theoretical foundation and it will be at a level which would qualify someone to work in a professional field and it will usually be taught in an environment which also includes advanced research activity. Shortly, higher education generally means university level education. It offers a number of qualifications ranging from Higher National Diplomas and Foundation Degrees to Honors Degrees, postgraduate programs such as Masters Degrees and Doctorates. These are recognized throughout the world as representing specialist expertise supported by a wide range of skills that employers find very useful. Further education generally includes those postgraduate studies where you can gain your Master and Doctorate degrees. Given below are the definitions of the most frequently used terms related to higher education:

Bachelor’s Degree: A bachelor’s degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts four years, but can range anywhere from three to six years depending on the region of the world. Some of the popular examples of the degrees awarded throughout the world are BA (Bachelor of Arts), BSc (Bachelor of Science), BS (Bachelor of Science), BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration), BCom (Bachelor of Commerce), MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor

of Surgery), LLB (Bachelor of Law), B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education), and B.Eng. (Bachelor of Engineering).

Master: A master’s degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. It is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. In the recent standardized European system of higher education, it corresponds to a two-year graduate program to be entered after three/four years of undergraduate studies and in preparation for either high-qualification employment or for doctoral studies. Within the area studied, graduates are able to possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theoretical and applied topics, high order skills in analysis, critical evaluation or professional application, and the ability to solve complex problems and think rigorously and independently. Degrees awarded at Master’s level are: MA (Master of Arts), M.Sc. (Master of Science), MS (Master of Science), MBA (Master of Business Administration), M.Com. (Master of Commerce), MPA (Master of Public Administration), M.Eng.(Master of Engineering), and M.Phil. (Master of Philosophy).

Doctorate: It is an academic degree of the highest level. Traditionally, the award of a doctorate implies recognition of the candidate as an equal by the university faculty under which he or she has studied. There are essentially three types of doctorates: research, first-professional (USA only), and honorary. Research doctorates are nearly always awarded in recognition of academic research that is of a publishable standard (even if not actually published) and represents at least a modest contribution to human knowledge. It is usually assessed by submission and defense of a doctoral thesis or dissertation, though in some cases a coherent body of published literature can be accepted instead. Honorary doctorates are awarded for a substantial contribution to a field but this need not be academic in character. Degrees awarded at Doctorate level are, namely; PhD (Doctor of Philosophy), D.Phil. (Doctor of Philosophy), D.Sc. (Doctor of Science), MD (Doctor of Medicine), LL.D (Doctor of Law), and D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature).

Table 2 shows the main universities in each country which are usually conducts the bachelor, master and doctorate degree programs.

The Difference between Academic Qualifications and Professional Qualifications

As identified in many documents, there is an endless dialogue on the difference between academic qualifications and professional qualifications. Some experts define that both qualifications origin as same, but differ in application. Accordingly, “academic qualifications” would be the university or college degrees a prospective employer might require before they would consider a person they are looking for. For example, if you apply for a job with a law firm, you must have a law degree from an accredited law faculty or school in the same country. “Professional qualifications” might be actual experience with the task at hand, with or


Table 02: Name of the Universities in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Australia

30. Tenaga National University

31. University of Malaysia Perlis

32. University of Sains Islam Malaysia

33. University of Technology Petronas

34. University of Kuala Lumpur

35. versity of Technical Malaysia Melaka

36. University of Malaysia Terengganu

37. Tunku Abdul Rahman University

38. International Medical University

39. University of Malaysia Kelantan

40. National Defence University of Malaysia

41. Darul Iman University Malaysia

42. Limkokwing University of Creative Technology

43. Malaysia University of Science & Technology

44. University of Industry Selangor

45. Tun Abdul Razak University

46. Management and Science University

Australia

47. AIMST University of

48. Australian National University

49. Bond University

50. Central Queensland University

51. Edith Cowan University

52. Griffith University

53. International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS)

54. James Cook University

55. La Trobe University

56. Macquarie University

57. Monash University

Sri Lanka

1. University of Colombo

2. University of Peradeniya

3. University of Moratuwa

4. University of Sri Jayewardenepura

5. University of Kelaniya

6. Open University of Sri Lanka

7. University of Ruhuna

8. University of Jaffna

9. Sabaragamuwa University

10. Rajarata University

11. Eastern University of Sri Lanka

12. Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

13. Uva Wellassa University

14. South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

15. University of the Visual & Performing Arts 1

Malaysia

16. University of Technology Malaysia

17. The National University of Malaysia

18. University of Malaya

19. MARA University of Technology

20. University of Putra Malaysia

21. University of Science Malaysia

22. Multimedia University

23. International Islamic University of Malaysia

24. University of Utara Malaysia

25. University of Malaysia Sarawak

26. University of Malaysia Sabah

27. University of Malaysia Pahang

28. University of Pendidikan Sultan Idris

29. University of Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

58. Murdoch University

59. Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

60. Southern Cross University

61. Swinburne University of Technology

62. University of Adelaide

63. University of Canberra

64. University of Melbourne

65. University of New South Wales

66. University of Newcastle

67. University of Queensland

68. University of South Australia

69. University of Sydney

70. University of Tasmania

71. UTS Sydney

72. University of Western Australia

73. University of Wollongong

74. Victoria University of Wellington

75. Australian Catholic University

76. Charles Sturt University

77. The University of New England

78. University of Western Sydney

79. Charles Darwin University

80. University of Southern Queensland

81. University of the Sunshine Coast

82. The Flinders University of South Australia

83. Deakin University

84. RMIT University

85. Swinburne University of Technology

86. University of Ballarat

87. Curtin University

88. Edith Cowan University

89. The University of Notre Dame Australia

Sources: Reports of University Grants Commission, Malaysian Higher Education Documents, Australian Higher Education Documents, and Times Higher Education, UK.


AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

without the academic qualifications. If you have cared for the ill in a makeshift hospital and done so well that you came to supervise others, you have hands-on nursing experience, even if you do not have a nursing degree. Consequently, most of the hands-on experiences later developed as either academic or professional qualifications. Thereby, some universities at least for selected employments, design academic programs for professionals, such as medicine, engineering, accounting, marketing, HRM, physics, architecture, urban planning, etc.

Another expert outlined an academic qualification is a college or university diploma or a degree such as bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate and some academic qualifications are also professional qualifications, e.g. MBBS, LLB, M.Ed., BBA and MBA, etc.. They are degrees which qualify you for admission to a particular profession, e.g. medicine, the law, teaching, and a professional at business organization respectively. While some professional qualifications are not considered to be academic qualifications due to lack the breadth and depth of a degree and concentrate on specific knowledge and/or expertise needed to do a certain job, some professional qualifications require the applicant to have a relevant degree before they can take the professional examinations. This applies to professions such as engineering. Thus, a person may take a B.Sc. (Eng) or a B.Eng. (Bachelor of Science in Engineering or Bachelor of Engineering) and then apply to be a Member of the Institute of Engineers (their professional qualification). Until recently in the UK, nursing qualifications were professional qualifications, not academic ones. Now nursing is becoming a graduate profession and new nurses are required to have a

degree in nursing. This is both a professional and an academic qualification. Presently, most of the universities throughout the world maintain close relationship with professional institutes through accreditation. It is also proven fact that most employers would prefer graduates with professional accreditation due to the so-called dual touch up, academic cum professional, in molding them for future careers.

What is Employability?

Yorke and Knight (2003) define employability as a set of achievements such as skills, understandings and personal attributes that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy. University of Exeter defined employability as the establishment of clear mechanisms by which students can develop their abilities to use and deploy a wide range of skills and opportunities to enhance their own academic learning and enable them to become more employable (Lee, 2000). Employment and employability is not the same thing and should be differentiated (Lee, 2002). Being employed means having a job, being employable means having the qualities needed to maintain employment and progress in the workplace. Employability from the perspective of Higher Education Institutes is therefore about producing graduates who are capable and able, and this impact upon all areas of university life, in terms of the delivery of academic programmes and extra curricula activities. Fundamentally then, employability is about learning – learning how to learn – and employability is not a product, but a process‖ (LTSN - cited Lee, 2002). Harvey (2001) mentioned in his report titled Employability and Diversity; employability has many definitions but they break down into two broad groups. The first relate to the ability of the student to get and retain and develop in a job after graduation. The other set are concerned with enhancing the students‟ attributes (skills, knowledge, attitudes and abilities) and ultimately with empowering the student as a critical life-long learner (Hillage and Pollard, 1998; Harvey, 2001).

What are Employability Skills?

Employability skills are the non-technical skills and knowledge necessary for effective participation in the workforce, and can include skills such as communication,

MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA


UNIVERSITY OF PERADENIYA

self-management, problem solving and teamwork. They are also sometimes referred to as generic skills, capabilities, enabling skills or key competencies. Employability is improved by a good academic record plus skills and attributes that enable you to adapt and manage the constantly changing work environment. Employability skills include hard skills (technical or discipline-specific) and generic or soft skills, such as: Teamwork, Communication, Problem solving, Initiative and enterprise, Planning and organizing, Self management, Learning, and Technology. Every stage of your career requires that you are able to identify, analyze, prioritize and convincingly describe your skills. You need these when you are: career planning, applying for jobs using a resume, cover letter or response to selection criteria, being interviewed for a job, requesting new duties and responsibilities, and selecting future professional development. You develop employability skills through work (paid or voluntary), studies and community involvement. During your degree, you should not only strive for excellent results but also be involved in a variety of activities within the community including clubs and societies, sport, hobbies, and volunteer activities.

Employability attributes

Attributes are your approach to work and are usually related to your value system. Unlike skills, they are very difficult to teach someone. Employers will seek out particular attributes. You need to recognize your own and learn to communicate them to employers. These include such things as: adaptability, loyalty and commitment, ability to deal with pressure, honesty and integrity, commonsense, enthusiasm and motivation, reliability, sense of humour, etc.

Conclusions

It believes that living standard of any country and its people largely depend on the attainment of education. As revealed,

the population size of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Australia show fairly identical number whereas other achievements are highly vary due to the influence of educational attainment of respective countries. If Sri Lanka intends to develop in economic, socio-cultural, and technological aspects it is extremely important to create abundant opportunities for higher education. Sri Lanka lacks higher educational institutes; Malaysia maintains moderate number of higher educational institutes whereas Australia keeps the highest number, even on par with other developed nations with comparison to aggregate population. Therefore, a youth in Australia has ample opportunities to further his/her higher education while the counterpart in Sri Lanka does not get that opportunity.

Graduate employability, on the other hand, is also assured in developed countries due to abundant opportunities available in the industry. Further, the skills for employability, both hard skills (technical or discipline-specific) and generic or soft skills, are evenly balanced in most of the degree programs offered in the developed world. Therefore, it suggests that the Sri Lankan higher education system should embark on this area of investigation further in the light of attaining ‘knowledge hub.’

REFERENCES

1. Weligamage, S.S., 2009, Graduates’ Employability Skills: Evidence from Literature Review, University of Kelaniya

2. Times Higher Education, UK 2012

3. Reports of Central of Bank of Sri Lanka and University Grants Commission

4. Malaysian Higher Education Documents

5. Australian Higher Education Documents


Launching Ceremonyof the NSBM

February 21, 2012 | Cinnamon Grand Colombo

Hon. Dullas AlahapperumaMinister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development

Hon. Dullas Alahapperuma is the Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development and a National List

member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. He was also the Minister of Transport, Minister of Media during his

political career. He was educated at St Servatius’ College, Matara and Ananada College, Colombo and is a

reputed journalist in Sri Lanka.

“The main problem in our education system

is that our classrooms are in the 19th

century, teachers are in the 20th century and children are in

the 21st century. This is the simplest

explanation I can give about our education

system,”

Minister Dullas Alahapperuma

“For the first time in Sri Lankan history, a convocation

ceremony was held for technology graduates, from the UNIVOTEC University of

Vocational Technology in Ratmalana, in July this year.”

INTERVIEW

Some people say higher education needs overall changes, but others say the solution should be to improve the State system of higher education. What is your view?

I do not believe education should be only in the hands of the government. Today we have an alternative society and we have to adjust our education system to cater to this alternative world. The main problem in our education system is that our classrooms are in the 19th century, teachers are in the 20th century and children are in the 21st century. This is the simplest explanation I can give about our education system. I also do not think the changes required within the system, to cater to the needs of these 21st century children, can be made by the government alone.

Some people feel there are many jobs in the market, but the skills are missing. As the minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development what is your view?

That perception is correct. After independence our focus has been university education. This has been the focus of our

society and policies. Parents feel children have no future if they have no degree. Teachers also teach this idea. Why do three or four children commit suicide after AL results? They feel they have no future if they cannot get into university. So this emphasis on university is a mistake we made, because although about 420,000 children entered Grade 1 this year, only about 21,000 went into university. Therefore, while we need to increase access to university, we also need to increase vocational training and technical skills that are employment focused.

However, there is an obstacle to this expansion of vocational skills in Sri Lanka. If you look back at our history, in our society skills were linked to the caste system. Each caste was assigned a skill. European society destroyed this system in the 18th century but we have still not been able to do this. If you check the marriage proposals in a newspaper, you will

“..while we need to increase access to university, we also need to increase vocational training and technical skills, that are employment focused.”

see how tribal and clannish 21st century Sri Lankans are. This situation has made it very difficult to change mindsets. On top of these social attitudes, vocational training within the school system has also been removed. So even a basic

“NSBM must also continue the legacy of NIBM, because NIBM was a turning point in the education history of this country. So NSBM must also have a futuristic outlook for the benefit of this country.”


training in skills is no longer available at school level. But if you look at any developed society in the world today, in addition to university graduates they also produce skilled personnel. To become the wonder of Asia we will also have to build our skill base. We have about 1,100,000 people working abroad and out of this number 44% are housemaids. If we can send 1,000 nurses that would be equal to 100,000 housemaids. This is the vision of the President for the future of the country.

How committed is the government towards skills development?

We have developed an alternative route towards skills development and a strategy. For the first time in Sri Lankan history a convocation ceremony was held for technology graduates from the UNIVOTEC University of Vocational Technology in Ratmalana, in July this year. UNIVOTEC has Degree Programmes in ICT and a number of other diploma courses on manufacturing and certificate courses. UNIVOTEC is not under the UGC but students who have qualified up to NVQ Level 5 and 6, can enter the institute to study up to a degree. So we see this as a big step. The NVQ

system has 10 levels. Level 10 is a PhD level and Level 5 is a diploma. If they reach Level 7 that is equivalent to a degree.

We have also started many programmes to change societal attitudes. The Maradana Technical College was opened in 1893 but we waited for another 100 years to go into the second stage. It was only in 1996 that technical training came to the villages.

University students and students in technical colleges are not happy because they feel their aspirations are not met. What is your view?

The problem is that the courses are not marketable. The problem is, within the government sector it is difficult to change. So, even within my ministry we have had to continue some courses although they are not marketable, because it

“So I do not think education should be separated as government and non government.”


ahead faster than us. So we need a paradigm shift. We need to leapfrog. We are among the top 10 countries that have been held back because of bad political decisions. Our literacy and health indicators are similar to a developed country but why were we not able to advance economically? The reason is wrong political decisions. So if we cannot achieve a paradigm shift we will fail. I feel a politician must be futuristic and philosopher. He must not be tied to the preference vote. Academics also have a role. They must also prepare for the future, but right now the response is weak. For a paradigm shift every social sector in this country must contribute.

As the Minister of Youth Affairs do you have a message for the youth of Sri Lanka?

My father, who was a school principal, learned to write, using his finger, in the sand box in the village temple. I learned to write on a slate. My son will learn to write on a book with a pencil. His son will enter school somewhere in the 2025 era, but we cannot even predict what his education system will be like. What I mean is, our children live in an alternative world. We cannot judge our children by standing in our shoes. We must prepare for this alternative world that our children will live in.

So the message I want to give our young people is, let us join hands to build this world of our future. It will not be easy but we must prepare for it.

is very difficult to change things. However, these changes are happening slowly and we are trying to generate more opportunities for young people.

NSBM is an institution established outside purview of the UGC. What is your vision for NSBM, where do you think we should be heading?

If you ask the NSBM management, they will explain how difficult it was to start NSBM. The authorities concerned did not want to let go of their authority. But because of NSBM, we are able to reduce the cost and difficulties associated with getting a degree in Sri Lanka. O/L students can fast track into a degree, and this can reduce the time taken to graduate, by two years. This saving on time alone, is very important for a head start in life. The Dublin University College is ranked among the first 100 universities in the world. So for a State institution to join such a prestigious higher education establishment is a significant achievement. These are some of the new things that came from NSBM.

NSBM must also continue the legacy of NIBM, because NIBM was a turning point in the education history of this country. So NSBM must also have a futuristic outlook for the benefit of this country.

How optimistic are you about the future of higher education in Sri Lanka?

We are so far behind the developed world; moving one step forward at a time is useless, because they will move


Dr. BMS Batagoda is the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury and has over 27 years experience in the public

sector. Dr. Batagoda earned a B.Sc. degree in Business Administration, University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

He has a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from University of East Anglia, UK, an M.Sc. in Natural Resources

Management from Michigan State University, USA, and is an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri

Lanka. He is a board member of the Ceylon Electricity Board, Litro Gas Lanka Ltd., the Sri Lanka Tourist

Development Authority, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, the Urban Development Authority, the

Institute of Policy Studies, the Postgraduate Institute of Management and the Sri Lanka Carbon Fund. Dr.

Batagoda has also authored several books on environmental topics.

“At present around 22,000 students get into

universities annually.”

“We have proposed that at least 42,000 should go to

universities by 2020. All the others should go in for

vocational training”.

Dr. S Batagoda

“Now, for around 110,000 children who have no access to universities, the situation

is like five or six centuries ago, when there were no

universities, and even of they wanted to, they couldn’t enter

a university.”

Dr. BMS BatagodaDeputy Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance & Planning INTERVIEW

How effective is the higher education system in meeting national economic goals?

Only about 22,000 students can go to State universities. Another 9,900 or so, go to foreign universities. So out of 345,000 children born in this country every year, we have around 32,000 getting a higher education. About 68% get some kind of skills, but 32% of the children join the society unskilled. This is dangerous. This is happening because our education system, up to the A/Ls, target university education, although we all know that university placements are limited. The entire education system is annually targeting only the 6.4% that can get into university. No one promotes NVQ (National Vocational Qualifications) education, technical colleges or vocational training.

So when foreign investors come to Sri Lanka we have nothing to offer them. In the past, a 92% literacy rate was good enough, because literacy rates were low in other countries. Now, literacy is not adequate. Industries have become highly technical and even labour grades required some level of technical knowledge. Potential investors ask how many people have access to computers, our skills in mathematics and science, and our technical skills.

Other countries like Malaysia and South Korea have gone a long way. In South Korea, 85% of the people are graduates and almost 100% are technically qualified. In Sri Lanka, only about 8% are graduates, including foreign graduates.

What about vocational training for skills development?

There are vocational training opportunities for about 203,000 students in the private and public sector. But students doing vocational training are not happy, because NVQ and vocational training are not recognised in the society. The

Government runs 557 institutes for vocational training, and with the private sector, we have around 800 institutes. In total, around 235,000 youths get some training annually, but still we have about 110,000 without any training at all.

In 2011, the number of vocational training institutes had dropped to 350 from 557 in 2010 under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development. That means around 200 centres have closed down or not registered, because there is no demand. But 110,000 people have no skills training. The Government is providing funding for these places. So money is not the issue, it is the lack of recognition for these courses.

Some people believe funding for higher education is inadequate

Funding higher education is not just giving money. We need to improve internet access, fibre optic connectivity, road developments, computer access, electricity, water supply and overall improvement in living standards. These are all investments that contribute towards higher education. Just giving money for university buildings is not enough. Children need other facilities like water, electricity, computers and broadband internet, for education. For us, higher education development includes all of this. We have been working on these things and we have already achieved some things, including broadband connectivity across the country and access to water and electricity.

What about investment in research and development in universities?

We have around 48 research institutions including 17 universities, but the private sector says because the link between the research institutes and private sector is weak, research is not development oriented. Professors and academics say government is not giving adequate fundings for research work. Even when we provide funds, university academics and researches have problems in accessing the funds because of their lack of knowledge on the procedures.

“…one of the things told to us by Vice Chancellors and professors, is that they cannot spend the money they get because of the procedures involved.”

So in the budget 2011 we proposed that if a private company invests in research with university academics or government research organizations, the company can get double that amount as tax concessions. This is called the doubled tax deduction. So if they invest Rs.100,000, they can claim Rs.200,000 in tax reductions from the government.

The last budget 2011 did another thing. If a researcher attached to a government institute does a research paper and publishes it, he/she can get 25% of the salary as an allowance. Just publishing in a journal can increase their salary by 25%. In the 2012 budget we proposed a triple


“There are vocational training opportunities for about 203,000 students in the private and public sector. But students doing vocational training are not happy because NVQ and vocational training is not recognised in society.”

deduction tax scheme. So that means, a company can invest Rs. 100,000 in a research project with a government research organization and claim tax reductions up to Rs. 300,000. We

after O/Ls those that don’t get through to A/L, should start on NVQ. O/L teachers must tell them these options. The same process should be repeated at the A/Ls. Those that don’t enter university should start on NVQ. From year one, teachers must talk about available options with children, because our target is for 100% of our people to have some skill.

How do you plan on addressing the mismatch between graduates and market demand?

From the total number of A/L students about 23% do bio science and mathematics, 52% do arts and about 25% do commerce. By 2016, we are hoping to increase science students from 23% to 40% because science students can be trained more easily for industries rather than arts students. We are also proposing to increase the commerce output from 25% to 30% reducing arts from 52% to 18%. We will also introduce a new subject stream in technology that will account for 12%.

We hope to make a parallel adjustment in university education also by 2016. We are proposing to reduce the general science intake from 26% – 18%, because general science graduates find it difficult to find jobs. We plan to increase the agriculture student intake from 5% – 10%, increase the engineering intake from 8% – 17%, because general science labs can be converted into engineering labs quite easily, increase the medicine intake from 10% -15%, increase the management intake from 20% – 25% and reduce arts and law intake from 31% - 15%. We think this is possible with the existing facilities.

What is your view on private universities?

I think private universities should come. A big problem in this country is the gap between the private and public sector. As one country, there should not be a difference between the private and public sectors. As a civilised country, we must also create opportunities for everyone to have a higher education. Children must have a choice. For the 110,000 children who cannot get into universities, the situation is like five or six centuries ago, when people did not have universities. So this must change.

What is the current allocation for higher education?

People are saying that the Government is not funding academic research. That is unfair. If our professors want to, they can virtually get the entire tax income of the country through this system. So the sector is not under funded. There is something wrong with our university culture. Our university system must change and start a research culture in partnership with the private sector.

The Government is willing to put money to increase university capacity. But the universities must come with a proper plan for this. When we have budget discussions, one of the things told to us by Vice Chancellors and professors, is that they cannot spend the money they get because of the procedures involved. They have no capacity to spend the money. We provide about Rs. 4,000 million under the capital budget for universities. But they can’t spend the money, mainly because there are procedures to follow. In 2006, the investment in higher education was Rs. 13 billion and in 2012 it is around Rs. 20 billion.

Last year, our imports were double that of our exports. So we need to increase our exports, otherwise that expenditure is not sustainable. The only way we can double exports, is through a technology driven economy. From our total exports, only 1.5% is hi-tech exports. In Singapore and Korea, it is 40% of their exports. But unless you increase hi-tech exports you cannot increase export earnings. So we have no choice but to go for a knowledge-based economy.

“The entire education system is annually targeting only the 6.4% thet can get into the university. No one promotes NVQ (National Vocational Qualifications) education, technical colleges or vocational training.”

How does the government plan on increasing access to universities?

At present around 22,000 get into universities. We have proposed that at least 42,000 should go to university by 2020. All the others should go in for vocational training. So

also proposed that if the company does the research with an academic or researcher, out of the profit, the academic can keep 50%. So why can’t universities academics get funding this way?


The Convener of the Interuniversity Students’ Federation (IUSF), Sanjeewa Bandara, represents the

students’ unions of Sri Lanka’s 14 main universities of Peradeniya, Kelaniya, Sri Jayewardenepura, Ruhuna,

Sabaragamuwa, Rajarata and Wayamba, and students unions of the University of Visual and Performing

Arts, University of Buddhist and Pali and the Sri Lanka Open University. The IUSF also represents students’

at the Institute of Indigenous Medicine (University of Colombo), the Faculty of Agriculture (University of

Ruhuna), HNDE, the Sri Pali Campus (University of Colombo) and National Diploma in Technology (University

of Moratuwa).

“We say allocate at least 6% of GDP for higher education and half the problems in the higher education sector will

be solved.”

Sanjeewa Bandara, Convener, Inter University Students’

Federation

“The allocations for universities must increase to ensure

improvements in quality of education and to increase access to university education, but over

the past few years allocations have been cut. In 2012 the capital

allocation for universities was reduced by Rs. 1,235 million

compared to 2011.”

Mr. Sanjeewa BandaraInteruniversity Students’ Federation (IUSF)

INTERVIEW

How would you describe the current system of higher education in terms of quality?

In both professional and academic higher education, there are problems relating to both quality and quantity. The quality of education has not improved and the limited facilities limit access to higher education.

In terms of quality of higher education, what we mean is that subjects and courses are not being updated and new subjects and courses are not being introduced. University students have requested for IT and psychology courses but these have not been introduced.

Some courses in universities have not been updated for 10, 20 even 30 years. At the Peradeniya Science Faculty some courses have not been updated for 10 years.

There is also a need to increase university facilities to broaden access to university education, so that more people can access higher education. But this is also not happening. Compared to the number of people qualifying for higher education, the facilities have not been increased to allow an increase in the university intake.

“Some courses in universities have not been up-dated for 10, 20 even 30 years.”

But what we see is that instead of increasing the intake and improving the quality of university education, the government is reducing funding for universities.

What about professional education?

We feel universities should give prominence to academic education. Professional education can be developed through the already existing institutions for professional education.

But the problem is, the government does not have a vision or a programme to develop the existing professional education structures. Institutes that are supposed to provide professional education are ignored and left to fall apart. The HNDA (Higher National Diploma in Accounting) system, the ATIs (Advanced Technology Institutes), are ignored. The Dehiwala HNDA is a dilapidated old building. It does


Increase funding for universities and for higher education.

In future, if private universities are allowed, people with A passes will be on the roads but people who can pay 65 lakhs, a small number, will do medicine and engineering.

“Around 125,000 qualify for university every year, but only 21,000 are taken in. So over 100, 000 don’t have access to a university education. To increase higher education opportunities, facilities in existing universities must be increased and new State universities must be started.”

not look like an education establishment for professional education. But these professional education institutes are supposed to give an education equivalent to a university education. There are many HNDAs but they are not even spoken of. They have been abandoned so that they close down.

Instead of developing the existing professional education institutes, the government is talking about introducing

professional education into universities. What we say is, the two, professional and academic education, should both be developed with interconnectivity between the two, but there is no need to mix up professional education inside university education. Professional education institutes should be developed on their areas and universities should be developed for academic education.

What do you recommend to improve the quality of higher education?

Increase funding for universities and for higher education. The allocations for universities need to be increased to ensure quality improvements and to increase access to university education, but over the past few years allocations have been cut. In 2012, the capital allocation for universities has been reduced by Rs. 1,235 million compared to 2011.

How do you look at private universities?

The government says it started private universities because it wants to broaden higher education. But if that is true why is the government cutting funds for higher education? There is a big difference in what they say and do. They do not have a vision to improve the quality of higher education and they have also not increased facilities for universities.

The problem is that over 100,000 people should go to university but can’t. So the government solution is private universities. We say this is not a solution. In a private university the main qualification to join, is the ability to pay fees. They say they will look for educational qualifications, but ultimately what matters is the ability to pay. A majority of Sri Lanka’s population are low income earners. So how are their children to go to private universities?

At the Malabe private university the entry criteria is being able to pay 65 lakhs. You can’t go to that university, even if you have the qualifications, if you can’t pay. So students with A and B qualifications at the Advanced Levels won’t be able study for a medical degree, but students with 2 passes can get into the Malabe University because they have money.

People with A and B passes won’t be able to become doctors but people with much lower qualifications can. In future, if private universities are allowed, people with A passes will be on the roads but people who can pay 65 lakhs, a small number, will do medicine and engineering. This will affect the quality of higher education, because more qualified people will not be able to access higher education. This will also create discrimination inside the higher education system.

The reason university students are demonstrating is because of the problems inside universities that are obstructing a proper university education.

We say to allocate at least 6% of GDP for higher education and half the problems in the higher education sector will be solved. The government should also start new universities to allow more people to get a higher education. But they are doing the opposite. They are reducing funding for higher education and also reducing the intake.


The student movement believes ordinary people should have rights to higher education. That is why we have to take a side when it comes to privatisation of free education. We are on the side of the people.

University education is also affected by student unrest. What is the cause of student unrest inside universities?

People don’t come to universities because they want to go on strike or protest or demonstrate. They come to university for education. The reason university students are demonstrating is because of the problems inside universities that are obstructing a proper university education.

There are many university faculties without even basic facilities. For instance, the Ruhuna University’s Management Faculty does not have a faculty complex. There is 1 lecture hall for about 1,300 students and about 1,300 students have less than 30 computers in the common pool. There are also no professors. There are lecturers and senior lectures, but no professors. The Rajarata University’s Arts and Management Faculties also do not have faculty complexes. The Peradeniya University offers a management degree, but does not have a Management Faculty, although students have been asking for one. There are also no professors to teach the Management Degree. The Peradeniya Applied Health Science Faculty has no professors, the Ruhuna Management Faculty does not have professors and the Ruhunu Engineering Faculty does not have professors. So what is the impact on the quality of education? That is why university students are protesting.

There is also a shortage of lecturers at universities. The Ruhuna University Engineering Faculty’s Machinery and Production Department needs 18 full time lecturers but has 7, out of which only 3 are permanent lecturers. The others are junior lecturers. The Ruhunu Fisheries and Marine Science Faculty does not have a faculty complex for about 150 students.

Other facilities are also not adequate for a proper education. There are not enough lecture halls, libraries and laboratories. The Kelaniya University library was designed for 500 students but has to accommodate 8,000 students. The end result of not having enough facilities inside universities is that a 4 year degree takes 5 years and a 3 year degree takes 4 years. The Ruhuna Fisheries Faculty’s 2006 batch took 5 years to complete a 4 year degree and the convocation has still not been held.

Institutes that are supposed to provide professional education are ignored and left to fall apart.

The government says it wants to develop graduates that see beyond the horizon. But to do that, we need to transfer international knowledge developments quickly into our universities. For that we need to increase English and IT facilities. But in our universities the reality is far from this. For 2,500 students at the Rajarata University they have about 60 computers and most don’t have good internet access. So that’s about 13 minutes of computer use per student per day. The Peradeniya Dental Faculty is supposed to be the best in Asia but has about 6 computers for about 300 students. So that means a student gets about 11 minutes of computer use time. Is this what the government means by saying developing higher education?

The government has issued a circular under which they are cutting allocations to universities. The Mahapola was Rs.2,500 in 2005 and is the same now. The bursary has not been increased for 10 years and is still Rs. 2,000 although the cost of living has increased. Even newspapers given to university hostels in Ruhuna, have been stopped. They are also trying to charge fees for university hostels.

Is it fair to depend on the government for everything in addition to free education?

The government is trying to save money by stopping news papers to students, but we know how much money is wasted by the government for unnecessary events. There are so many examples. Through IFA what did we get? Events to celebrate the President taking office, hedging losses, low quality fuel imports, and many other wasteful expenses, but the government is trying to save money on newspapers. Some solutions by the government are a joke.

The government has been giving leadership training in the army. We don’t see any special development of leadership or positive qualities in any student that took part. What they are trying to do, is to manipulate the students before they come to universities.

Now, the government is giving jobs to unemployed graduates without any leadership test or even testing their knowledge on their subject areas. Not one graduate said they were tested on these. They were told they had to support SLFP reforms, take part in May Day and canvas for political projects. For teacher appointments, in the applications someone must recommend them. So to become a teacher, what matters is a politician’s recommendation, not how well the applicant did at the teacher training exam.

So, in the same way, this leadership training is not anything to do with leadership development - it’s a political tool. This year they have set aside Rs. 900 million for unwanted leadership training instead of increasing funding for universities. Even lecturers say this is wrong and lecturers are the people qualified to say what is best for universities.


The government gets involved in universities not to generate quality but to politicise universities. They have destroyed the independence of universities. Universities should have the autonomy to decide on education. It should not be the Minister of Higher Education who decides on higher education or the President, because they are not qualified in that area. There are experts in these areas but today these experts can’t decide independently.

For instance, the student selection for the University of Visual and Performing Arts is based on a practical exam because of the nature of these subjects. Now, suddenly, Minister S B Dissanayake has decided to stop the practical exam without discussing it with the senate, or faculties, or students. So now, students with no artistic talent can do visual and performing arts because they can simply enter the university based on the Z score. If a person has sat 3 subjects and 1 subject is music, they can get inside without

any significant skill in music, because their entry is based on the Z score and they will not be tested for music skills. So the quality of the degree will fall. That is why there is a need to protect the independence of universities, to ensure the quality of the degrees.

It is not only students, even lecturers are protesting. The Vice Chancellor is appointed on the President’s preference. So is s/he independent? S/he manages the university according to the government’s political needs.

What do you believe is the cause of graduate unemployment in Sri Lanka?

Some people say graduates are unemployed because they don’t know English and computers – this is not true. There is high unemployment among graduates in the US and EU these days. Is that because they don’t know English and

computers? There are no jobs because there are no jobs being generated in the country. We don’t have an economy that is generating jobs for graduates. That is the problem. There are jobs but not suitable for qualifications of graduates, or jobs that do not pay an adequate salary.

The government does not have a proper vision or action plan to use the human resources coming out of universities, by integrating them into the economy systematically. Agriculture graduates are working as managers, supervisors, giving tuition or teaching English. Is it for these purposes that the agriculture faculties were established? Those who pass out of agriculture faculties in universities should be in fields of employment that use their specialised knowledge, but there is no system to use the resource coming out of the agriculture faculties. It is not the students who make the curriculums or design

courses. So if graduates are unemployed or if graduates are poor quality, who is responsible for that? The problem is inside the economy because there is no vision to harness resources from universities. When policy decisions are made on agriculture, construction, education, or any other field, sector specialists from these fields should be involved in the decision making, not politicians who do not know anything about the subject. Politicisation is the reason for every sector in the country having problems and getting weaker. There should be less politicisation and more emphasis on using the human resources from universities.


Mr. Upali Gunasekera is the Principal of Royal College, Sri Lanka’s largest public school, accommodating 8,300

students and maintaining a staff of 350 teachers. Mr. Gunasekera, who joined the Education Administrative

Service in 1988, after completing his B.Sc. at the University of Peradeniya, has nearly 15 years of experience

as a school principal and has been in the public school education sector for nearly 24 years.

Mr. Upali Gunasekera Principal of Royal College

INTERVIEW

As the head of a leading school in the country, what is your perspective about the higher education system in Sri Lanka?

In a school like this, a percentage of children are not even interested in Sri Lankan universities. About 30% of our students prefer to go out of the country for higher studies. This could be because of the delays inside local universities and the highly competitive selection process. Entering a foreign university is not as difficult, as entering a local university and foreign universities may also offer a wider choice of subjects to follow.

Local universities still offer a traditional set of courses, but foreign universities offer different combinations of subjects and also employment opportunities abroad. Some subject areas, like ICTs, are not adequately supported in Sri Lankan universities but higher studies in these subject areas generate employment opportunities even outside the country.

What do you think of encouraging technical education in schools?

Technical education in school is a very good idea. The country is in need of people with technical skills. There is a limit as to how many can become doctors, lawyers and other professionals. So there are opportunities for technical skills. At Royal, a majority of O/L students qualify for A/L studies, but I feel in rural schools, many students can be direct towards vocational training, if the training facilities are available.

How can employability of young people be improved?

The best thing is vocational training, because this ensures

“Rural students may not have so many opportunities to go abroad. So vocational training can provide many other opportunities. There has to be a mix of both in the school curriculum.”

“About 30% of our students prefer to go out of the country for higher studies. This could be because of the delays inside local universities and the highly competitive selection process.”

education with practical elements. Rural students may not have so many opportunities to go abroad. So vocational training can provide many other opportunities. There has to be a mix of both in the school curriculum. Previously, in the 1972 era, the school curriculum included vocational subjects.

What kind of support is available for school children for higher education?

Urban schools like this get a lot of support from family, relatives and old boys, which may be limited when it comes to rural schools. In schools like Royal College, even old boys help children plan their future. For instance, the school Royal Old Boys’ Union organises a career guidance exhibition called EDEX in January every year. It is held in Colombo and Kandy and has been highly successful and even helps children find foreign universities to continue their higher education. The 10th exhibition will be held next year.


University lecturers say the quality of students entering university has deteriorated? Is the school system responsible for this?

In any institution, people who are in responsible positions should be able to get the maximum output from the people they work with. All A/L papers are set by university dons.

So perhaps they should have thought of addressing any quality problems at that point itself.

Is quality of school education affected by lack of resources?

This is a problem not only in rural schools but even here. Even we experience shortages of quality human resources. Teachers are not as good as they used to be. I have heard that in the 1970s university graduates thought twice about whether to apply for a job in a bank, or whether to apply to be a teacher, because the salaries were comparable. Now, a peon in a bank may be taking home a better monthly pay than a senior teacher. Teacher salaries are Rs. 20,000 – 30,000 per month on average, a senior teacher may get Rs. 40,000 per month. So the profession can’t attract quality people. Teacher trainers are also in the same situation, which means teacher training itself, is affected. So the motivational factor is very low for teachers.

What is the solution to this problem?

We have to consider the teaching profession as a key area in the development of the country and give it the recognition it deserves. Also education planning needs to be holistic. You need a bird’s eye view of the entire system. You should not target one particular element, or part of the system, but should look at the entire system.

“We have to consider the teaching profession as a key area in the development of the country and give it the recognition it deserves. Also education planning needs to be holistic”

How practical is the government’s concept of making Sri Lanka a knowledge hub?

It is a very good idea but the trend we see today, with increasing emphasis on tuition, seems to indicate that students are learning like parrots, not gaining real knowledge.

How do you view private universities?

If the government is not in a position to cater to the demand, what are the other options? I don’t say I am for it, but what are the alternatives? As it is, so many students are going abroad, because the existing universities cannot accommodate the demand.


Hon. Sunil Handunnetti JVP Member of Parliament (MP).

Hon. Sunil Handunnetti is a JVP Member of Parliament (MP). Mr. Handunnetti, who has a B.Sc in Business

Administration from the University Sri Jayewardenepura, has been involved in politics for 20 years. He was

member of the Student Council of Sri Jayewardenepura, was the Convener of the Inter University Students’

Federation in 1995-96, and was also a Board Member of the Management Faculty of Sri Jayewardenepura.

In 1997-98 he was appointed to the Colombo Municipal Council and in 2002 was elected to Parliament

from the Colombo District. In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Small and Rural Industries. He

contested the 2010 parliamentary elections under the Democratic National Alliance (DNA), led by former

Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, and was re-elected to Parliament from the Colombo District.

“Unemployment is not a

problem due only to the

education system. People think

unemployment is an education

or production problem but

the reality is, there is a world

economic crisis,”

Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, JVP, MP.

“We need to change and develop

according to the market. The

traditional teaching system must

change. We need to develop areas like

research.”

INTERVIEW

What is your opinion about graduate unemployment?

Unemployment is not a problem due only to the education system. People think unemployment is an education or production problem but the reality is, there is a world economic crisis. The US has high unemployment, there is unemployment world over. So why are there no jobs in the US? Is that due to the education system?

What do you believe is the problem?

When the capitalist system was introduced they thought by increasing production all needs will be satisfied. But there is an inherent conflict between production and profit. You can’t increase profits if you increase production, because if you keep increasing output, that will bring your profits down. To increase profits you have to reduce production, this leads to unemployment increasing, which in turn, reduces purchasing power, which again reduces production.

So the problem here is the economy. The occupy movement, the 99 movement, is due to this. In our country, at first, the open economy was able to generate opportunities but like the rest of the capitalist world these opportunities are now reducing.

What is the solution for this situation?

We need to change and develop according to the market. The traditional teaching system must change. We need to develop areas like research. We have an exam based system which is not practical. We need education systems that send out nurses, not unskilled housemaids. Take India, instead of exporting IT products they are now trying to export IT knowledge. But we are still sending out housemaids, without knowledge. The support from the education system is not adequate for this type of change.

The government attitude towards universities and student as trouble makers is part of the problem. But they also do not have a system to use university educated people.

“To increase profits you have to reduce production, this leads to unemployment increasing, which in turn, reduces purchasing power, which again reduces production. So the problem here is the economy.”

It is a very limited number who get to work in the areas they got their degree in. Many graduates work as clerical staff, which is a total waste of their university education. So they are very dissatisfied in their occupations. Arts and commerce students have this problem in a big way, because the education system is not connected to the economy.


How can this situation be addressed?

By increasing allocations for education. To address the traditional attitudes we need to find solutions for problems inside universities. University professors are getting paid low salaries. So they are protesting. Students have so many problems from hostel facilities to educational facilities. So they are protesting. They have to fight for basic needs like water, libraries, lecture halls and teachers. But fighting for facilities inside universities is not the job of students. The UGC (University Grants Commission) Chairman and Vice Chancellors of universities should be fighting for these things, not the students. So there is an attitudinal problem from the top itself.

Also, the latest technology should be introduced into universities to develop talent and skills, and government universities must also increase their intake of students. This can be done if at least 6% of GDP is allocated for higher education. We think this level of funding is possible.

Overnment says private universities are a way of increasing access to higher education

For a country like Sri Lanka, private universities are not suitable. A majority of our people are low income earners. So a majority will not be able to afford private universities.

The Malabe private medical faculty, what is the final result? The Minister of Higher Education promoted it. Now we know it is not an accepted certificate. A lot of parents wasted their money. Who is responsible for those children? Is this what they mean by private universities?.

People believe the UK has private universities. But actually they only have a few private universities. The majority is government universities but they are also a capitalist country. The government should increase funding for

I have been a member of COPE (Committee On Public Enterprises) for 12 years and I have seen State institutions wasting millions. So why can’t they allocate some of this for higher education?

“The government taxes the people. So they must increase allocations for universities and increase the university intake.”

“For a country like Sri Lanka, private universities are not suitable.”

Is such expenditure affordable for a country like Sri Lanka?

Then what about all the money wasted by the government? I have been a member of COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) for 12 years and I have seen State institutions wasting millions. So why can’t they allocate some of this for higher education?

universities and increase the university intake, instead of setting up private universities. We believe everyone who passes their ALs should be able to go to university. We believe that the government universities should expand not private universities.

The government says foreign exchange is going out of the country and this can be saved if they start private universities. People go abroad because they can’t go to university in Sri Lanka. There are some people who prefer to send their children to Sorbonne and Oxford. That is their choice. But there must be opportunities for other people inside the country. The government taxes the people. So they must increase allocations for universities and increase the university intake.

The Finance Ministry says universities don’t have the capacity to absorb higher funding

That is because the government has appointed political appointees to head universities. They are not able to


administer the universities properly. We have a mentality that universities should be like prisons, walled in and controlled. Universities do not have to be this way. We can build university villages. The problem in university management now, is due to political appointments.

Businesses say there is a skill mismatch between our graduates and business needs

That is not the graduates fault. That’s the government’s doing, because higher education funding is not enough to develop the sector. The bigger problem is the gap between the O/Ls and university. The numbers that cannot enter university after A/Ls. They are employed but unskilled or are unemployed. There is no programme to develop these gap sectors. There is no system to lift these people to professional standards.

There are vocational training centres but they are not catering to modern needs. We don’t have enough skilled labour like masons and carpenters but people who pass A/Ls don’t like to be masons. They prefer to buy a three wheeler and become three wheel owners. This segment needs to be made professional. But the Minister of Vocational Training does not have the status or portfolio of the Minister of Education. So there needs to be changes in thinking and attitudes across the board.

How can this situation be changed?

People don’t check before voting how much is allocated for education, or the accountability for the mandate given by them. There should be some standard for politicians. It is the JVP that put forward the highest number of graduates at elections. The highest number of graduate MPs was from the JVP. There is a belief the JVP is backwards and not aware of modern developments. That is not the case. We have modernised a lot.

There needs to be a struggle to make the change. The change must come from the top to bottom. We can create a dialogue at grass root level but people can’t change things. The political hierarchy, the executive presidency can make many changes in the political culture. What are the educated doing about making changes? If you ask the educated how to change things, a majority will say it is best to keep quiet. We are seen as radicals, as revolutionaries because we are trying to change things.

What is the JVP’s solution?

We feel what is needed is a people’s economy with a socialist base. The first thing for this, is peoples’ participation. Secondly, there must be a system to ensure returns for people for their participation. The problem faced by the capitalists now, is that if they increase production, it will reduce their profits. The fictitious capital is now larger than real capital. So now it has become a financial crisis and although the numbers are rising there are no benefits coming to the people.

The Chinese economy, although it has undergone a lot of reforms, is still fundamentally a socialist economy. All land belongs to the government and the plans and markets are under government control. But they feed one sixth of the global population and have a higher economic growth rate. It’s a miracle. All over the world, from Barak Obama to Sarkozy there is demand to change government. But there is no uprising in socialist countries to change government. In Cuba, in Vietnam, no one is asking to change the system. This is because they have a participatory economy. At least they are able to provide 100% health coverage, free education, social benefits, and protect their elders. Social security will be the challenge for the world in the future.


Prof. Gamini Samaranayake Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC)

Prof. Gamini Samaranayake is the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Sri Lanka, the

body responsible for regulating the State universities in Sri Lanka.

The UGC was established in 1979 and operates within the framework of the Universities Act No. 16 of

1978. The functions of the UGC are, to disburse funds to Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) that come

under its supervision, plan and coordinate university education, maintain academic standards, regulate

administration of HEI and regulate student admission into HEIs.

“Everyone needs employment, but that is not the only

purpose of university education. University is a place of learning,

dissemination of knowledge, discovery of knowledge and ultimately, must produce all

round citizens with a sense of civic responsibility.”

“I feel the job of producing

employable graduates is

not only the responsibility

of the university, or faculty,

or academic staff. It is also

the responsibility of the

student.”

Prof. Gamini Samaranayake.

INTERVIEW

As the head of the UGC how do you think graduate employability can be improved?

Graduate employability is now a global topic and globally universities are wondering how to produce employable graduates. I feel the job of producing employable graduates is not only the responsibility of the university, or faculty, or academic staff. It is also the responsibility of the student. The student should not be a passive receiver of education. In Sri Lanka students receive free education but it is not free because someone is paying for it. Annually the treasury disburses nearly Rs. 21 billion for both recurrent and capital expenditure in our universities. We have to thank the tax payers for this money. So when students come to university they should be aware of this social obligation. The universities should also be accountable for what they produce. Graduates should be able to serve in the public sector, or NGO, or private sector. So it is up to the university to produce good material.

What are the attributes graduates should have?

Everyone needs employment, but that is not the only purpose of university education. University is a place of learning, dissemination of knowledge, discovery of knowledge and ultimately, must produce all round citizens with a sense of civic responsibility. Any subject of education has value, and this is not just the market value. Social respect is based on knowledge, not market value. because when they do not have a focus there is no sense of

commitment. They end up just cramming for exams.

University students should also be aware of job market requirements. But students go after popular programmes and there is a mismatch. There is no proper direction on what subjects to follow. Also students tend to listen to peer groups rather than teachers.

What is the responsibility of universities towards improving graduate employability?

University programmes must also become employment oriented. So partly it is the responsibility of the university staff by preparing suitable syllabi. The curriculum should be very practical. During the course of study students should be exposed to the world of work and they should be taught to be independent. Now, they are totally dependent. They must be given more opportunities for personality development, to mix with others and be tolerant and rational citizens. The teachers must guide the students.

But we must also realise that market needs, demands, are continually changing. So what is important is knowledge. Students should have the passion for knowledge. It has to

“One cannot look at English as an outside imposition, because it is the language of the trade. It is a language of education. It is not owned by the British any more. India and China are increasing their English language skills. So you cannot look at English negatively.”

To be employable, students also need other soft skills, like communication skills, English language, computer knowledge and the ability to work in a team. One cannot look at English as an outside imposition, because it is the language of the trade. It is a language of education, it is not owned by the British any more. India and China are increasing their English language skills. So you cannot look at English negatively.

University students also need to develop a positive attitude. But very often, inside universities, the attitude is negative. University students are a privileged lot because they have had an opportunity not available for many others. But they take it for granted. That is a result of their lack of social skills and their attitude. They also need to develop discipline


be acquired not spoon fed. So our teaching, learning and evaluation systems must all change.

Doctors can earn a lot but they deal with sick people, lawyers can earn lot but they deal with criminals. Teachers deal with youth and children, the best part of the population of a country. So you can’t measure that service with money. We expect more mentors from universities that can guide students.

What has been done so far to improve higher education?

At present our Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) into university is 14%. This is not bad compared to our region because in India it is 18%. We hope to increase the GER to 20% by 2016 and reach 30% by 2020. GER is the full time participation in education by the 18-24 age group. Without at least 20% GER we can’t think about a knowledge economy.

Access to universities is a problem. When it comes to higher education last year about 250,000 students sat for A/Ls and about 130,000 got through. Out of that, about 55,000

applied for university places here but we could admit only 22,500 because that is the capacity in our universities. The professional courses maintain the job market demand because the admittance numbers are low. A majority of bio science students want to go to medical faculty but the UGC can only select 1,175 based on the capacity of universities. This limitation of output maintains market demand. If we can meet the infrastructure requirements in universities we can increase the intake. We prefer this instead of putting up new universities.

We have established the Course Unit System to move from being teacher centric to being student centric. It is being practiced now. Quality assurance has been introduced. We are also looking at a number of aspects of degree programmes, such as teaching methods, qualification of

“At present our Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) into university is 14%. This is not bad compared to our region because in India it is 18%. We hope to increase the GER to 20% by 2016 and reach 30% by 2020.”

“It is inevitable that more private universities will come in.”

staff, evaluation methods and student feedback. A National Qualification Framework has been prepared for the country on the basis of the credit system. What is lacking so far is the credit transfer system.

Our university education generally ends after the first degree. Our postgraduate education is not that strong. We are encouraging faculties to start full time postgraduate programmes to encourage students to think of further learning. We are trying to improve the quality of both internal and external degree programmes, to be equal in quality. Earlier the perspective was different. Universities were seen as degree mills because of external degree programmes. But we want both degrees to be of high standard.


Universities are not like garment factories or supermarkets. They are old institutions. So they can’t be changed overnight. We have to consider all the stakeholders. But change is inevitable. We, as the UGC, don’t take decisions and tell the universities to follow our orders. Universities have autonomy to decide but they also have responsibilities.

When curricula are prepared they are first approved by the faculty, then the Senate, the Council and then the UGC. Next they are sent to the Standing Committee to be reviewed. It is up to the university to decide how often to revise courses. The UGC only looks into the quality and the relevance.

The Inter University Students’ Federation says universities lack many facilities and university heads are political appointees?

University heads in all countries in Asia are appointed by the head of State. The unions are always making accusations. They do not acknowledge the good things. They do not see

“Universities are not like garment factories or supermarkets. They are old institutions. So they can’t be changed overnight.”

“In Sri Lanka students receive free education but it is not free because someone is paying for it. Annually the treasury disburses nearly Rs 21 billion for both recurrent and capital expenditure in our universities. We have to thank the tax payers for this money. So when students come to university they should be aware of this social obligation.”

is not the case here. I am not against student involvement in politics because they are adults, but they should, not impose their political views on others.

How do you see the future of private universities in Sri Lanka?

In Sri Lanka we already have over 60 institutions offering foreign certifications. This is part of a phenomenon called ‘McDonaldisation’ of higher education, because education is crossing borders due to globalisation. There are students crossing borders and institutes crossing borders. There are twinning arrangements, franchises, open and distance education and virtual universities. Our task is to decide how to adjust our university education in line with global university education, without sacrificing the integrity of universities.

It is inevitable that more private universities will come in. It has to happen to increase access to higher education, because if the State is to do this, someone has to pay taxes.

But we need a very good regulatory mechanism. Right now we do the quality assurance and accreditation part. I am very concerned about the quality. We have to produce graduates to face globalisation.

Branch campuses of reputed universities are found all over the world. I would like to help younger academics to do their doctoral studies in branch campuses. So I welcome branch campuses. We should have a duel system of higher education, so there is competition and no monopoly. We can learn new subjects and teaching methods from them and give more options to students.

the positive developments. They are not democratic. Unions are not elected by students, there are no elections. The Inter University Students’ Federation is not even a legal body. They use students to carry out political agendas. In other countries student unions provide services for students. This

give more options to students.countries student unions provide services for students. This


The publication of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings has become one of the key annual events in the international higher education calendar. They are used by undergraduate and postgraduate students to help select degree courses, by academics to inform career decisions, by research teams to identify new collaborative partners, and by university managers to benchmark their performance and set strategic priorities. As nations across the globe focus on the establishment of world-class universities as essential elements of a dynamic economy, our rankings are increasingly employed as a tool for governments to set national policy. These rankings:

• Examine all core missions of the modern global university - research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity• Employ the world's largest reputation survey, drawing on the expert views of more than 17,500 experienced academics, collected in 2011 from 137 countries• Reflect the unique subject mix of every institution across the full range of performance indicators• Are based on unprecedented levels of partnership with the world's universities• Give parity to excellence in the arts and humanities, social sciences, science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.

As with last year, the rankings use 13 performance indicators, grouped into five areas:

• Teaching — the learning environment (worth 30% of the

overall ranking score)

• Research — volume, income and reputation (worth 30%)

• Citations — research influence (worth 30%)

• Industry income — innovation (worth 2.5%)

• International outlook — staff, students and research

(worth 7.5%).

WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2011-2012

Top World Universities 2011-2012

World Rank Institution Country / Region Overall

score Teaching Interna-tional mix

Industry income Research Citations

1 California Institute of Technology United States 94.8 95.7 56 97 98.2 99.9

2 Harvard University United States 93.9 95.8 67.5 35.9 97.4 99.8

2 Stanford University United States 93.9 94.8 57.2 63.8 98.9 99.8

4 University of Oxford United Kingdom 93.6 89.5 91.9 62.1 96.6 97.9

5 Princeton University United States 92.9 91.5 49.6 81 99.1 100

6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 92.4 90.5 85.3 55.5 94.2 97.3

7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States 92.3 92.7 79.2 94.4 87.4 100

8 Imperial College London United Kingdom 90.7 88.8 92.2 93.1 88.7 93.9

9 University of Chicago United States 90.2 89.4 58.8 * 90.8 99.4

10 University of California Berkeley United States 89.8 82.8 50.4 62.5 99.4 99.4

11 Yale University United States 89.1 92.3 55.5 34.7 91.2 96.7

12 Columbia University United States 87.5 89.1 67.6 * 81.8 97.8

13 University of California Los Angeles United States 87.3 85.9 41 * 92.5 97.3

14 Johns Hopkins University United States 85.8 78.9 59.9 100 86.5 97.3

15ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich

Switzerland 85 79.1 97.5 * 85.8 87.2

16 University of Pennsylvania United States 84.9 87 34.3 41.9 86.1 97.9

17 University College London United Kingdom 83.2 77.8 91.8 41.4 84.3 89

18 University of Michigan United States 82.8 75.4 47.2 53.3 90 94.3

19 University of Toronto Canada 81.6 76.9 69 44.9 87.4 86.5

20 Cornell University United States 80.5 70.4 53.4 * 87.2 93.5

21 Carnegie Mellon University United States 78.4 65.7 55 60.7 79.5 97.4

22 University of British Columbia Canada 77.4 68.6 88.7 40.6 78.6 85.2

22 Duke University United States 77.4 62.6 46.9 100 77.9 97.4

24 Georgia Institute of Technology United States 77 66.6 65 99.2 73.8 91.9

25 University of Washington United States 76.5 70.8 36.9 31.8 74 98.2

26 Northwestern University United States 76.2 66.3 35.3 56.6 75.5 98.6


Top World Universities 2011-2012

World Rank Institution Country / Region Overall

score Teaching Interna-tional mix


27 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States 75.8 74.3 23.8 55.3 77.3 90.6

28 McGill University Canada 75.5 72.8 81.4 35.1 78.4 77.1

29 University of Texas at Austin United States 74.9 69.5 38.8 57.7 76.1 89.6

30 University of Tokyo Japan 74.3 86.1 23 76.6 80.3 69.1

31 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States 74.2 67.9 50.7 * 81.3 81.5

32 Karolinska Institute Sweden 73.1 69.9 82 78.5 73.8 73.1

33 University of California San Diego United States 73 61.4 31.5 51.8 72 97.8

34 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 72.3 74 83.7 64.1 80.1 60.5

35 University of California Santa Barbara United States 72.1 55 52.6 85 65.3 99.9

36 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom 72 63 79.8 41.3 61.4 92.3

37 University of Melbourne Australia 71.9 62.2 82.5 44.4 72.4 80.7

38 Australian National University Australia 71.2 62.8 93.8 41.7 75.1 72.6

38 University of California Davis United States 71.2 68 51.4 52.5 68.7 83.4

40 National University of Singapore Singapore 70.9 65.7 93 60.7 79 63.4

41 Washington University in St Louis United States 70.5 64 45.7 * 58.9 96.1

42 University of Minnesota United States 70 66.1 25.6 * 72.5 85.4

43 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States 69.3 67.6 20.2 35.5 62.6 92.6

44 New York University United States 69 60.2 38.1 30.9 65.4 92.3

45 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany 67.6 63.8 54.3 40.7 59.9 84.6

46 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland 66.3 53.1 98.9 46.7 43.9 95.3

47London School of Economics and Political Science

United Kingdom 66 66.4 96 41.1 75.4 50.6

48 University of Manchester United Kingdom 65.7 59 80.4 37.7 61.1 75.6

49 Brown University United States 65.6 59.8 33.4 34.9 53.6 93.9

50 Peking University China 65.6 82.3 51.7 99.9 64.1 51


Top Asian Universities 2011-2012

Asian Rank World

Rank Institution Country / Region Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-nation-al mix

In-dustry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

1 30 University of Tokyo Japan 74.3 86.1 23 76.6 80.3 69.1

2 34 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 72.3 74 83.7 64.1 80.1 60.5

3 40 National University of Singapore Singapore 70.9 65.7 93 60.7 79 63.4

4 49 Peking University China 65.6 82.3 51.7 99.9 64.1 51

5 52 Kyoto University Japan 64.8 76.4 21.1 71.7 72 56.3

6 53 Pohang University of Science and Technology Republic of Korea 64.6 56.4 25 100 51.9 92.3

7 62 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong 61.7 51 80.1 59 58.6 71

8 71 Tsinghua University China 59.5 74.1 33.4 99.8 70.1 37.4

994

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Republic of Korea 54.5 64.2 29.3 100 54.6 47.1

10 108 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan 52.8 56 24.9 66.3 58.9 49.5

11 119 Osaka University Japan 51 61.8 21.1 75 56.5 40

12 120 Tohoku University Japan 50.8 57.7 25.6 78.9 55.7 42.9

13 121 Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel 50.4 47.7 53 25 56.4 48.4

14 124 Seoul National University Republic of Korea 50.1 64.6 16.3 42.6 50.8 44

15 151 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 46.6 47 69.5 36.4 50.2 37.8

16 154 National Taiwan University Taiwan 46.2 47.8 20.7 40 58.5 39.2

17 166 Tel Aviv University Israel 45.4 47.3 30.1 35 60.7 33

18 169 Nanyang Technological University Singapore 45 41.4 89.8 44.4 47.8 34.5

19 192 University of Science and Technology of China China 42.7 38.9 14.8 29.7 23.5 73.6

20 193 City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 42.6 30.2 61.6 50.1 35 57.4

21 201-225 Bilkent University Turkey * 27.9 48.5 29.4 22.3 60.8

22 201-225 Nagoya University Japan * 45.5 21.2 33.1 39.2 43.8

23 201-225 National Tsing Hua University Taiwan * 42.7 17.7 46.8 44.5 39.7

24 201-225 Technion Israel Institute of Technology Israel * 38.7 48.9 33.6 45 34

25 226-250 Fudan University China * 42.4 36.1 40.5 26.2 42.9

26 226-250 Korea University Republic of Korea * 39.5 23.4 49.7 39.6 30.2


Top Asian Universities 2011-2012

Asian Rank World

Rank Institution Country / Region Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-nation-al mix

In-dustry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

27 226-250 National Chiao Tung University Taiwan * 36.4 24.2 100 44.5 25.1

28 226-250 Tokyo Metropolitan University Japan * 19 17.8 27.6 10.3 84.3

29 226-250 Yonsei University Republic of Korea * 41.5 23.3 47.9 33.6 36.9

30 251-275 Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong * 30.1 62.5 72.8 37.3 22.2

31 251-275 Kyushu University Japan * 46.8 19.5 75.1 30.7 23.2

32 251-275 Nanjing University China * 40.9 25 42.9 24.2 42.3

33 251-275 National Sun Yat-Sen University Taiwan * 24.9 16 42.1 30.4 48.5

34 251-275 University of Tsukuba Japan * 37.2 27.2 32 26.2 41.4

35 276-300 Hokkaido University Japan * 44.5 18.8 38.7 34.3 21.6

36 276-300 Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong * 20 58.9 25.3 11.2 59.7

37 276-300 Istanbul Technical University Turkey * 25.1 18.9 99.1 18.2 48.9

38 276-300 Middle East Technical University Turkey * 37 23.5 43.2 28.9 35.1

39 276-300 Sun Yat-sen University China * 33.3 20.7 42.1 14.3 50.5

40 276-300 Tokyo Medical and Dental University Japan * 42.8 18 40.8 22.6 36.7

41 301-350 Bar-Ilan University Israel * 27.9 47 28.5 32.2 15.7

42 301-350 Boğaziçi University Turkey * 24.5 36.2 34.7 19.7 45.7

43 301-350 Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay India * 43.8 14.3 24.2 15.7 38.8

44 301-350 Keio University Japan * 32.3 18.3 40 21.9 26.1

45301-350

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

Taiwan * 24.3 15.6 42.9 37 19.4

46 301-350 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China * 39.4 20.5 85.2 29.7 19.1

47 301-350 Sharif University of Technology Iran * 28.5 12.7 93.1 29.7 19.3

48 301-350 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) Republic of Korea * 31.4 26.6 99.4 32.1 23.9

49 301-350 Zhejiang University China * 38.8 13.9 84.4 27.2 23

50 351-400 Harbin Institute of Technology China * 29 21 97.2 12.5 21


Sub-ject

Rank Institution Country / Region Overall score Teaching

Inter-national

mix


1 California Institute of Technology United States 92.7 96.9 42.1 93.1 95.4 99

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States 92.7 95.8 73.1 87.5 89.1 99.6

3 Princeton University United States 92.4 93.2 47.1 96 95.8 99.6

4 University of California Berkeley United States 91.7 91.3 61.3 59.4 99.3 98


6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 90.6 95.2 81.6 73.1 91 90.9

7 University of Oxford United Kingdom 87.4 94.5 86 40.5 87.7 88.3

8 University of California Los Angeles United States 87.3 85.8 53.8 * 91.3 96.9

9ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich

Switzerland 87.1 89.3 93.7 * 92 79.5

10 Imperial College London United Kingdom 85.7 91.9 89.1 66.5 87.2 80

11 Georgia Institute of Technology United States 85.4 88.4 58.4 97.9 89.9 82.3

12 Carnegie Mellon University United States 83.2 90.6 50 76.1 93 74.7

13 University of Texas at Austin United States 81 81 47.4 80.9 87.7 82.9

14 University of Michigan United States 80.8 87.3 54.9 59.4 92.2 72.3

Engineering & Technology

The engineering and technology table is, like it was last year, dominated by California. Three of the top five institutions in the rankings hail from the Golden State, home of the global high-tech hub Silicon Valley. But the East Coast business powerhouse the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which boasts an $8 billion (£4.9 billion) endowment, remains a major player. It shares first place with last year’s outright top dog, the California Institute of Technology. The University of California, Berkeley occupies fourth place while Stanford University, whose alumni include William Hewlett, David Packard and other electronics tycoons, takes fifth. Four other members of the University of California - Los Angeles (eighth), Santa Barbara (joint 16th), San Diego (24th) and Davis (32nd) - are also highly placed. The results come despite the funding crisis facing the State of California: only time will tell whether the institution can maintain its competitiveness.

In total, 22 US institutions feature in the top 50. The UK also scores highly in the table, with three of the top 10 and five representatives overall. But the field of engineering and technology, covering everything from aerospace engineering to sustainable energy research, software design and robotics, is one of the most diverse of the subject tables in terms of national representation. It is also the subject in which Asia makes its strongest showing in any discipline.

It has 10 institutions in the top 50 (compared with only six from mainland Europe), headed by the National University of Singapore (19th). Engineering is the largest of the university’s 14 faculties and has grown from just 300 students in the late 1970s to about 10,000 students today. The University of Tokyo, in 21st place, has won several large grants under the Japanese government’s 21st Century Centre of Excellence Programme, set up in 2002 to reward world-class research and help maintain global competitiveness.

Top Engineering and Technology Universities 2011-2012

HARVARD UNIVERSITY


Sub-ject


Inter-national

mix


15 Cornell University United States 79.8 80.4 40 * 84.3 92.6

16 University of California Santa Barbara United States 78.1 64.7 69.3 96.5 73.5 96.7

16 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States 78.1 85.6 43.9 * 90.2 70.3

18 University of Toronto Canada 78 76.6 61.8 35.6 81.6 87.8

19 National University of Singapore Singapore 77.5 78.7 90 62.2 80.9 71.7

20 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland 77.1 73.5 97.7 38.3 73.2 86.5

21 University of Tokyo Japan 69.8 89.1 22.4 69.8 81.4 48.9

22 Delft University of Technology Netherlands 69.1 77.8 63 99.9 89.7 33.3

22 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States 69.1 67.4 22.1 51.3 76.6 79

24 University of California San Diego United States 67.8 59 30.6 58.5 67.9 89

25 University of Melbourne Australia 67.4 58.3 88.8 36.5 56.5 89

26 University of Manchester United Kingdom 67.1 66.3 79.1 41.6 60.2 77

27 University College London United Kingdom 66.6 63.6 89.9 34.6 60.7 75.6

28The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Hong Kong 66.1 65 77.8 56.4 67.8 64.2

29 École Polytechnique France 65.9 60.4 77.4 61 55.2 81.5

29 University of Minnesota United States 65.9 57.7 24.1 * 70.5 88

31 Tsinghua University China 65.6 87.8 22.3 97.6 83.5 27.7

32 University of California Davis United States 65.2 49.4 64.8 53.6 60.7 89.6

33 University of British Columbia Canada 64.5 61.5 83.1 38.6 69.1 62.5

34 Pohang University of Science and Technology

Korea, Republic Of 63.8 57.9 21.3 100 52.2 87.9

35 The University of Sydney Australia 63.4 51.4 92.3 94 56.8 70.2

36 Pennsylvania State University United States 62.4 61.9 28.9 69.6 64.9 67.8

37 The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 62 59.6 72.6 27.3 61.4 68.7

38 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium 61.5 52 55.7 94.8 63.4 65.2

39 Purdue University United States 60.7 74.1 45.9 * 72.1 41.6



Sub-ject


Inter-national

mix


40Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Korea, Republic Of 60.2 74.1 25.1 99.8 70.2 36.4

40 Rice University United States 60.2 49.8 39.1 49.7 41 100

42 The Ohio State University United States 59.5 54 37.1 95.9 57.7 66.8

43 Technische Universität München Germany 58.7 62 61.9 39.9 60.3 55.8

44 Peking University China 58.5 59.1 33.7 83.3 47 72.8


45 The University of Queensland Australia Australia 58.3 46.3 72.3 95.7 40.3 80.5

47 McGill University Canada 57.9 66 74 38.2 70.2 34.7

48 Kyoto University Japan 56.6 71 20 56.5 67.9 38.5

48 University of Waterloo Canada 56.6 61 58.2 31.4 61.7 50.2

50 Nanyang Technological University Singapore 55.3 55.8 88.1 49.1 61 40.6


Social Sciences

The social sciences subject table is utterly dominated by the English-speaking world. The US takes 28 of the 50 places, followed by the UK with nine, Australia with five and Canada with three. That leaves only five places for the rest of the world in a broad subject that encompasses business, communication, economics, education, geography, law, international relations and much more. The table features nine countries, with just one institution apiece from the Netherlands, China, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. Stanford University, joint second with Harvard University in the overall top 200 rankings, takes top spot in the social sciences table.

The institution has a strong record of producing leading economists and boasts several living Nobel economics laureates among its world-class faculty. These include 1992 winner Gary Becker from Stanford’s famous Hoover Institution and his colleague Douglass North, who shared the Nobel the following year for his work on economic history and institutional change. Mainland China’s sole representative in the top 50 is Peking University (30th). While much recent research investment in China has gone into applied science subjects, Peking has focused on maintaining its centuries-old strength in social science disciplines, especially economics and law. It has a 1,100-strong teaching staff in its School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Mainland Europe’s only representative is the University of Amsterdam (joint 40th), one of the Netherlands’ premier higher education institutions. Its Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences hosts two of the university’s 15 research priorities - urban studies and brain and cognition - designated by the institution as areas of world-class excellence to be nurtured.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY


Top Social Sciences Universities 2011-2012

Sub-ject

RankInstitution Country / Region

Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-national

mix

Industry income

Re-search

Cita-tions


2 Harvard University United States 93.5 95.8 61 40.8 98.5 99



5 Princeton University United States 91.5 90.6 31.1 99.7 99.4 100




8University of California Los Angeles

United States 88.4 91 33.9 * 96.7 94.2

8 University of Pennsylvania United States 88.4 90.1 36.7 41.4 95.2 97.5

11 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 86.8 92 81.1 39.4 91 80.8

12University of Wisconsin-Madison

United States 85.9 85.7 20.6 64.2 94.6 96.4

13University of California Berkeley

United States 85.4 85.6 35.1 30.7 98.6 88.4


15London School of Economics and Political Science

United Kingdom 84.5 86.3 89.8 72 85.5 80.6

16University of British Columbia

Canada 83.7 82.2 86.2 31 88.9 83.5

17 Duke University United States 82.9 73 48.6 99.8 88 97.6

18Australian National University

Australia 80.7 82.4 85.1 52.5 87.6 71.2

18 University of Toronto Canada 80.7 83.7 64.8 31.7 87.6 77.4


21 University of Minnesota United States 78.3 79.8 27.3 * 84.2 87

22 University of Texas at Austin United States 77.5 80.2 33 58.3 83.8 81.1

23University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

United States 77.1 77.6 21.2 31.9 80.4 93.6



26 University of Washington United States 73.2 64.4 32 34 78.2 94.5

27 The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 72.7 76.8 91.9 95.5 77.7 52.9

28University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

United States 71.7 67.1 49.2 * 82.1 73.6

29 The Ohio State University United States 71.3 65.6 38.2 30.9 74.8 88.1


Sub-ject


Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-national

mix

Industry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

30 Peking University China 70.1 72.6 89 100 53.2 80.4

31 University of Manchester United Kingdom 68.2 65.7 74.9 42.9 72.4 66.5

32 Carnegie Mellon University United States 67.4 45.9 54.5 42.3 70.6 97.5

33Washington University in St Louis

United States 66.7 57.4 44.1 * 61.6 93.9


35 Indiana University United States 64.9 65.7 34.8 * 65.7 73.8

36 King’s College London United Kingdom 64.7 45.5 83.6 80.2 56.9 92.5

37 Michigan State University United States 63.6 60.8 30.4 32 68.1 74.5

38 University of Warwick United Kingdom 63 59.7 76.6 39.5 64.9 63

39 The University of Sydney Australia 62.9 63.2 79.4 70.5 67.3 51.1

40 University of Amsterdam Netherlands 62.6 57 49.8 64.3 69 65.3


42The University of Queensland Australia

Australia 62.3 59.2 79.3 39.2 66.1 58.7

43The University of New South Wales

Australia 61.7 58.1 77.6 59.2 62.2 61.2

44 Dartmouth College United States 61.6 61.8 23.1 * 43.9 99.3

45 Durham University United Kingdom 61.5 49.3 69.6 35.9 50.7 91.5

45University of Maryland, College Park

United States 61.5 50.8 23.9 35 62.3 88.3

47National University of Singapore

Singapore 61.1 64.7 85.8 42.9 71.4 37.6

48University of California Santa Barbara

United States 61 51.6 32.9 81.2 58.1 83.4

49 University of Virginia United States 60.9 56.5 23.6 31.6 58.3 84

Arts and Humanities

Stanford University knocks Harvard University off the top spot in the arts and humanities subject rankings. With Pulitzer prizewinners and MacArthur Fellows leading its liberal-arts programme, the relative newcomer (founded in 1891) has proved more than a match for its illustrious Ivy League rival. The University of Chicago, with a humanities department that teaches more than 50 languages, takes third position. While the arts and humanities table, like all the others, is predominantly Anglo-American, it is the only subject area where an institution outside the US and the UK makes the top five. The Australian National University based in Canberra and alma mater of Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister, is ranked equal fourth alongside Princeton

Top Social Sciences Universities 2011-2012

STANFORD UNIVERSITY


University. It leads a list of three Australian institutions in the top 20, with the universities of Sydney and Melbourne taking 18th and 19th place respectively.

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (26th) is the top-ranked institution in continental Europe. Founded by educational reformer Wilhelm von Humboldt, it has taught some of history’s greatest thinkers, such as philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, political theorist Karl Marx, master of realpolitik Otto von Bismarck and physicist Albert Einstein. Freie Universität Berlin (29th), established in 1948 to promote intellectual freedom in post-war Europe, also performs well in the table and is one of five German institutions featured, the country’s best showing in an individual subject table. The Netherlands has three representatives, including the University of Amsterdam (30th), Leiden University (35th) and Utrecht University (45th). Asia has only two institutions featured (the University of Hong Kong at 36th place and the National Univer-sity of Singapore at 38th), although that represents an improvement on last year, when not a single university from the region made the list.

Sub-ject


Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-national

mix

Industry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

1 Stanford University United States 88.6 95.6 60.4 47.6 94 78.9



4Australian National Univer-sity

Australia 84 77 86.3 38.9 96.5 76.4

4 Princeton University United States 84 90.7 41.5 71.2 93.1 68.2

6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 83.2 93 62.2 64.9 96.9 38


8 University College London United Kingdom 81.5 84.1 82 38.2 91.1 58.2


United States 81.5 89.5 38 38.9 94.6 57.8

10 University of Toronto Canada 79.7 81.3 60 36.1 90.5 65.8

11 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom 79.6 83.9 74.1 39 85.1 64.7




United States 79.1 86.2 39.3 * 90.9 57.8

15Rutgers, The State Univer-sity of New Jersey

United States 78.3 78.4 26.7 * 92.1 76.4

16 New York University United States 75.5 78.2 42 39.8 89.1 57.2



19 University of Melbourne Australia 73 78.4 72.6 51.5 82.7 39.1


21 McGill University Canada 69 68.3 85.1 40 72.4 59


United States 68.9 68.6 28.5 41.3 73.6 82.9


United States 67.8 65.3 20.3 36.1 79.3 74.5

Top Arts and Humanities Universities 2011-2012


Sub-ject


Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-national

mix

Industry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

24 University of St Andrews United Kingdom 67.7 71 81.3 37.4 74.7 40.4

25 University of Pittsburgh United States 66.8 63.6 31.3 37 81.9 59.3

26Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Germany 66.7 71.7 52.8 * 83.7 23.6

27 Brown University United States 64.8 78.4 38.2 41.3 67 42.3

28University of British Co-lumbia

Canada 64.6 66.6 84.9 46.6 65.4 50.7

29 Freie Universität Berlin Germany 63.5 65.2 67.1 38 72.9 38.4

30 University of Amsterdam Netherlands 63.3 65.9 50 47.3 69.6 50.5

31Ludwig-Maximilians-Uni-versität München

Germany 62.6 65.1 58.5 63 71 37.2

32 University of Arizona United States 61.6 62.2 32.3 56.8 61.4 76

33 University of Massachusetts United States 60.3 63.4 21.3 43.4 65.5 61.9

34 University of Manchester United Kingdom 59.8 51.1 64.5 39.3 63.7 73

35 Leiden University Netherlands 59.1 60.8 57.4 37.5 71.3 28.8

36The University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong 58.1 58.7 92.6 50.5 52.9 53.3

37 Indiana University United States 57.9 61 39.1 * 62.5 49.9

38National University of Sin-gapore

Singapore 57.7 58.5 84.9 59.4 57.1 43.4

39 King’s College London United Kingdom 57.3 57.3 79.5 36.5 63.5 34

40University of California San Diego

United States 57.1 52.9 36.9 45.2 59.1 74.7

41 Universität Heidelberg Germany 56.3 57 71.5 36.2 58.7 44.5

42Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Belgium 55.6 52.1 55.1 99.9 58.9 49

43 University of Auckland New Zealand 55.5 54 77.8 96.6 48 59.6

44 Lancaster University United Kingdom 55.4 52.9 49.9 37.7 53.8 71.4

45 Utrecht University Netherlands 55.3 54.4 58.8 50.8 53.3 61.3

46 The Ohio State University United States 55 54.7 53.6 36.6 54 61.8

47 University of Vienna Austria 54.9 57.8 76.6 36.7 57.4 33.4

48Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Germany 54.6 56.2 52.1 36.1 57.5 47.9

48 University of Leeds United Kingdom 54.6 59 44.5 37.6 55.4 49.6


Clinical, Pre-Clinical and Health

The University of Oxford, which tops the league table for clinical, preclinical and health subjects, is the only non-American institution at the summit of any of the subject tables. Oxford can trace the study of medicine there back to the 14th century, although clinical student teaching began during the Second World War when medical students were evacuated from London during the Nazi bombardment of the city. Its medical courses are perhaps best known for being extremely hard to get into: in August, student Prina Shah made the headlines when she was rejected despite her four A* grades at A level. In 2000, Oxford’s rejection of similarly starred state-school pupil Laura Spence sparked a political storm: Gordon Brown, the future prime minister, accused its admissions tutors of elitism after she failed to win a place to read medicine. But it is in medical research where Oxford really stands out, bolstered by the largest cluster of overseas research activity across the entire university - the Africa and Asia Tropical Medicine network. And the future looks bright, too: in August, the institution was awarded well over £100 million over five years in three separate tranches by the National Institute for Health Research to fund research partnerships between the university and local hospitals.

Oxford heads a list of eight British universities in the top 50, with four in the top 10 including Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge. Three Asian representatives make the table - the University of Tokyo, the University of Hong Kong and the National University of Singapore. Hong Kong’s medical faculty was founded by the London Missionary Society in 1887 and is now the largest of the university’s faculties.

Top Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health Universities 2011-2012

Sub-ject


Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-national

mix

Industry income

Re-search

Cita-tions





5 Johns Hopkins University United States 88.4 85.1 64.1 99.9 87.2 96.4

6 Stanford University United States 87.6 87 63 54.1 87.9 95.6


8 Yale University United States 85.2 87.4 65.5 42.6 85 90.8


United States 85.1 87.5 39.1 * 86.2 95.1

10 Duke University United States 84.3 78.4 48.7 98.9 82.6 96.9


12Washington University in St Louis

United States 83 82.5 62 * 77 94.6

13 University of Pennsylvania United States 82.9 84.8 35.2 43.3 82.5 94.7


15 University of Michigan United States 82.6 83.1 44 46.5 82.4 93.2

16 McMaster University Canada 82.5 74.7 72.2 97.6 72.8 97.3

17 University of Toronto Canada 82.4 87.4 69.6 62.3 88.2 77.9


United States 82.3 79.1 46.7 39.6 82.7 95.3

19 University of Washington United States 82.2 80.4 39.5 38 82.5 95.8

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY


Sub-ject


Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-national

mix

Industry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

20 Karolinska Institute Sweden 81.3 83.7 69.7 58.6 90 76.6


United States 81.3 82.3 26.3 41.6 79.7 96.4

22 King’s College London United Kingdom 79.6 75.3 88.7 43 75.9 86.6

23 University of Pittsburgh United States 79.4 78.2 33.3 40.8 77.3 94.5


25 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom 76.7 70.8 66.4 46.6 63.3 96.1

26 Boston University United States 75.5 72.4 45.5 35.9 62.6 97.4


28 Emory University United States 75.2 69.9 42.1 39.9 69.3 93.6


30 Vanderbilt University United States 71.3 65.4 28.1 65 64.2 91.3

31 University of Massachusetts United States 71.1 71 25.4 40.9 76.2 79.2


33 Monash University Australia 69.6 64.6 70.9 71.2 67.5 74.7

34The University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong 69.3 63.9 85.3 70 71.2 68.6

35Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Germany 67.8 66.5 57.5 43.2 63 76.6

36 Tufts University United States 67.3 56.3 45.6 45.5 47.1 97.9


38 University of Minnesota United States 67 63.5 30 * 61.1 84.4

39 New York University United States 66.7 66.5 36.9 39.9 63.4 77.8


Belgium 66.3 47.1 62.5 99.7 58.6 85.9

41National University of Singapore

Singapore 66 67.3 86.2 60.3 68.8 58.8


Australia 65.4 63.8 75.9 50.7 65.6 65.2

43 University of Manchester United Kingdom 65.3 60.6 62.7 41 56.1 78.4


United States 65.2 54.4 40.7 47.1 51.7 90.9

45 University of Glasgow United Kingdom 64.8 45.6 60.3 85.7 41.1 98

45University of Southern California

United States 64.8 61.2 40.7 93.1 55.2 78.3

47 University of Montreal Canada 64 65.5 77 82.8 52.9 67.4

48 University of Auckland New Zealand 63.9 48.6 89 87.4 50.7 79.4

49 University of Alberta Canada 63.5 53.9 72.4 58.7 48.4 81.5

Top Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health Universities 2011-2012


Top Life Sciences Universities 2011-2012

Life Sciences

Cambridge, Massachusetts is a centre for global excellence in the life sciences: it is home to both the world’s number one in the field, Harvard University, and the number two, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Indeed, Harvard and MIT share research facilities at the Broad Institute, founded in 2003 as a “new kind of research institution” designed to use “systematic approaches in the biological sciences to dramatically accelerate the understanding and treatment of disease”. The emphasis at Broad is on collaboration and risk-taking, and the approach seems to have paid off: it has recently been credited with a string of breakthroughs in areas including cancer research and genetics. The life sciences field, covering everything from agriculture and biology to plant sciences and zoology, is one of the most globally diverse in our subject tables, with 11 nations represented. Some 21 institutions on the list are from the US, but the UK also performs well, with the ancient rivals Cambridge and Oxford universities in third and fourth place respectively, heading a list of nine UK institutions.

Scotland is represented by the University of Glasgow (43rd). Some 90 per cent of its research in the life sciences was described as “of international quality” in the UK’s final research assessment exercise in 2008. Mainland Europe is represented by ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich in Switzerland; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany; Uppsala University in Sweden; Utrecht University in the Netherlands; and Ghent University in Belgium, among others. Japan has three representatives in the life sciences subject table: the universities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. As befits the city where the historic global climate change protocol was signed in 1997, Kyoto is home to a School of Global Environmental Studies.

Sub-ject

RankInstitution

Country / Re-gion

Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-nation-al mix

In-dustry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

1 Harvard University United States 92.6 94 70.3 41 92.7 99.9

2Massachusetts Institute of Technology

United States 91.9 90.7 61.2 99.8 90.5 100

3 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 91.3 94.7 83.9 42.9 87 96.94 University of Oxford United Kingdom 91.2 90.9 87.1 50.6 89.1 975 Stanford University United States 89.6 87.5 47.4 67.8 92.4 99.5


United States 87.2 87.3 36.2 36.5 91.1 98.6

7 Yale University United States 86.8 85.5 44.3 33.5 91 97.48 Princeton University United States 86.1 81.8 40.3 90.3 85.1 99.79 Imperial College London United Kingdom 84.5 82.4 94.2 49.7 84.5 86.5


United States 82.6 80.7 41.5 * 85.4 93.9

11 University College London United Kingdom 81 81.7 87.2 31.2 79.4 83.912 University of Chicago United States 80.8 78.2 62.5 * 69.7 96.213 University of Washington United States 80 74.7 40.2 35 80.1 95.914 Cornell University United States 79.4 77.9 47.4 * 85.3 85.7

14University of British Colum-bia

Canada 79.4 77.4 87.1 30.1 74.5 86.7


United States 78.9 69.3 30.9 58.7 78.5 98.6

17Wageningen University and Research Center

Netherlands 78.4 79.1 82.6 100 82.8 72.1

18University of California Davis

United States 78.2 81.8 54.1 61.1 88.1 73.9

YALE UNIVERSITY


Sub-ject

RankInstitution

Country / Re-gion

Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-nation-al mix

In-dustry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

19 University of Michigan United States 77.6 67.6 54.1 61.2 73.2 95


United States 77.5 79.5 22.6 64.9 78.5 88

21ETH Zürich - Swiss Fed-eral Institute of Technology Zürich

Switzerland 76.9 73.6 96.3 * 71.4 80.3

22 University of Toronto Canada 76.4 65.7 64.4 46 80.1 86.723 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom 75.9 71.8 75.6 36 67.8 88.324 McGill University Canada 75.1 71.1 78 38.1 71.5 83.225 University of Tokyo Japan 72.6 87.5 23.5 70.1 81.8 64.4


Australia 72 72.3 75.5 50.9 68.1 75.4

27Ludwig-Maximilians-Univer-sität München

Germany 67.1 72.8 50.8 37.8 63.6 71.1

27 University of Melbourne Australia 67.1 64.7 79.3 38.5 66.8 68.729 Kyoto University Japan 67 75.9 24.1 71.2 72.8 64.530 Uppsala University Sweden 66.6 75 66.9 56.8 73.4 55.130 Utrecht University Netherlands 66.6 56 58.6 78.1 54.6 85.132 University of Massachusetts United States 65.4 55.6 33.9 64.2 55.6 87.5


Australia 65.3 54.5 90.4 33.4 61.2 73.8


United States 64.4 40.7 39.9 99.5 50.9 96.4


United States 63.2 49.9 23 36.2 51.6 93.3

36 Ghent University Belgium 61.8 54.9 69.1 100 48.3 73.637 University of Sheffield United Kingdom 61.7 48.1 66.7 29.7 49.5 83.1


Belgium 60.5 50 57.7 100 47 77

39Pennsylvania State Univer-sity

United States 60.4 43.2 27.9 69.9 50.3 88

39University of Illinois at Ur-bana Champaign

United States 60.4 53 44.7 * 58.8 72.1

41 Université de Lausanne Switzerland 60 36 97.3 52.6 34.4 91.441 University of Minnesota United States 60 58.8 24.1 * 61.9 69.3

43 University of Glasgow United Kingdom 59.3 44.7 70.3 49.8 46.4 79.3

44National University of Sin-gapore

Singapore 59.2 58.3 95.5 65.1 54.3 55.7

45 King’s College London United Kingdom 58.8 48.8 81.1 38.9 39.8 78.3

45 Lund University Sweden 58.8 58.2 74.1 36.3 57 59.2

45 The University of Sydney Australia 58.8 59.6 81.2 95 64.1 46.6

48 Osaka University Japan 58.4 57.4 20.8 93.1 57.3 65.5

49 University of Bristol United Kingdom 58.2 44.4 56.5 28.4 42 84.1

Top Life Sciences Universities 2011-2012


Top Physical Sciences Universities 2011-2012

Physical Sciences

The US takes each of the top six places in the physical sciences league table - and 27 of the top 50. Honours are shared for the top spot by the West Coast’s California Institute of Technology and the East Coast’s Princeton University. Chartered in 1746, Princeton is the fourth-oldest college in the US, but its work in the physical sciences is as up to date as it gets. The first undergraduate chemistry laboratory in the US was founded by Princeton physician John Maclean in 1795, and throughout the 19th century chemistry was a required subject for all Princeton students. Today, it boasts the flagship Frick Chemistry Laboratory, opened in 2010. It is the second-largest single academic building on the university’s campus and houses some of the world’s most advanced instrumentation in the discipline. Covering a range of subjects including astronomy, chemistry, mathematics and physics, the physical sciences is a globally diverse field - and an increasingly competitive one. Although the US accounts for more than half the world’s top 50, there are nine countries represented in the table. France has three representatives: the École Polytechnique, the Université Pierre et Marie Curie and the école Normale Supérieure.

Pierre et Marie Curie is one of the three famous Parisian Sorbonne universities. It specialises in science and medicine and it accounts for the lion›s share of the annual budget allocated to the trio: €472 million (£416 million) out of €684 million. Its foundations in the heart of the capital›s Latin quarter date back 900 years. Its most famous alumna is Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre for their work on radioactivity, and the prize for chemistry in 1911 for her research into polonium and radium - research that ultimately cost her life. Curie remains the only woman to have won two Nobel prizes.

Sub-ject

RankInstitution

Country / Region

Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-nation-al mix

In-dustry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

1California Institute of Tech-nology

United States 94.6 96.7 56.5 87.6 98.7 98.3

1 Princeton University United States 94.6 94.3 58.8 92.3 98.8 99.2


United States 94 90.3 68.5 100 99.2 97.9

4Massachusetts Institute of Technology

United States 93 93.9 78.3 65.5 91.1 98.8

5 Stanford University United States 92.8 93.5 48.4 62 98.8 99.3

6 Harvard University United States 92.5 94.3 59.3 43.5 95 99.7


8 University of Chicago United States 89.9 87 73.4 * 85.9 99.9


United States 88.7 85.6 60 * 91.8 97


11ETH Zürich - Swiss Fed-eral Institute of Technology Zürich

Switzerland 86.7 89.6 96 * 92.1 78.9


13 Cornell University United States 85.6 83 53.1 * 85 97.1


15 University of Washington United States 81.2 75.7 47.7 39 76.3 99.5

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY


Sub-ject

RankInstitution

Country / Region

Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-nation-al mix

In-dustry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

16 University of Michigan United States 80.2 74 71.4 39.5 77 92.3

17Ludwig-Maximilians-Univer-sität München

Germany 79.8 77.6 53 34.7 75.1 94.1

18 University of Toronto Canada 79.1 74 68.2 30.9 78.9 89


United States 77.5 58.9 52.7 91.5 73.3 99.8

20 University of Tokyo Japan 77.4 89.4 23 64 91.7 69.4


22 École Polytechnique France 74 73.7 82.3 56.3 63.8 81.7

22University of Illinois at Ur-bana Champaign

United States 74 66.7 50.5 * 77.9 83.1

24University of British Colum-bia

Canada 73 64.6 88.8 39.3 66.7 83.5

25University of Colorado Boulder

United States 72.6 58.7 42.2 * 69.1 95.1


Australia 71.9 66.1 95.3 82 79.1 64.9


United States 70.4 66.5 30.5 82 70.3 81.2

28École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Switzerland 70 55.6 97 32.7 54.3 90.5

29 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom 69.9 57.8 75.4 65.2 50.9 93.4

30 Universität Heidelberg Germany 69.4 67.9 62 39 51.5 88.4

30Université Pierre et Marie Curie

France 69.4 74.1 72.6 27 64 72.3

32 Rice University United States 68.5 57.4 54.3 45.3 46.4 99.4

33 École Normale Supérieure France 68.4 73.2 54.9 50.2 51.1 82.3


35Georgia Institute of Technol-ogy

United States 68.1 54.1 65.7 94.8 51.2 91.1

36 Brown University United States 66.9 58 39.6 41.5 44.4 99.3


United States 66.6 57.4 33.7 54.2 55.8 90.1


39 University of Bristol United Kingdom 64.6 56.6 71.9 41.1 52.8 80.3

40 Carnegie Mellon University United States 64.4 41.6 54.3 40.8 47.7 99.3



Sub-ject

RankInstitution

Country / Region

Overall score

Teach-ing

Inter-nation-al mix

In-dustry income

Re-search

Cita-tions

41 Utrecht University Netherlands 63.8 47.2 60.7 71.2 47.7 89.5

42 Boston University United States 63.6 51.5 52 31.4 38 97.9

43 Kyoto University Japan 63.5 76.9 19.8 79.5 79.2 49

44University of California Santa Cruz

United States 63 41.3 35.9 33.3 48.1 99.7

45 University of Minnesota United States 61.8 44.4 26.7 * 55.5 89.8

46 University of Manchester United Kingdom 61.5 53 71.1 54.2 53.8 72.7

47 The Ohio State University United States 61.4 50.5 59.8 29.8 43.4 86.6

48 Durham University United Kingdom 60.9 36.8 63.3 39.4 40.7 96.8

48 University of Massachusetts United States 60.9 53.4 43.5 50.7 55 76


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

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MIT


The Hon. Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Education, has a B.Sc (Business Administration) from the

University of Sri Jayawardenepura and is a founder member of the Association of Accounting Technicians

of Sri Lanka. He has also written more than 35 books on economics, commerce and management, for

A/L and university students. His previous ministerial appointments include the post of Minister for Trade,

Marketing Development, Co-operatives and Consumer Services from 2007-2010, Minister for Rural Economic

Development from 2001-2004, and Deputy Minister of Finance from 2001 - 2004. He was a Colombo District

Member of Parliament in 1989 and 2000 and was a member of the Western Provincial Council from 1999

– 2000.

“Under the Mahinda Chinthana during 2012-16 we are making some broad changes in education. We will

implement education reforms focusing on 5 areas”

Bandula GunawardenaMinister of Education

“….the focus will be on IT, English and other foreign languages, science, maths, sports and

aesthetics.”

Hon. Bandula Gunawardena Minister of Education

INTERVIEW

What is your assessment of the education system in the context of employment?

Compared to South Asian countries our education system is very high quality, because annually around 350,000 children enter the first year of education. About 96% get into Grade 5. So there is no major problem regarding primary education. But after starting secondary education from Grade 6, only about 60.8% qualify for Ordinary Levels (O/Ls). In the past this was about 50%. By the time children sit for their O/Ls they are 16 years old, and if they do not qualify for Advanced Levels (A/L) they enter society without any skills development.

When it comes to the A/Ls, only 25% of the A/L students do commerce, but the area of commerce has the most jobs. For instance, banks, insurance, tourism, communications, logistics and many other sectors are available. About 22% of the students do science, and around 53% do arts. These children, when they finish school education, have no specific skills. So we have this situation where there are jobs but no people with the matching skills and for the available people, there are no jobs.

Most people going to university are also from arts subjects and arts graduates have also found it difficult to find productive employment.

What is the government doing to address this situation?

Under the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ during 2012-16 we are making some broad changes in education. We will implement education reforms focusing on 5 areas. We will also introduce structural changes at the point of A/L studies, for 40% of the students to do science, 35% to do commerce and 25% to do arts. For this, we will upgrade 5,000 primary schools and 1,000 secondary schools will be recreated.

What we expect from this is to provide these schools with the facilities found in schools in cities like Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Galle and Matara. In every AGA division at least three schools will be selected for this. For each of the 1,000 schools, we will give an IT lab, language lab, distance learning lab, commerce lab, green lab and 3 science labs. We will also recruit 1,000 each, of IT, maths, science and English graduates, as teachers for the 1,000 schools.

For each of the 1,000 schools, we will give an IT lab, language lab, distance learning lab, commerce lab, green lab and 3 science labs. We will also recruit 1,000 each, of IT, maths, science and English graduates, as teachers for the 1,000 schools.


Has the programme been implemented by now?

We will be giving appointment letters in June, for the IT graduates. We have also already started building labs in 3 places to see which is the most cost effective method. We are building 3 labs in Ratmalana Kothlawalepura, Homagama

allocation as a percentage of GDP is not very high. It is not fair to evaluate education against just one indicator. Also, no other country has a free education system like Sri Lanka, so it is not suitable to compare with other countries.

How do you see the future of higher education in Sri Lanka?

We are dedicated towards safeguarding the free education system and nurturing it. At the same time we believe that people who want to, should have the right to have access to market based education systems.

“Now there is no country in the world that does not provide private education.”

Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Anuradapura Harischandra Vanasinghe. In future, through the 2012-16 changes, the focus will be on IT, English and other foreign languages, science, mathematics, and sports and aesthetics. When they finish school education, for higher education there are many professional institutes like institutes of accountants and NSBM. I feel the NSBM will be an opportunity to not only prevent loss of foreign exchange but also to develop human resources for management of resources.

Some people think the government’s higher education policies are not suitable

Some people live like frogs in the well. They have not seen the world. Those days we generated human resources suitable for that time. Then we made human resources suitable for an island. Now, 20 lakhs of our people earn their living outside the country. So if we continue to produce human resources suitable only for an island, it will not be productive.

Now there is no country in the world that does not provide private education. When young people go abroad for education it is not only a loss of foreign exchange for the country. The country also loses educated people because they get married and live abroad and do not return.

Some people, including university lecturers, feel the allocation for higher education is inadequate

You cannot measure the quality of higher education on the allocation. Even if large amounts are allocated and they do not teach what should be taught, then it is pointless. Even in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal the

“We will also introduce structural changes at the point of A/L studies, for 40% of the students to do science, 35% to do commerce and 25% to do arts. For this, we will upgrade 5,000 primary schools and 1,000 secondary schools will be recreated.”


Mr. Sujiva Dewaraja Chairman of SLASSCOM and the Head of the IT sector at the John Keells Group

Mr. Sujiva Dewaraja is the Chairman of SLASSCOM and the Head of the IT sector at the John Keells Group.

Mr. Dewaraja is a Chartered Management Accountant and has an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania. He has served on the ministerial advisory panel on ICT exports since 2007.

“I would suggest less emphasis on written answers

and exams and more emphasis on interaction and

communication, which is what I believe will contribute

to tackling this problem,”

Sujiva Dewaraja, Chairman SLASSCOM.

SLASSCOM - The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies, represents Sri Lanka’s IT, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and other knowledge services providers. Currently SLASSCOM represents about 130 companies that are mainly catering to the export market.

INTERVIEW

You represent an emerging industry sector that has potential to generate employment in the country, what is your view regarding graduate employability in Sri Lanka?

This is a subject we have been engaging with different stakeholders, such as the Minister of Higher Education, the Secretary to the Ministry of Higher education, University Vice Chancellors and academia, for a long period. So by now there is a good rapport between our industry and academia to address the problem of the mismatch between graduates produced by our system and what is needed by the industry.

What are the problems identified by your industry regarding graduate employability?

As I represent SLASSCOM, that comprises many different types of companies, I am speaking on behalf of a wide range of skills, but if I were to generalise, the main skill gap is not the knowledge of subject matter. If you take IT, engineering, commerce or any other graduates, their understanding of subject matter is pretty good. The problem, or the gap, is in terms of soft skills and graduate expectations and aspirations.

Can you explain what you mean by ‘soft skills’?

Soft skills are the skills you need to operate within a place of work, apart from the subject or academic knowledge. That is, the ability to be able to work in a team, skills of interacting with people and communicating. There is a tendency to equate soft skills only with language, or knowledge of English, but that is only part of the problem because communication and interaction is not only to do with English. In my personal view, the deficit of this type of social skills could be a cultural trait in Sri Lanka. In many situation we

find young people don’t readily express their view openly or speak out or voice and opinion.

The problem, or the gap, is in terms of soft skills and graduate expectations and aspirations.

What do you mean by gap in aspirations?

What we have found, is that most graduates have a preference for government sector jobs, because there is a perception of guaranteed, long-term job security, and this is one of their expectations.

Most jobs today, including government and non government jobs are not guaranteed for life. It may be correct for government departments, but there are government companies and corporations and this may not be a reality in these State sectors. Certainly in the private sector there is no such thing as guarantee of job for life and no such thing as a guaranteed income. Most private sector jobs are moving towards variable pay or performance based pay and this is at every level from entry level, to top managers. An increasing percentage of even a senior managers’ annual income is now variable. I work in the John Keells Group where a high percentage of employees’ income including senior management income, is linked to performance, which means the total income

“Many jobs in the private sector give the opportunity to make a large amount of money and career progress based on performance.”


of an individual can change upwards or downwards, from year to year, based on performance. A large number of graduates do not appreciate this system but it provides the opportunity to substantially increase earnings through hard work. Many jobs in the private sector give the opportunity to make a large amount of money and for career progress, based on performance. This workplace reality is lacking in the knowledge imparted to our graduates. They have not properly understood the system to positively leverage it, to be able to rapidly increase earnings compared to living on a fixed wage.

What has been the industry’s experience in working with graduates?

In one of our programmes with the Ministry of Higher Education, SLASSCOM members tried to select 100 fresh graduates, among arts and commerce graduates, to be trained in jobs in the IT and BPO industry. After screening several hundreds of graduates we were unable to find even a handful of suitable candidates. The first problem was the suitability in addition; the graduates were reluctant to take on the offer. The companies, during the interview process asked questions in languages other than English, to allow the graduates to respond, but at end of the day we were struggling to fill the 100 seats.

“How many parents, teachers or elders in Sri Lanka encourage young people to start a business?”

How important are soft skills for jobs in the knowledge services sector?

Very important, because of the nature of this industry. We provide services to clients in other countries, so being able to communicate in English is a requirement. The other thing is, our immediate competitor is India and we have to be able to compete with our neighbours, in getting work. What I have noticed, is that Indians are highly competitive and more outgoing. They are able to present their case effectively to a potential client. The only way a potential client can assess the capability of a company, or an individual, is through the responses they get. So if we are quiet and retiring and others respond faster and more aggressively, we will lose out.

There is an argument that it is not the graduates but the institute?

As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, even the premier institutions, to some extent, have this problem with their graduates, but some institutions do a lot of work to overcome this problem.

How do you suggest this situation should be addressed?

We explained these problems to the academics who prepare these graduates. But if this is a deep rooted cultural fact of our society, I don’t know if the universities alone can change the situation. But I am sure that through three to four years of education, something can be done. Perhaps universities could increase interactive projects, case studies, discussions, presentations and link these practical assignments to the


final grades. I would suggest less emphasis on written answers and exams and more emphasis on interaction and communication, which is what I believe, will contribute to tackling this problem. I don’t know how easy or difficult this will be to do, under the existing university structure.

Eventually it boils down to risk aversion. The safe thing is to get a job in a government department. The IT and BPO sector lends itself very well to entrepreneurship, but very few young people come into the system as job creators and not job seekers. In this industry there are many examples, globally and locally, of entrepreneurs starting their business in a garage with a small amount of capital. Over 50% of our 130 SLASCOM companies are small companies started by one person or a few people. For instance, Millennium IT was started 15 years ago by a few local entrepreneurs who decided to develop stock trading systems. Today, the London Stock Exchange runs a system developed by them and has bought the company.

So we need to encourage entrepreneurship in this sector as a career option. How many parents, teachers or elders in Sri Lanka encourage young people to start a business? They want the young people to become engineers, lawyers, and accountants and then get a regular fixed salary. The education system also needs to encourage entrepreneurship and creativity.

is not on training but on contributing to the company’s financial performance. So only a proportion of their time can be allocated for this type of development. But it would be better if our graduates have these skills when they graduate because these skills are available among young people competing with us in this industry.

Given this situation how realistic is the government goal for a knowledge hub in Sri Lanka?

This is not just a government objective; we are all working very closely on this initiative. We have a target of becoming a US$ 1 billion industry, primarily driven by IT and BPOs, by 2015. The knowledge services industry is now worth around US$ 300 million – US$ 400 million in exports. Many people do not know, but we are already among the top five export revenue earners in Sri Lanka. So I feel our US$ 1 billion target is not an unrealistic goal.

The human resource base of the IT and software industry requires mostly graduates. But the output of IT graduates is still pretty low. State and private sector institutes together provide around 3000- 4000 graduates annually, but the industry demand is 5,000-6,000 annually. So already there is a human resource supply gap. To grow rapidly, we need more graduates and the supply is not likely to grow so fast. So this will be a constraint for IT sector growth.

But for BPOs, the picture is different, because BPO’s do not necessarily need graduates. There is a large pool of talent that does not enter university after their A/Ls. This pool can be tapped by the BPO sector. But again, the challenge has been in getting the required numbers, because of the same shortcomings that apply to graduates and also other issues such as knowledge of English.

How optimistic are you about the future of the knowledge industry in Sri Lanka?

I am very optimistic. AT Kearney, the international management consultancy, has said Sri Lanka is a hidden gem of knowledge services. The New York Times recently said Sri Lanka can be a source of accountants for the whole world because we have a very large population of accountants, many with foreign qualifications, that can be used to attract BPO customers to Sri Lanka.

SLASSCOM signed an agreement recently with the Bar Association to promote legal process outsourcing. Likewise, we can provide outsourced professional services of many other types, such as Engineering, Architecture, Medical, etc. So, yes, I am very optimistic about the industry’s future.

As different companies may need different levels of soft skills, perhaps it is better for companies to train graduates?

We are doing that. But one or two months of training is inadequate, because once they come to work, the focus


Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations

“The authorities believe that if university students are given

training in IT and English their employability will

increase. I don’t believe this. I feel we have to re-visit the

entire process of education,”

Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri,

President of FUTA

“There is gap between social expectations

from higher education and the original

purpose of universities. The present crisis

is a conflict of two approaches to higher

education.”

Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri is the head of the Department of History at the University of Colombo and is also

the President of FUTA – the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations. He has a BA and MPhil from the

University of Colombo and a PhD from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

INTERVIEW

As a university lecturer what do you think is the cause of graduate unemployment in Sri Lanka?

It is a serious issue. Many people think that there are shortcuts to solve this problem. Many people tend to blame us and the university system for not giving the kind of training that can enhance employability. But graduate unemployment has been an issue since the 1960s, after the university system expanded and a large segment of youth started gaining access into university. There is higher supply than demand.

The Arts stream has always been the most vulnerable, for two reasons. Firstly, the numerically larger number of Arts students and secondly, unlike other streams that are trained for a specific area of employment, Arts graduates do not have a readily available job market. For instance, if you take history, perhaps the Department of Archaeology and the museums may have vacancies where history training is applicable, but everyone cannot be employed in these few places. The problem is even more acute for subjects like political science and philosophy.

The private sector says the problem is not academic knowledge but the lack of soft skills?

The problem is we don’t question the nature of our job market. What kind of skills does present job market expect? Do you need universities to provide those skills? If what is needed is English, IT and basic management skills to get a job in the private sector, do you need universities to give that training? No! When you are a graduate you also develop certain expectations about remuneration, social respect and job security. Those expectations would not be satisfied by the kind of jobs that are readily available in the job market. That is the problem. You should not oversimplify the problem as many people like the Higher Education Minister does.

Of course there is a big gap between job market demanded skills and the kind of training we provide. Students are well aware of skills demanded by the market and that the skills we give them are a mismatch. So they decide that skills

such as critical thinking are useless. So they just work for the degree certificate. This situation creates a gap between social expectations from higher education and the original purpose of universities. The present crisis is, also, a conflict of these two approaches to higher education. The classical notion is that universities are expected to provide academic education. If you want to preserve universities you have to preserve that classical notion, otherwise universities will become degree shops.

What about the lack of soft skills that the private sector speaks of?

The authorities believe that if university students are given training in IT and English their employability will increase. I don’t believe this. I think we have to revisit the entire process of our education. We get a lot of rural students not trained for a proper university education. O/Ls and A/Ls are dominated by tuition. When you come to university you are expected to have some level of critical thinking skills but this is not given in tuition classes. School education is a big problem. The quality of teachers has deteriorated, teacher training is a problem and school infrastructure is a problem. So we need to seriously look at the entire process.

Some people say the quality of university education has deteriorated?

Yes, this is part of the problem. There is serious criticism that lecturers are not up to standard. The problem, however, is how to recruit and retain the best people in the university

“The nature of our job market is an issue. What kinds of jobs are available? When you are a graduate you develop certain expectations about remuneration, social respect and job security. That is the problem.”


system? For that the profession must be attractive. The existing attitude of the ruling elite towards the university education is not helpful at all to develop university education. Just look at the salary structure. Higher education authorities claim that they want to lift the world ranking of Sri Lankan universities. This is nothing more than political propaganda unless they seriously look into the problems faced by the university system. Without addressing these burning issues you cannot recruit good people and upgrade the quality of university education. At the same time, the deterioration of the University education is also linked to the deterioration of the school education.

What is the FUTA demanding from the government?

Our main demand over the last few years was on salaries because we are underpaid compared to many sectors. Now, we are focusing more on the general crisis in university education and education in general. The way in which this crisis is being dealt with, is more problematic. The best example is the proposed bill ostensibly aimed at quality improvement. We have already expressed our concerns. I think this is more of a part of the crisis than a solution. Although the bill has been temporarily suspended amidst criticism from various quarters, there are attempts to introduce certain changes without any consultation with academics.

One example is the so-called leadership training for university students. In our view, this is an utter waste of money and they have allocated Rs. 200 million annually for this. There is also a recent MOU between the Ministry of Higher Education and CIMA to start CIMA courses inside Arts faculties. The government also has a policy of promoting private degree awarding institutions. Although the Minister’s main function is to represent interests of the state university system, he behaves as if he is the spokesperson for private degree awarding institutions.

As a university lecturer what do you think of private universities?

In principle I am opposed to private universities because I think the private sector, which operate purely on a profit making drive, cannot run universities. There are of course

world famous private universities such as the Harvard University in the US. They are however, different from degree awarding institutions such as the Malambe Private Medical College. Take the example of the St. Thomas’ College, which is a private school. There is a big difference between this school and an ordinary tuition centre, although a tuition centre is also a private education establishment. Our degree awarding institutions are like these tuition centres.

So what is FUTA’s proposal to improve higher education?

We want the budgetary allocation for education to be increased to 6% of GDP, which is the internationally accepted norm. Now, it is below 2%. To increase the quality of higher education you need to invest in general education

as well, because the quality of graduates depends on school education. Also, political interference inside universities should be stopped. Sometimes there is intervention even in recruiting lecturers. The Vice Chancellors are appointed by the President. This is especially a problem because of our political culture. They appoint a person they think is a puppet for their political agenda.

The government is trapped in a certain dominant development model, which is being questioned throughout the world. According to this model education is viewed in terms its narrow practical purpose, namely training skilled labour. Broader civilisational aspects of education are neglected. This development thinking is promoted by international agencies. The ultimate goal is to supply cheap labour for international markets, like BPOs and other industries. When


they speak of a knowledge hub, what they mean is a place where skilled labour is trained for international markets. There may be justification for this because people need jobs. But a society cannot ignore broader civilizational objectives of education.

What we are trying to do at this juncture is to raise public awareness on these issues. We think that there is no point in trying to convince the authorities, because they don’t care at all about what we say. Even in the West universities are being ranked based on employability of graduates.

Well employability is an issue. We are not saying that addressing this is not our responsibility. But we need a serious discussion over this issue. We have to revisit the intake system for universities. If you don’t need a lot of arts graduates why recruit them? Even in the West there is a problem about the sustainability of liberal arts education. So we need to decide, what would be the future of liberal arts education? Do we need liberal arts? We proposed a joint forum with the Ministry of Higher Education to discuss these issues but we feel that they are not very serious about such a discussion. They want it to restrict that into their narrow agenda.

The government says its target is 100% employability of graduates. What is FUTA’s view on this?

There is nothing wrong with that. That is what we want as well. But setting a goal is not enough. You also have to look at the gravity of the problem itself.

Has the FUTA proposed an alternative model of higher education to the government’s strategy?

It is not about proposing an alternative. It is about building awareness and initiating an open discussion about the role of education in a civilized society. We are not saying to return to the old Peradeniya model of higher education. But we believe that whatever reforms we need, to solve the issue of employability of young people, should not destroy the foundation of pure education. If that happens, our society will suffer in the long run.

“What we need is a process where the university system is protected as pure educational institutions and not simply as places of labour training.”


Mr. Asoka HettigodaPresident of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka

“From an industry point of view, we will not be able

to survive unless we have a skilled workforce.”

Asoka Hettigoda

Mr Asoka Hettigoda, the Managing Director of Hettigoda Industries (Siddhalepa Group), is the President of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka. Mr Hettigoda has a Bsc in Computer Science from the Northwestern University, US and a MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Mr Hettigoda is also the Vice President of the Hotels Association of Sri Lanka.

The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka was founded in 1948, soon after Sri Lanka gained independence from British colonial rule, primarily to establish a forum for the Sri Lankan business community. Today, the Chamber has a membership of around 600 companies and about 2,500 small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

“ If we don’t generate the skills,

we will have to import the skills

and that will not be easy, because

our neighbours are also growing

and they will not keep sending

skilled workers.”

INTERVIEW

As a representative of the private sector, what is your opinion of the education system in the context of employability of graduates?

We all benefitted from the higher education system of Sri Lanka. But our generation and previous generations knew how to adapt to demands of the private sector, the world economy and academia. Sri Lanka produced the best engineers, accountants, teacher, doctors, and we sent them abroad. So why did we fall behind in the last 20 years?

I feel it’s because we failed to recognise three key things. One is the English language, number two is not being in tune with today’s technologies to facilitate business, and number three is the habit of putting the blame on something that is uncontrollable, like the war, instead of trying harder.

As a representative of Sri Lanka’s private sector, what do you think is the cause of graduate unemployment?

There are certain traditional beliefs of what a particular degree holder should do. These beliefs are held by graduates and also companies. I worked for a multinational consulting company and they recruited business graduates, but they also recruited philosophy graduates, because today’s problems need to be analysed not only from a business perspective but also from a philosophical perspective.

Here, Arts graduates think they need ‘Arts’ jobs and companies think what can Arts graduates do? But even in the case of something like customer relations, an Arts graduate

may be able to look at the subject from a deeper cultural perspective and give a more in depth solution. The marketing guy will only look at it from a financial perspective.

Also graduates have certain expectations. They think, I am an engineer, so I should only be an engineer. But when they come into the workforce for their first job, they must show what they can do, before they worry about the benefits they get.

People talk of a skills gap between what is taught to graduates, and what is demanded by the private sector. What types of skills are demanded by local businesses today?

Right now, the emphasis is on generating professionals, like doctors, lawyers and accountants. There is no emphasis on creating carpenters, masons and other skilled persons. But every business needs skilled people like plumbers, electricians and even people who know how to operate multimedia equipment. So we need to recognise these skill categories.

“So why did we fall behind in the last 20 years? I feel it’s because we failed to recognise three key things. One is the English language, number two is not being in tune with today’s technologies to facilitate business and number three is the habit of putting the blame on something that is uncontrollable, like the war, instead of trying harder.”

“... every business needs skilled people like plumbers, electricians and even people who know how to operate multimedia equipment. So we need to recognise these skill categories.”

“People who create curricula must look at current needs and have a regular, ongoing dialogue with industries.”


Societal needs have changed dramatically from 50 years ago. Today, the use of washing machines, air conditioners, water pumps and other electronic items are commonplace. All toys are electronic. Children these days are using Play Stations, Nintendos, iPads. So there is a demand for people with skills in repairing and maintaining these equipment, but we are not catering to that demand. These skilled people also earn well. But young people are not interested in that kind of work. Tourism is growing so fast in this country, but where are the training facilities for tourism services?

The education system has created an elitism through the higher education system, where people feel other skilled jobs are not recognised. This needs to change. We need to create different streams of skilled education at the point of the O/Ls. We need electricians, plumbers, masons, mechanics and other skilled categories.

The National Chamber did a survey recently among our members and we had a 65%-70 % response rate. About 90% of the companies that responded, have said there are enough opportunities for skilled labour in their companies. They are all looking for skilled people. So this is quite contrary to some people saying there are no jobs.

What should be done to bridge the skill gap?

People who create curricula must look at current needs and have regular, ongoing dialogue with industries. At the National Chamber we have 600 Blue Chip companies, from across the spectrum of industry in this country and another 2,500 SMEs. The skill requirements of each company may be different. So we need to identify what skills are needed for different sectors. We need to identify the modern day skill requirements.

We (the Chamber) also need to figure out who we should talk to, on the subject, because there are a number of different ministries involved. There is the Ministry of Vocational Training and another ministry for higher education and another ministry for education.

The demand from local companies seems more towards technical skills. Do local companies need the type of skills that universities provide?

In the higher skill categories, there is a need for researchers, to give Sri

Lankan companies an edge. We need to develop new ideas, new products and new ways of doing things. That is very important. We also need tech savvy people, because what’s new today, is outdated tomorrow. Technology is changing so fast. So we need people who understand these changes and can adapt fast.

The Chamber proposed to the Treasury that the government should give tax deductions to companies to encourage cooperation with universities, for research and development. Even sending employees abroad for training is now tax deductable and was included in last year’s budget. The Treasury Secretary, Dr Jayasundara, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen and the Minister of Economic Development, Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, have regular discussions with the industry, but the dialogue needs to be extended to the larger segment responsible for creating skills.

What is your opinion about private education establishments?

Higher education is already privatised, except maybe for medical schools. I don’t want to get entangled in the politics of private education, but the fact is, we need skilled people. From an industry point of view, we will not be able to survive unless we have a skilled workforce. If we don’t generate the skills, we will have to import the skills and that will not be easy, because our neighbours are also growing and they will not keep sending skilled persons.

From the Chamber’s point of view, we respect the government’s social programme of free education, but we have many a time indicated the need for a skilled workforce. So I will support anyone to create a skilled workforce, and the Chamber will also support any such activity.


What is the Chamber doing to support skills development in the country?

This country is going to grow and the Chamber has recognised the need for a skilled labour force. I want to change the word from an ‘educated’ workforce to a ‘skilled’ workforce. The Chamber has direct access to people who need these skills. We can establish connections between skilled persons and businesses looking for skills.

So the Chamber does skills development programmes throughout the country. We also started a programme at the Colombo University, for children of small business owners, on developing entrepreneurial skills. It is a six month programme that includes identification of risks and opportunities, how to control money and assess competition. Other professional skills, like book keeping, can be taught. But entrepreneurship is a philosophy, so these skills are more important to develop small businesses.

opportunities for skills development. We are upgrading the 4th floor of the Chamber office to create a proper training centre. This will also help uplift skills development.

What areas do you think higher education should target for the future?

Whatever said and done, there will always be a key role in this country, for agriculture and also services. We should not put all our eggs into services. We need to infuse technology into our agriculture and we also need some hi-tech production. With an educated workforce, there is an opportunity for research and development in agriculture. Countries like Thailand get two or three times our harvest, from the same land area. So we need skills training in this area. Today, food security is as important as energy security. For food security, we need hi-tech agriculture. We have also been blessed with so many climatic zones, we can grow anything. But we need to improve our water management and use technology to figure out what we are going to grow in the dry season and what we are going to grow in the rainy season.

On top of that, we need to look into biotechnology. Sri Lanka has over 200 endemic plants and most are medicinal plants. I think there is a tremendous opportunity here, because the whole world is moving towards natural products.

In addition, because we are in such a central location for shipping, services development in shipping, transport and logistics, are a must. Then, because we have such large neighbours, financial services are also possible. We need to develop skills in these areas as well.

“Whatever said and done, there will always be a key role in this country, for agriculture and also services. We should not put all our eggs into services. We need to infuse technology into our agriculture and we also need some hi-tech production.”

In the coming years the Chamber will play an even more active role and we will canvas for opportunities from government and diplomatic missions, to create more


Dr. Sunil Jayantha NawaratneSecretary to the Ministry of Higher Education

“The higher education system is trying to produce CDs using an analogue machine. To put out CDs you need a digital machine, not an outdated analogue machine,” Secretary Ministry of Higher Education,Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne.

“We need to modernise and change the existing system to meet modern demands on higher education.”

Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne, who currently holds the post of Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education,

is a senior public official with many years of experience in public service. Dr. Nawaratne has a PhD in

Marketing, from Keio University, Tokyo, a Masters in Economics from the Kagawa University of Japan and a

B.Sc. (Business Administration) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Dr. Nawaratne has previously held the positions of Chairman of the Centre for Strategic Management, Director

General of the Sri Lanka Samurdhi Authority, Secretary of the Ministry of Samurdhi, Rural Development and

Parliamentary Affairs, and Chairman / Director General of the National Youth Services Council.

INTERVIEW

How would you describe the role of higher education in Sri Lanka’s future development and growth?

Higher education is the central point to develop future leaders and people who drive the economy. In other words, they are the cream of the cream. Under the President’s Mahinda Chinthana concept we are talking about developing naval, aviation, energy, business and commerce, and knowledge hubs in Sri Lanka. This is where higher education comes into the picture, because we need the knowledge hub to develop the others.

How is the Ministry of Higher Education aligning higher education with these national developmental goals?

The vision of the Ministry of Higher Education is to make Sri Lanka the most cost effective education hub in Asia. Our key area of activity is in developing the knowledge hub. The other hubs cannot be achieved without the knowledge hub because you need the knowledge hub to develop human capital for the other hubs. To develop a naval hub, or any other hub, you need the people with the skills.

But what we mean by knowledge is knowledge that comes with the right skills with practical knowledge and also the correct attitudes and correct mindset. There are many skills in demand but you also need the right attitude and the correct mindset about the world. I call this KSAM (Knowledge + Skills + Attitude + Mindset). So these areas are functions of higher education.

So then the next question is, are we developing the right products through the higher education system. Our observation is, that some faculties and universities develop professionals in areas where there is demand, like medicine, engineering, management to some extent and agriculture and science, partially. But we have a problem with social sciences, liberal sciences and the arts.

What is the problem faced by arts graduates?

The problem is employability. As far as professional courses are concerned the areas of practical skills, attitude and mindset, are covered but the arts, social sciences and liberal sciences are largely consigned to theory. But knowledge

Under the government’s hub concept a number of ‘hubs’ have been proposed for Sri Lanka, including developing Sri Lanka as a knowledge hub.

How effective is the current system of higher education in meeting these national goals and also aspirations of young people?

If you take the Sri Lankan situation, nearly 300,000 students sit for the Advanced Levels every year and about 130,000 obtain the minimum qualification to enter university but only 22,500 are admitted to university. Students are admitted to university based on merit and their district ranking. So that is the present situation.

We have 15 universities and 2 Buddhist universities. So altogether there are 17 universities. These students, who enter universities, should be future leaders and drivers of economic development in the country.

“Because of the lack of practical exposure, arts, liberal and social science students come out with a certificate but lower level of employability.”

AviationHub

KnowledgeHub

Naval Hub EnergyHub

Businessand

CommerceHub


should be linked with practical knowledge as well as the latest theory. When we talk of skills, it should include general skills as well as specific skills. There are some general skills required by any employer like communication and IT, and at the same time you need job oriented, specific skills, depending on the type of job. So both these skill sets should be imparted under skills.

You also need to develop the correct attitude and mindset. Sometimes outdated paradigms generate the wrong attitudes. We hear of people sacrificing Rs.50,000 - Rs.60,000 paying jobs in the private sector to be a teacher for an Rs.15,000 salary. We can develop the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry but for that we need to work night shifts and graduates are not willing to do this. So these are attitude related.

The survey of graduate employability conducted

at the Sri Jayewardenepura University in March 2012

showed that 3 months after graduation 84.4 %

of the medical faculty graduates, 61.7% of the

management faculty graduates, 60.6% of

science faculty students and 23.1% of arts students

were employed.

After 3 months of passing out 62.8% of

the arts students were unemployed, while the

unemployment figure was 35.2% for science, 10.9%

for medicine and 22.1% for management graduates.

Because of the lack of practical exposure, arts, liberal and social science students come out with a certificate but lower level of employability. Some people argue that universities are not there to produce employable graduates, but this is not acceptable because even Buddhist monks, who do not have expenses, want a job after they graduate. Ultimately every students wants employment.

How can this situation of being theory centred be changed?

When we analyse the present education system in the country, not only the public sector, even the private sector has a heavy leaning towards theory. They just give a one way lectures and students write down notes. That is the main problem. If we want to develop the correct type of student we have to break away from teacher centred system. We are highly teacher centred. This is a highly outdated method. We need to shift from being teacher centred to being student centred. If it is student centred, the teacher is a guide and the student is involved in the learning.

“When we analyse the present education system in the country, not only the public sector, even the private sector has a heavy leaning towards theory. They just give a one way lectures and students write down notes. That is the main problem.”


Students should be able to read the chapter, summarise it, and make a slide presentations on stage, on the subject. The teacher can select someone to make the presentation. That way everybody has to be ready and everyone must know the subject. This will also make students read the book and read other related information on the subject to enhance their knowledge.

What action has been taken to improve employability of graduates?

We have now asked universities to calculate the employability of their graduates. Under the ‘Higher Education for the 21 Century’ project it is now compulsory for every faculty to calculate their employability ratio. On graduation day, every student must fill a questionnaire and we analyse the data at the Ministry of Higher Education.

Previously we did not have this kind of information, so we did not know the quality of graduates from our universities. If you don’t know the employability how are you to know the contribution? Even lecturers and ministry people don’t know whether these graduates are wanted by the country or wanted by the industry or whether the graduates are happy with their education. So we needed to decide whether we are producing just graduates or employable graduates. So this is a starting point.

After their A/Ls young people come to university and if they are unemployed, we are responsible. So we must accept the responsibility. Vice Chancellors, councils, the senate, and faculty boards of each university should take responsibility for the employability of their graduates.

What are the findings of the employability survey?

The survey of graduate employability was conducted at the Sri Jayewardenepura University in March 2012. It is also currently being conducted in the other universities.

At Jayewardenepura, 3 months after graduation, 84.4 % of the medical faculty graduates, 61.7% of the management faculty graduates, 60.6% of science faculty graduates and 23.1% of arts graduates were employed.

After 3 months of passing out 62.8% of the arts students were unemployed, while the unemployment figure was 35.2% for science, 10.9% for medicine and 22.1% for management graduates. A reasonable amount was also underemployed in management and arts. Among arts students, even out of the employed graduates, 51% want only public sector jobs, while out of the unemployed arts students, 60% wanted public sector jobs.

Obstacles identified by students towards finding employment included competition, education not matching the job market, what is learned is not practically supported, English and computer deficiency, few government sector jobs in their field of education, huge number of graduates in the South, involvement in politics, no connections or contacts, no political backing and no jobs in rural areas because Sri Lanka is not a developed country.

As you can see, the findings point to the fact that although the private sector is the engine of growth universities are producing public sector mindset oriented graduates.

How do you plan to change this situation?

To change the outputs we have to change the inputs. The total production process of the higher education system has to be changed.

“We have now asked universities to calculate the employability of their graduates.”

Percentage of unemployed graduates atSri Jayewardenepura University

3 Months after passing out

0

1010.9

35.2

62.8

22.120

30

40

50

60

70

Medicine Science Arts Management

Everybody should rethink higher education because the environment has changed but the thinking, processes and mindset in the higher education system, has not changed. So we have to change the production system in higher education.


This means we have to address the quality of lecturer, infrastructure, financial problems and also processes, such as teaching techniques, how much theory and practicals are covered, developing the correct attitudes and also the evaluation processes.

We must change the system to target the market because last years’ requirement may not be the same today. Effectiveness and efficiency of the higher education system depends on market orientation. At this point no one is responsible for their graduates and the government is taking responsibility by providing employment for them, but this is not the government’s responsibility.

The government recruited 40,000 graduates, paying Rs.15,000 per month. This is Rs. 600 million per month. But the even more shocking news is, if you recruit at the age of 30 they are paid until 80 years of age, for 50 years, with annual increments. So the current system is not contributing to national development, it is creating a burden. We should not produce a single unemployed graduate. Everybody should rethink higher education because the environment has changed but the thinking, processes and mindset in the higher education system has not changed. So we have to change the production system in higher education.

What action is being taken to change the higher education system?

The higher education system is trying to produce CDs using an analogue machine. To put out CDs you need a digital machine, not an outdated analogue machine. So we must re-design the machine. We need to modernise and change the existing system to meet modern demands on higher education. The total production process of the higher education system, has to be changed. If we make the changes our graduates will become highly marketable globally, not just in Sri Lanka.

When it comes to change, there is incremental change and drastic change. We are demanding a drastic change but change cannot happen over night because this is huge

Obstacles identified by students towards

finding employment included:

• Competition

• Educationnotmatchingthejob

market

• Whatislearnedisnot

practically supported

• Englishandcomputerdeficiency

• Fewgovernmentjobsintheir

field of education

• Hugenumberofgraduatesinthe

South

• Involvementinpolitics

• Noconnectionsorcontacts

• Nopoliticalbacking

• Nojobsinruralareas

system. It’s like a super tanker. The higher education system suffers from super tanker syndrome because it can’t change direction fast.

So number one, we are working at changing mindsets, because most attempts at changes fail by trying to introduce the change before generating a mindset change. First, people must accept the need for change. This includes students, academics, non academics, public, industry, ministry, University Grants Commission, and all stakeholders.

We will also need to change regulations, Acts, circulars, processes, systems and organisation culture. We must also expect resistance because smooth change will not happen. So we have to keep educating people, communicating. It’s like a roller coaster. We are now in the first phase and there is a lot of resistance and criticism. But eventually people will support change. Our target is 100% employable graduates.

“We are demanding a drastic change but change cannot happen over night because this is huge system.

It’s like a super tanker. The higher education system suffers from super tanker syndrome because it can’t change direction fast.”


How does the government plan on increasing the graduate output?

We are limiting higher education to the public sector. So the numbers cannot go up. We need to open up higher education to the non-state sector but there is resistance to that. So we have to convince students and staff. We have now started a dialogue with the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) on this. The outcome has been positive so far. I feel that if we convince the teachers, we can also convince students of this need.

Who is the most difficult group to convince?

Extreme students are very difficult. They know the facts but don’t accept it because of their mindset. So confronting their ideas with our ideas is the only way to convince.

Our target is 100% employable graduates.


Dr. Harsha de SilvaUNP Member of Parliament

“The most fundamental issue we are going to face in the next 25 years, is education.

Whether we make or break, depends on how successfully we address the breakdown in our

education system,”

Dr. Harsha de Silva UNP MP.

Dr. Harsha de Silva, is a UNP Member of Parliament and is the economic spokesperson for the UNP. Dr. de

Silva got his BS in Business Management from the Truman State University in the US and his MA and PhD

in Economics, at the University of Missouri, US. He has worked as an economist for the DFCC Bank and

became its chief economist and treasurer. He was the co-founder and Joint Managing Director of The Nielsen

Company in Sri Lanka.

INTERVIEW

How important is higher education for Sri Lanka’s future?

The most fundamental issue we are going to face in the next 25 years is education. Whether we make or break, depends on how successfully we address the breakdown in our education system.

How is education important for overall national development and growth?

This country has had a number of growth phases. First, there was the agricultural phase, then there was an industrial growth focus and liberalisation. But now, we need to look at our next growth phase. Although we can grow our industries and agriculture further, we are now also looking at services growth. But areas like trade, restaurants, leisure, banks, and finance will not be able to add the kind of value that is required to shift our growth path the way agriculture did in 50s and industry did in the 80s and 90s. For this type of growth, growth must come from knowledge based services.

We want to change the way higher education is looked at. We do not believe in a monopoly in education. We have told the Minister of Higher Education that we would support the Quality Assurance Accreditation and Qualification Framework bill (commonly known as the Private Universities bill) provided he puts more money into the State education system. We are not asking the government to increase the allocation to 6% of GDP, because we understand the government also needs to find these funds. We would like them to double the current allocation to 3% of GDP.

Some people say the government’s Private Universities bill is about privatising education and the end of free education in Sri Lanka. Is this what the UNP will also do?

We are the people who created free education in Sri Lanka. So we will not support a bill that will take away free education. We have not privatised anything and we are not going to sell

So what we need for knowledge based growth is education; the right skills and the human resources. Look at Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Silicon Valley, Boston, etc. they all have booming knowledge hubs in common. Indian cities are beginning to compete. They have moved beyond the outsourcing model and are now creating things.

The only way you can create a knowledge hub in Sri Lanka is by creating globally competitive human resources. This means not just getting a degree for the sake of getting a degree. We need to ensure that our graduates have all the required skills to be absorbed by globally competitive enterprises.

What is the UNP’s stand on higher education?

The UNP has been the engine of educational reform and growth in this country. C W W Kannnagara was the UNP Minister of Education. The UNP created the Central School System where education was in English. The leader of our party was former Minister of Education and has a strong view on education reforms.

“The only way you can create a knowledge hub in Sri Lanka is by creating globally competitive human resources.”

“Our strategy is a needs based subsidy that goes to the student. The subsidy is means tested and given only to those who need it. This system will also allow us to increase in the intake into universities.”


any university to anyone. What we have done, is to liberalise markets. For instance, the telecommunications, health, and insurance markets were liberalised. So we will also open the education sector for private competition.

There are already very successful public private partnerships today. They produce graduates within the time limit. No strikes, no delays and they also have high job placement.

So is the UNP plan for higher education the same as the government’s current strategy?

Our strategy is a needs based subsidy that goes to the student. The subsidy is means tested and given only to those who need it. This system will also allow us to increase in the intake into universities.

The ability to pay becomes criteria to determine the amount of subsidy. The UNP does not believe every kid should be given a 100% subsidy, when they can afford to pay. If you are making a million rupees a month, why can’t you spend on your child’s education? Equity is not equality.

“The UNP has been the engine of educational reform and growth in this country. C W W Kannnagara was the UNP Minister of Education. The UNP created the Central School System where education was in English.”

Every kid will have the freedom to choose where they want to study. There will be many universities, some by the State and some by guaranteed companies, or trusts.

Can you explain how the application of the subsidy?

If I were to explain in very simplistic terms, let us assume it costs the government Rs. 100,000 per year to provide university education for one student. Now, let’s assume one student can afford the entire cost and one student can afford only half this cost and a third student cannot afford it at all. What we propose, is a voucher system to cover the total cost for the last student and half the cost for the second


component, is greater than this. So we are in the red. Even if you leave out the capital payment, the interest is about 40% of our total income. So after that is paid, where is the money for health and education? If we want to compete with the rest of the world, we have to improve the quality of our human resources.

The current system also breeds corruption and creates rent seeking behaviour. Under the quota system, you have to stay in line for years to get a knee replacement but if you are friend of a politician you can get it in a day. So the Powerful and well connected get the benefits. It is not a fair system. That is why we are saying if, you can pay, you must pay for the services. But if unable to pay you should not have to pay. That is social justice.

To leverage the next phase of growth, we have to create a vibrant relevant efficient platform for higher education. The only way for that now, is to liberalise higher education to allow private investments, while doubling the State investment. I am not talking only of academic degrees but also technical qualifications.

student. So originally, if it cost the State Rs. 300,000 for three students, it will now cost only half that price for three students. So that balance money can be used to finance other students. And as we are asking for higher education funds to be doubled, we will have more money to finance more students. So this way we can increase the intake.

How do you plan on dealing with the resistance to such changes in the higher education system?

We have free education but so many people are following courses like CIMA, where they have to pay for the education. We have free education but we spend so much money on tuition.

The bottom line is, whoever is in office, even if it is the JVP, they will have to start recovering costs. We are not able to give everything for free. We collect around Rs 900 billion in taxes, but our payments on loans, the interest and capital


There are concerns about the quality of higher education institutes coming into the country?

Something that has to go hand in hand with liberalisation is regulation. Education liberalisation also needs a regulatory body. Right now, there is not proper regulatory body in the education sector and even the health sector.

In liberalising education, accreditation is critical. You should never be allowed to open up without proper accreditation. You can be nationally, regionally or internationally accredited, but you must at least be nationally accredited. So when a student has a choice to select a university, he or she can check on the accreditation, the quality of the faculty, facilities and endowments. The UGC Act will have to be changed, so that the accreditation body will be responsible for accrediting all universities and all technical colleges.

The CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) with India looks at opening up services including education services. So if we have regional accreditation, it will open up a new world. You will be recognised regionally. That is the knowledge hub. You create human resources in Sri Lanka that are valued beyond this country.

How do you look at the demands by university lecturers?

You can’t fix one side of equation without fixing the other side. The lecturers say salaries are not enough. This may be the case, but where are we going to get the additional money to pay them higher salaries? So I don’t think it’s fair for university lecturers to get on the streets today demanding

“Something that has to go hand in hand with liberalisation, is regulation. Education liberalisation also needs a regulatory body.”

salary increases and get on the streets the next day opposing private universities. They should realise that the equation needs to be balanced.

Also, university lecturers have the possibility to make large amounts of money through consultation work. In some countries a large percentage of consultation incomes are taxed by the university, but this has been changed in Sri Lanka. So they have avenues to increase their income but they do not talk about that when they agitate. But the entire public sector salary structure is wrong because public sector jobs are given in tens of thousands. There are 8.5 persons per bus, in the SLTB. Who pays for this?

How optimistic are you about the country’s ability to meet youth aspirations?

I think the situation is dangerous. The valve we have now, is to send them overseas. If you look back in history, it is the UNP governments that have made the significant economic breakthroughs in the country. Everyone born and unborn will be grateful to the present government for winning the war but, they are not able to meet challenges in the economic front. They don’t have the right policies. Where are the investments? the industries? What kind of signal do you send out when you expropriate companies when countries like China, Vietnam and Myanmar are opening up?


Hon. S.B. DissanayakeMinister of Higher Education

“I agree that universities are not simply places

to turn out people for the job market.

Universities are places that should generate

knowledge, create thinkers, philosophers. But, if graduates want a job, and they cannot

get a job out of their education, first of

all, as the Minister of Higher Education, I feel

responsible,”

S.B. Dissanayake

Minister of Higher Education

“For the past 30- 35 years,

since about 1988, with the

JVP and LTTE influence,

it is the students who are

running the universities.

Hon. S.B. Dissanayake, Minister of Higher Education, has a degree in Public Administration from the University

of Sri Jayewardenepura. He was also a member of the university’s Student Council from 1971-1975 and was

the President of the Inter University Students’ Federation from 1973-75. His ministerial portfolio includes the

posts of Minister of Samurdhi, Youth Affairs, Sports and Rural Development in 1994, Minister of Samurdhi,

Rural & Upcountry Development in 2000 and also Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Deputy Minister

of Finance in 2000. He was also elected General Secretary of the SLFP in 2000. In 2001 he was appointed

Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Samurdhi in the UNP government.

INTERVIEW

As the Minister of Higher Education, what is your assessment of the higher education sector in the context of employability?

Around 22,000-23,000 youth are selected to university. Half of them find it difficult to find jobs after they finish university. This is mainly students of liberal arts, management, science and agriculture. People who study media and traditional medicine also find it difficult to find jobs.

It is the best students that enter university, where they spend three to four years with the most educated, people who are their teachers. So if they cannot find a job after they leave university this is a major problem.

there were elections to select people for various university student bodies and councils. Then the elections stopped. The JVP gave a list of names in the South and the LTTE in the North, and if anyone contested this, they were beaten up or killed. We have now restarted these elections.

“During the 1950s and 60s our universities were on par with Oxford and Cambridge….”“Then Peradeniya and Colombo dropped out from even the top 5,000. Now, we have started climbing up the” ranking again”

“It is the best students that enter university, where they spend three to four years with the most educated, people who are their teachers. So if they cannot find a job after they leave university this is a major problem.”

I agree that universities are not simply places to churn out people for the job market. Universities are places that should generate knowledge, create thinkers, philosophers. But, if graduates want a job, and they cannot get a job out of their education, first of all, as the Minister of Higher Education, I feel responsible. I think universities, university lecturers, should also feel some responsibility. We have a duty to make sure our graduates are marketable not just locally but globally.

So how do you think this can be achieved ?

I think the first thing, is to ensure that university decision making and administration is done by the academics. For the past 30- 35 years, since about 1988, with the JVP and LTTE influence, it is the students who are running the universities.

There is an allegation that it is actually the government that is trying to politicise universities and that university Vice Chancellors are political puppets?

Since 1988, two Vice Chancellors were killed, one had a narrow escape, four left the country and around 300 lecturers left the country because of threats to their lives. Until then universities were able to disciple students. Until about 1987,

The situation inside universities needs to change. In the Sabaragamuva University all the courses are taught in English, but the Student Council has said students must not talk in English inside the university. So when these graduates go for interviews they can’t respond in English. They have also said students can’t talk to a lecturer without a representative from the Student Council accompanying them. In Peradeniya, the Student Council has said during tutorials there should not be a discussion. Tutorials are where students discuss things and leaders emerge through the process of interaction. So now at tutorials they all just keep quiet. Students have also been told they should not stay too long inside the library.


University students have always done politics. But previously, they also studies and studied well. Professor Jayasinghe who is a professor of economics at the Universoty of Queensland, Australia, Professor Samson Ekanayeke at the Melbourne Deakin University, Professor Indrawansa Silva at the Canada State University, Professor Samaranayake of the UGC, The Vice Chancellor of the Open University, even the Chairman of People’s Bank, were student leaders. Many leading politicians and academics were student leaders of our time, because this is where leaders were created. But after 1989, the ones who got into politics don’t even have their degree.

we have started climbing up the ranking again and within two years Colombo climbed to the 1,200 position and Peradeniya and Sri Jayewardenepura beat 3,500 universities and came forward. Now six of our universities are among the top 3,000. So what I am trying to say is, we can do this.

What is the main factor affecting employability?

English language. But the problem is bigger than that. Students face huge competition at A/Ls to get into university. So they only focus on their studies. They do not get involved in extracurricular activities and even social events, starting from their O/Ls. They don’t do sports, take part in community events, school associations or events, and they don’t even take part in family events, like weddings and funerals. In fact, even their clothes are washed by the sister or mother. They only study. So when do they develop social skills, soft skills?

Then, after all that, 90% of them enter university feeling they have lost out because they don’t get to do what they wanted to do. Students who do bio don’t get in for medicine, people who did maths are not selected for engineering, or if they are selected for medicine, it is in Rajarata, where they do not want to go.

So these kids, who enter university, have no social training and are not even doing what they want. Then, the JVP rags them and turns them into slaves. We need to change this situation.

Recently we asked companies like John Keells, Cargills, Commercial Bank and HNB to select some graduates and train them. We sent letters to 600 graduates and only 130 came for the interviews. Out of this 60 were selected. But only 3% reported to work.

What is being done to change things?

First thing is, we have started a leadership training, to make them more independent, instil soft social skills and physical fitness. I did a survey in universities to find out how many use the swimming pools, grounds, gyms if available. About 93% of the students don’t even go inside and 95% of lecturers don’t use these facilities either. So the leadership training is also about healthy living, because if young people are not physically active the chances of resorting to drugs and alcohol, are also higher.

We are also trying to connect the private sector with universities. We have introduced CIMA into five universities and started Chartered Accountancy in two universities. So if they do psychology, or sociology, they can also do CIMA or Chartered to improve their employability.

“In the Sabaragamuva University all the courses are taught in English, but the Student Council has said students must not talk in English inside the university. So when these graduates go for interviews they can’t respond in English.”

During the 1950s and 60s our universities were on par with Oxford and Cambridge. Until the 1970s our universities were among the top 2,000 – 3,000 universities. Then Peradeniya and Colombo dropped out from even the top 5,000. Now,


We have also asked the universities to teach in English as much as possible and change the courses to make them more employable. For instance, if you combine archaeology with tourism or hospitality management, they can make use of their knowledge in a booming sector of the economy. They can introduce degrees like nursing or even subjects like engineering for arts students, because most people do arts subjects because they have no choice. Out of the 328 AGA divisions, 72 schools don’t have science facilities. So they all just do arts, although there may be students who are good at maths or chemistry. So if they are given a chance to do nursing, or engineering, they will do it.

The President has also suggested introducing tri-language degrees and we have proposed introducing special degrees for English and IT.

What about vocational training?

Minister Dullas Alahaperuma’s Ministry is doing training courses in almost every village on subjects like carpentry, mechanical work, masonry and compared to before, now there is more interest from youth in these subjects.

Under my ministry, we have introduced higher diplomas through the Sri Lanka Institute of Higher Technology, that has about 20 branches in different parts of country. We have

converted all courses into English and made the two years course three years to make it more advanced. We have also introduced new courses. After a few years of working they can continue studying for their degree. We want to introduce a higher diploma in areas like nursing and physiotherapy but our doctors associations are against this.

There is a school of thought that the funding for higher education is inadequate and should be increased to 6% of GDP?

They are comparing allocations in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, India and other European countries. These countries charge for higher education. In Sri Lanka students have free education and Mahapola scholarships and on top of that, we allocate about 1.2% of GDP.

We allocated Rs. 25 billion for universities under the capital budget in 2011 and they spent less than 40%, except Rajarata. It has been this way for the past five or six years. So the money goes back. So if they can’t spend even the current allocation how are they going to spend 6% of GDP? It’s a joke.

The Student Union says universities lack basic facilities?

That problem is there. The reason is the sharp increase in the university intake. The facilities have not kept pace. In my view although our intake is now 22,000 we can only comfortably accommodate 15,000.

There is also a shortage of hostel facilities. At the Eastern university there are 10 students in one room because Sinhalese boys and girls can’t find boarding. It’s the same in Vavuniya and Trincomalee. Even at Sri Jayewardenepura, two people were sharing one room during our time but now six people share one room. Previously five bathrooms for 20 now for 80 people. Sudents don’t like to stay in hostels because they have to pay rent and also don’t have free facilities like inside the university.

“So the leadership training is also about healthy living, because if young people are not physically active the chances of resorting to drugs and alcohol, are also higher.”

But now we have started a World Bank project to increase library facilities and we are getting Indian aid for Jaffna and


Kuwait funds for the North Eastern university. We are also negotiating funds from China. But another problem is that most universities don’t have a master plan for systematic physical expansion. So now they are making their master plans and plans on how to spend their funding allocations. We are also monitoring academics and non academics for performance.

The FUTA says the Ministry takes unilateral decisions without consulting university lecturers.

The FUTA is only a small representation of university lecturers. We did some workshops with university lecturers and we invited the FUTA to a workshop as well, for discussions, but they imposed conditions on us instead of coming. They wanted us to stop the private universities bill and leadership programme. We are open to discuss things but they must also be reasonable.

What are the plans for private universities?

Almost all countries, US, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, are allowing private universities because governments cannot provide education for everyone. Beijing has 91 private universities. Those days private universities were established with trusts, but today private universities are looking for profits.

So we have to regulate them. We are establishing an Accreditation Quality Assurance Framework Council, to regulate private universities. We will also ask them to give scholarships. So students who apply to the State universities can also apply to these universities. We prepared the private universities bill a year ago but we had to stop it because university student unions and lecturers objected. But we already have 28 private university representatives in the country. So we need the regulatory system. Private universities do not have a council yet but we will get one soon.

“We allocated Rs 25 billion for universities under the capital budget in 2011 and they spent less than 40%, except Rajarata. It has been this way for the past five or six years.”

We are now planning English courses. In Malaysia at one time employability of university graduates was around 30%-40%. Then they started special soft skills and English courses and employability increased to about 87%. So for people leaving university we are planning to introduce English courses. But when we give government jobs no one will come for these courses.

What are the plans for external degrees?

At one time external students of degrees had to have a higher standard than students inside the university. Now, the quality of external degrees has dropped. So I have told the universities to set up a separate institute and introduce marketable, employable external degrees. These will have the same level of acceptance as degrees from the university.

Degree Inaugurationof the NSBM

February 23, 2012 | Auditorium Musaeus College Colombo


Degree Inaugurationof the NSBM

February 23, 2012 | Auditorium Musaeus College Colombo

Different personalities interviewed by NSBM’s Business Dialogue magazine, expressed different opinions about the condition of higher education in Sri Lanka and its role in the future of the country. All parties, including State representatives, opposition representatives, private sector and student representatives, agreed that graduate unemployment is a serious social and economic problem given the public expenditure on higher education. There is also general consensus that unemployment is a problem mainly afflicting Arts graduates. However, there were differing views on the causes of high unemployment among degree holders.

Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, representing the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA), said Arts students are the most vulnerable to unemployment due to the numerically larger number of Arts students and due to Arts graduates not being trained for a specific job. He also noted that readily available employments may not fulfil graduates’ expectations of remuneration, social respect and job security, causing more graduates to remain unemployed. Dr. Dewasiri said this situation has created a gap between social expectations from higher education and the original purpose of universities. Resource constraints within universities, including the quality of teaching, may also affect quality of degree holders. However, Dr. Dewasiri said the quality of lecturers cannot be improved until the quality of remuneration is improved. Even the deteriorating quality of school education, said Dr. Dewasiri, adversely impacted the standard of students coming into university.

Mr. Upali Gunasekera, the principal of Royal College, Sri Lanka’s largest public school, responding to the question on quality of school education, said many schools suffered from lack of resources including good quality teachers. Mr. Gunasekera said teachers’ salaries cannot attract quality people.

Hon. Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Education, said a larger share of A/L students do arts, but have no specific skills. This, said Minister Gunawardena, creates a situation where there are jobs but no people with the matching skills, and no jobs for the available people.

Hon. Dullas Alahapperuma, Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills development highlighted the fact that Sri Lankan higher education system including skills development sector is not yet fully ready to fulfil the aspirations of youth in 21st Century. He further mentioned that the influence of Sri Lankan culture has created some dogmas, such as caste system in skills development perspective even for today.

Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne, the Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education, said Arts and Social Science graduates have more difficulty finding jobs because of the lack of practical exposure. In a recent survey at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, three months after passing out, over half (62.8%) of the Arts students were unemployed.

THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN SRI LANKA: BUSINESS DIALOGUE

Comparatively, unemployment was 35.2% for Science, 10.9% for Medicine and 22.1% for Management graduates.

The Hon. S. B. Dissanayake, Minister of Higher Education, said the primary reason for unemployment among graduates is the lack of English skills. However, the Minister also noted that the problem of poor ‘soft skills’ is also due to reasons other than university education or the university curriculum. The Minister of Higher Education pointed out that young people did not have the opportunity to develop social, interpersonal and communication skills because of the competition in trying to enter university. Young people become so engrossed in studies they do not engage in community and extra-curricular activities, which prevents personality and leadership development.

JVP MP Hon. Sunil Handunnetti on the other hand, noted that unemployment is not a problem due only to the education system and pointed out that unemployment has increased world over, including in the US. The JVP position is that the phenomenon of high unemployment is due to the failure of the capitalist system. Mr. Handunnetti explained that to increase profits, production needs to reduce and this leads to unemployment increasing. The Convener of the Inter University Student Federation (IUSF), Mr. Sanjeewa Bandara, noted that universities lack basic facilities, which has impacted on the quality of education and the quality of graduates.

Representing the private sector, Mr. Sujiva Dewaraja, the Chairman of SLASSCOM (Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies), said the reason for high unemployment among graduates is the lack of soft skills. Expectations and aspirations of degree holders is another reason. Mr. Dewaraja said SLASSCOM member companies had offered jobs to 100 Arts and Commerce graduates, in the IT and BPO sector but the graduates were reluctant to take the offer. Mr. Asoka Hettigoda, the President of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, too, said graduate unemployment was due to attitudes of graduates and also attitudes of the private sector.

Different views were expressed on how the problem could be addressed. Mr. Hettigoda said the parties involved in making curricula should have regular dialogues with the industry and should identify industry skill requirements. Mr. Dewaraja said more attention should be paid to personality and interpersonal skills development. The JVP, FUTA and the students unions meanwhile, maintained the government should increase the budgetary allocation for higher education to 6% of DGP. The JVP also said traditional attitudes need to change and such change must be driven by the political hierarchy and the educated. While the UNP’s MP, an economist Dr. Harsha De Silva agreed the budgetary allocation should be upped, he suggested increasing the allocation to 3%, which the government budget can afford. Dr. De Silva, said the UNP strategy for higher education, would be to introduce a ‘needs based subsidy’ for students.


The subsidy would support those who need assistance, while those who can afford to pay for university will be required to pay their way through their higher studies. This method is expected to assist those in need, while also increasing the university intake.

Minister Dissanayake agreed with the student unions and FUTA that universities are short of some basic facilities, such as hostel facilities. The Minister explained that the increase in university intake has put pressure on existing facilities, as physical resources of universities have not expanded with the expansion in student intake. However, when confronted with the idea of increasing funding for higher education, the Minister pointed out that already universities are not able to spend even their current allocations. Therefore, said the Minister, increasing the allocation will not answer the problem. Dr. S. Batagoda, the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, too, confirmed that universities, for various reasons, are not able to utilise their total annual allocations.

Therefore, instead of increasing allocations, the government says it is targeting the structure of the education system, while also targeting quality of university education. Minister Gunawardena explained that under the Mahinda Chinthana, education reforms during 2012-16, will introduce structural changes at the point of A/L s. These changes would increase the output of students doing Science and Commerce subjects, while reducing the proportion of students doing Arts subjects. To support this move, the government plans to upgrade 5,000 primary schools and 1,000 secondary schools.

Minister Dissanayake said the leadership training programmes were introduced to develop soft skills among university graduates. In addition, the Ministry is trying to establish linkages between private sector and universities.

Minister Alahapperuma opined that the Government alone cannot fulfil the aspirations of youth so that the private sector in collaboration with well-known and reputed universities abroad and local would work together to develop the country, especially the higher and professional education.

Dr. Nawaratne explained that the current system of teaching at universities is highly teacher centred and said the Ministry of Higher Education is trying to encourage a shift towards a student-centred mode of teaching. Universities have also been asked to calculate the employability of their graduates, to increase awareness among university authorities about the marketability of their graduates.

Prof. Gamini Samaranayake, the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Sri Lanka, the body responsible for regulating all State universities in Sri Lanka, said universities should be accountable for what they produce, but graduates should also change their attitudes and accept the need for soft skills, such as English communication skills. Prof. Samaranayake said under the government’s education reforms programme, the target is to increase Sri Lanka’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) into university from the current 14% to 20% by 2016, and 30% by 2020. The UGC is also trying to improve the quality of both internal and external degree programmes.

All the stakeholders agree that education is a prerequisite for future growth of the country. The UNP’s Dr. De Silva for instance, said “education is the most fundamental issue we are going to face in the next 25 years.” Dr. Nawaratne, said under the President’s Mahinda Chinthana concept, the country is trying to develop naval, aviation, energy, business and commerce, and knowledge hubs in Sri Lanka and higher education will become pivotal in achieving this vision.

While the JVP, FUTA and students unions are against private higher education establishments, the UNP, the business sector and government actors points out that liberalising higher education, under proper regulations, will widen opportunities for all, particularly Sri Lanka’s future generations, by allowing more people to access higher education.

Despite this polarisation of opinion regarding private higher education establishments, all stakeholders are in agreement on the importance of developing a skilled workforce. Dr. Batagoda noted that out of 345,000 children born in Sri Lanka every year, only around 32,000 getting a higher education and about 32% of the children born in the country join society unskilled. Compared to South Koreas, 85% of the population being graduates and almost 100% being technically qualified; in Sri Lanka, only about 8% of the population are graduates. Therefore, the government plans to double the annual university intake from about 22,000 to 42,000, by 2020, while re-directing all others towards vocational training.

Mr. Hettigoda noted that societal needs have changed dramatically from 50 years ago and said these changes have generated new skill requirements. However, said Mr. Hettigoda, the education system has created an elitism through the higher education system, where people feel non-professional jobs are not recognised. Therefore, Sri Lanka as a society needs to recognise employments such as electricians, plumbers, masons, mechanics and other skilled categories. He pointed out that local industries will not be able to survive unless demand for skilled labour supplies are met and may even be forced to import foreign labour to meet the skill gap.

J Baratha DodankotuwaEditor-in-Chief ‘Business Dialogue’


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NSBM Magazine “Business Dialogue”

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