(October, Melbourne . Sri Lanka Guardian) This has been an ‘on again off again’ topic in Sri Lanka for the last 30 years or so and now it seems to be ‘on again’ again for some time! particularly after Mr S.B. Dissanayake became the new higher education minister in June 2010. Although many commentators of the calibre of Dayan Jayatileke, Carlo Fonseka, Kumar David, Jehan Perera, Sumanasiri Liyanage, Malinda Seneviratne, H.L.D. Mahandapala et al, are busy at contributing to almost daily changes in politics, very few academics or political commentators have contributed to the debate of private universities in Sri Lanka. It is disappointing to see that none of the recognised scholars has contributed to this debate so far and they seemed to have passed the buck to the minister!
The private university project is a major educational policy issue that has been under scrutiny for the last 30 years. This started with the abrupt North Colombo Private Medical College in 1980. In the face of strong student protest, the government at the time decided to shut it down and amalgamate it with Kelaniya University. However, over the last several years a large number of degree awarding private colleges with foreign affiliations have sprung up through which a considerable number of local students can get access to higher education. According to the minister of higher education, there are 78 private higher educational institutions in the country but the ministry or the University Grant Commission has little or no control over these institutions nor are they bound to maintain any standard or quality assurance of the degrees or certificates they award.
Three typologies
The proposed private university project in a way supersedes these existing institutions and its aim is not to establish ‘degree shops’ on the basis of ‘buy one and get one free’ for those who could afford the private education. I can see three alternative but integrated projects with the whole idea of private universities.
(1) Establishing a few branches of foreign universities of international repute in the country . As I understand, the discussions are being held by the ministry with a number of foreign universities of repute including Monash University in Australia, China’s Beijing State University and Manifai Medical College in Bangalore, India with a view to setting up branches in Sri Lanka. They have been already promised free land and tax concessions. One of the conditions of approving branches of foreign universities is the guarantee that each university needs to offer 20% places for local students on full scholarship basis. A few half scholarships should also be negotiated during the process. In simple arithmetic, if 1000 students are enrolled in a private university, 200 places should be allocated for those who were unable to get into the state university system. They should be the next best students who had the highest marks at the A level. It is highly likely that the majority of these 200 students will remain in the country after graduation.
(2) Establishing local private universities in affiliation with local state universities. For example, the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council has decided to set up a private university under the purview of the provincial council. To start with, this university can be affiliated with the Sabaragamuwa state university until it gets the full accreditation from the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council. Under this scheme, each provincial council can set up one private university in collaboration with private and public sector.
(3) Establishing private arms of existing state universities. For example ‘Monash Private’ is the private arm of Monash University in Australia. Similar arrangements are already in practice in the hospital sector whereby private consultancy suits are run within the premises of free public hospitals. e.g. Jayawardenepura hospital. Under this arrangement, for example any state university can set up a private arm where students can get access to higher education for a reasonable fee. At the moment, most universities have established ‘external degree sections’ or distance educational facilities minus any physical space for students. These universities can streamline their external degree programs and convert them into private arms with reasonable access to infrastructural facilities such as lecture halls, libraries etc for students at their convenience. In many western countries, the university education is not free and students need to pay a range of fees depending on the course they pursue. In Australia, the cheapest university course costs approximately $4000 (Rs 400,000) per year and some students need to pay it up front.
Plight of university aspirants
In Sri Lanka, two hundred and fifty thousand students sat for G.C.E.A level examination in 2009 and 130,000 were qualified for university entry. Out of 130,000 students only 22,000 were able to get into the state universities. The remaining 108,000 students were left out and the trend continues with ever increasing numbers. University student unions are in the constant battle against the government asking them to provide university education for all who are qualified. Theoretically, their argument is right but the practical reality is that they are in the losing battle every year without realising the enormity of the problem. Slogans should be matched with practical solutions and empty rhetoric of student leaders can not solve the plight faced by the disappointed university aspirants in Sri Lanka. The idea of expanding the existing state university system has hit the wall with shortages of qualified staff, infrastructural facilities, equipment and hostel facilities. When it comes to the budgetary allocation, the higher education does not get the lion’s share and the allocations each university gets is not enough to expand the existing universities but to survive.
Depletion of foreign exchange
Currently, around 15,000-20,000 million rupees are being taken away annually by Sri Lankan students who are going to study in developed countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and United Kingdom and in developing countries like India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In other words, we lose $ 150 millions foreign exchange every year as a result of migrating our students to foreign countries for higher education. The flip side is that the majority of these students never return to Sri Lanka. In my personal experience, I have not seen any single student who comes from Sri Lanka to Australia for higher studies go back after graduation. They can even work 20 hours per week and after graduation they can apply for permanent residency if the criteria are met. The reading on the wall is that almost everybody gets it in the end! So when calculating the net loss to the country, $150 million should be added to the total value of ‘brain drain’ which is in anybody’s calculation a few more times than this amount.
Why not private universities?
We have private schools (so called internationals) private hospitals, private banks, private post offices, private radio stations & television stations, private transport services etc and there is no reason why you should single out private universities from the long list of private enterprises in Sri Lanka. In a way, private universities are the logical extension of private schools. We have already established private schools for those who could afford private education but we haven’t produced them with tertiary (university) educational facilities. They have to sit for foreign examinations such as London A level and find a foreign university for higher studies. There are over 100 ‘international’ schools in Sri Lanka but not a single recognised university to cater for those who are leaving private schools. This is a serious flaw in the higher educational policy in Sri Lanka that needs to be rectified by establishing private universities.
Who can get higher education in private universities? Well, the opponents argue that only the social elitists can study in these institutions. This is a common argument raised against private universities across the world. In the face value, this is a misconception that only the rich can get access to private colleges. Those who can’t afford to pay the fees can apply for a full or a half scholarship. It is happening right now in elite national schools in the country.
JVP Factor
Student politics in Sri Lanka over the last three decades has been dominated by JVP led student councils. They have been ferociously against the private university project right from the beginning who successfully campaigned for the annihilation of Ragama Private Medical College which was established in early 1980’s. University students are a privileged segment of society and some of whom are not prepared to share their ‘privilege’ with others. At the time, medical students of all state universities with the backing of JVP student movement vehemently protested against the Ragama College until its premature death (sorry I can’t remember the year!) partly because they did not want to share their privileged status of medical education with a few students whose parents were a wee bit richer than their counterparts!
Although the parliamentary representation of the JVP has been depleted to a considerable degree, their influence in student politics in universities is still intact. As far as private university project is concerned, JVP led student lobbies have already expressed their anger and protest against any form of private university education and as usual they have threatened with student strikes and other disruptive activities. Not surprisingly enough, no any other social groupings or organisations have expressed their concerns about private universities.
Personality Factor
This time around, the strength of JVP movement in universities and within the wider community has been greatly diminished and there is every likelihood of massive premonition of failure of their collective campaign with equally determined minister of higher education. Personality factor plays a very significant role in any human intervention. Current higher education minister should not be matched with any ex ministers and he is prepared to play a completely different ball game with JVP lobbyists this time around. He has got the right dose of intelligence, determination and toughness to finish off the job hell for leather once and for all. Most importantly, Dr Sunil Nawaratne, Secretary to the ministry of higher education and Prof Gamini Samaranayake, Chairman, University Grant Commission have got a good handle on this crucial project and they seem to be prepared to burn the candle at both ends to make it a great success.
Free higher education
One of the commonest and oldest arguments against private universities is that it might seriously damage the universal free education. This seems to a prima facie obsolescent characterisation of the whole debate of private universities. It is inconceivable how could private universities destroy the free higher education provided by the existing 15 state universities. Potentially, the most likely scenario that would result in by establishing private universities in a capitalist economic system is the escalation of competition between private and state universities thereby improving the quality of higher education particularly in state universities. In capitalist economic theory, the competition enhances the quality of goods and services and without competition, the demand for goods with even low quality is higher. Competition by itself is conducive in terms of improving the quality and standards of goods and services. Any changes that might occur in state universities as a result of establishing private universities should be considered as positive developments in the right direction rather than depletion of their services.
English is the key
The eloquence in English is a prerequisite for ‘international graduates’ who are readily employable in any part of the globe. If the graduates generated by both state and private universities are adequately equipped with eloquence of English, they can find jobs with ease not only in Sri Lanka but in many middle eastern countries, Africa, South Korea, Singapore etc as well. Globalisation opens up the world and our graduates need to look beyond our shores for employment. The fear that private university graduates will be more effective competitors in the job marker with those who are graduated from state universities mostly in Sinhala and Tamil mediums is unfounded. Again, any thing can happen in a fiercely competitive market and as a solution, English medium should be introduced as the medium of instruction in every state university. When private and state universities produce graduates in all faculties in English medium, the dichotomy between graduates on language lines will loom to disappear. As Anuruddha Pradeep once said, if our state universities were not prepared to change in the changing world environment, they would prevail like village ‘corporative shops’ with no customers! The state universities need to face up to change and there won’t be any easy way out.
Education as commodity
Within the changing international economic order, education has become a ‘commodity’ that can be promoted, sold and purchased. Most developed countries as well as some developing countries such as China, Malaysia, and Singapore sell education to students mostly in developing countries. It is clear that the education is a sizable portion of their GDP. A large number of foreign students are studying in Malaysian universities who are coming from many Asian and African countries. They hold many promotional campaigns on an annual basis in many target countries in Asia and Africa to attract as many students as possible. There is no doubt that we can do the same and promote our state and private universities in some selected countries. In addition, we could offer a few hundred free scholarships to foreign students in developing countries as a promotional activity.
Currently, there are 25 million higher educational students on foreign soil and of these 25 million, 2 hundred thousand students are from India, our neighbour. If we can attract at leat 5% of this potential Indian students (10,000), that itself is more than enough for a few private universities. In addition, we could attract some students from Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Burma etc. What we really need is an effective promotional campaign in these countries.
Quality and Standards
One of the strongest and profoundly valid criticism levelled against private university project is the quality and standards of degrees they offer in many different fields most critically in medicine. The research experience in other countries shows some mixed results. In some private universities in certain countries, the standards and quality of their degrees are better than their state counterparts and vice versa is found in some other private universities. What is needed here is to establish a full pledged Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council (QAAC) with all necessary powers to implement quality requirements of these institutions. They should be able to oversee the functioning of entire academic programs. When approving the applications for setting up new private universities, each application must be thoroughly vetted before the approval is given. For example, the Nigerian National University Commission in 2005 approved just 7 applications out of 145 institutions who had sought the permission. Bangladesh seems to have gone too far and in there out of 77 universities, 54 are private universities and only 23 are state universities. Here, we need to get the balance right and very stringent criteria must be followed in approving any application to make sure that things would not fall through the cracks!
In addition, the financial viability of private universities is crucial in terms of long term survival. The failure to maintain a strong financial viability in any private enterprise is the recipe for disaster and the government needs to make sure that they are not going to add any more statistics to the failed ventures in the country such as Mihin Air. Clearly, the private university project has got an element of risk but to me, risks are far too outweighed by the benefits. We need to take the risk and somebody said that the ‘biggest risk in life was not taking any risk at all’. The project is challenging and it involves a complex set of circumstances that should be overcome during the process. I am an optimist and I am more than sanguine that private university project shall succeed in the end with the backing of fair-mined people in the country.
(The writer can be reached at jpinikahana@epilepsy.asn.au )
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