The Role of the Private Sector in University Research In Sri Lanka

by Dr Jayaratne Pinikahana

(February 23, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) The higher education sector has been at the centre of considerable attention over the last six months or so mainly because of a number of new initiatives that are being introduced by the ministry of higher education such as the private university project, updating 6 universities to the world class status, the invitation to the expatriate academics to return to the country despite the violation of their bonds, and the tax exemption of private s companies that are willing to contribute to research in universities.

As Dr Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education has indicated to a local daily the other day, any private sector company, or organization will be given tax exemption if they contribute to enhance the research capacity in our university system. For example, as Dr Nawaratne stated, if a private company contributes one million rupees to enhance the research capacity in a selected university, that company will be given a tax exemption of 2 million rupees. This seems to be a great incentive for the private sector to join in the university system in order to enhance the mutual collaboration between these two important sectors of the country. Among the new ideas came out of the ministry of higher education in recent months, this seems to be an excellent news for university research if implemented with a vision and a proper plan designed by the university sector.

Status-quo of university research in Sri Lanka

The universities have been the epi-centre for research all over the world over the last one hundred years or so and many new discoveries have been made possible through research conducted in many great universities on the globe. However, Sri Lankan universities are lagging behind in terms of research and development even from many third world universities in the region. One of the reasons for poor performance in relation to research and development in our university system is that the government’s total contribution to research as a percentage from GDP is very low compared to other countries even in the region. For example Sri Lanka contributes only .17% from GDP whereas Singapore contributes 2.3%, South Korea, 2.9% and China, 1.3% from their GDP for research. A recent report published by the Ministry of Technology & Research in Sri Lanka revealed that Sri Lanka has only 287 researchers per million which is less than the world average of 894. The average number of researchers per million in the developed world and the developing world is 3272 and 374 respectively. It is clear from these statistics that Sri Lankan situation is worse than the average third world situation. The most alarming situation is that it is getting worse in recent years. For example, in 1996 Sri Lanka had 6000 full time researchers including university researchers but by 2006 this number declined to 4200!

The current university system is characterized by a dearth of quality researchers owing to lack of funding for research. Our universities have not got a big chunk of money that can be allocated for research and only a few small grants are offered by some universities on a competitive basis. A handful of researchers manage to get reasonably big research grants either from local or foreign funding organizations with great difficulty following a long peer-reviewed process. Although the actual figures are not available, anecdotally, it is clear that the number of research-active academics in our university system is proportionately low and some academics are not involved in any research at all. This pathetic situation should be changed if we are to remain competitive on the world stage and hopefully, it can be changed with the assistance of the private sector.

What needs to be done

Presumably we need to start from scratch and a totally ‘new research culture’ needs to be introduced into our university system by setting up a fully-pledged research branch headed by a Director of Research in each university. This should not be a non-academic establishment administered by an Assistant Registrar. In western universities, research is as equally important as teaching and in many research oriented universities a deputy Vice-chancellor has been appointed for research. And yet, there are research only academics who are not involved in teaching at all.

The proposed research branch should coordinate all academic research activities of the university including handling of research income, research grants, private sector involvement in research, intellectual property rights, human research ethics approvals etc. Each university needs to set up a research fund administered by the director of research with contributions from the government, private sector, foreign organizations, philanthropic organizations, NGOs etc from which university researchers are able to apply for a competitive research grant. The fund raising for research should be a main agenda item of the university calendar in each year.

The involvement of private sector in university research is extremely desirable and they will be encouraged to contribute to research following the tax exemption proposed by Dr Nawaratne. Within the research branch, a sub-section specifically created for private sector research involvements can be established with a sectional head whom could coordinate and promote all private sector involvements.

The university-private sector research project should involve all research-active academics in all universities. Each university can establish a ‘university-private sector research forum’ where both parties are committed to work through for the mutual advantage and benefits. At the initial stage, a memorandum of understanding between the university and the potential private sector partners who are willing to join the forum should be prepared and signed and most importantly, it should be made clear at this stage that no financial commitment should be made to get into the forum. The opportunities that the university can offer in terms of research personal, research skills, infrastructure facilities including labs, various equipment etc can be demonstrated at the initial meeting of the forum while the private sector representatives do have the same opportunity to demonstrate their needs, opportunities and financial commitments. Once the university-private sector research forum is established, the academics who are keen to pursue research along the lines demonstrated by private sector representatives have the opportunity to design a few projects with a representative of private sector. In the end a panel of experts from both organizations can review the merits of the applications for funding and finalize the successful candidates.

By establishing a ‘university-private sector research forum’ the industry gets the benefits of some of the brightest brains of the country while the university gets the much-needed financial assistance for research. This forum should be a central hub for information dissemination, policy analysis & research, technical innovation & technology transfer, institutional capacity building and student placements. Through this forum, university departments can link them up with private sector in socio-economic development by initiating demand driven joint research to influence socio economic development of the country.

According to a recent news item, Ruhuna University’s Engineering Faculty has conducted research on ‘manufacturing paper’ by using some ‘invasive aquatic plant species’ as raw materials. This piece of research has been conducted by a fourth year student, S.H.C.S. Gunawardena supervised by Professor Champa Nawaratne. This seems to be a great piece of research conducted in a non-metropolitan university in the southern Sri Lanka presumably without any financial assistance from any external source. This is a good example around which a collaborative arrangement between the university of Ruhuna and a private sector organization can be successfully established for the benefit of both organizations. As a former member of staff at Ruhuna University, I am really fascinated by the standards of research they maintained in all faculties. I would therefore urge private sector organizations to contribute to enhance the research capacity at Ruhuna University at this hour of great need.

The university-private sector collaboration is vital for research and development in any university in the world and it is very common not only in the developed world but in some developing countries as well. For example in China an estimated 5000 private companies are directly linked to academic institutions as joint enterprises. Even in Indonesia and Jordan, a large number of pharmaceutical companies are working with universities to develop a cheaper drugs for many common diseases. Sri Lanka imports a great majority of drugs from India draining through a millions of rupees every year despite the fact that we have the best brains in the country in seven medical faculties in the country. If our universities with medical faculties can collaborate with main pharmaceutical companies in the world to establish some joint ventures for research and the development of cheaper drugs, it will retain millions of rupees in our country. And yet, collaboration for drug research with pharmaceutical companies will pave the way for medical research in general once the linkage is established and sustained.

In many countries where a university-private sector research collaboration is established, the university involved gets funding for research and the private company involved gets access to the latest products which can be patented and commercialized. In joint ventures of this sort, the patent rights should be negotiated with the commercial partner. Usually, patent rights of new technology or innovation rest with the university involved but the owner of the patents companies can use or sell them to commercial partners.

Good academics need to be at the cutting edge of research. I don’t see a rigid dividing line between research and teaching and good teachers need to be at the cutting edge of scholarship in order to help students see the dynamism of academic work. The university teachers’ primary role is to juxtapose their pedagogical role with new revolutionary findings from their own research.

( The writer is formerly a senior lecturer in sociology at Ruhuna University. He can be reached at jpinikahana@gmail.com )