Producing Management Graduates of Global Quality: Challenges for Sri Lanka Universities

“Wanted! A nation with empathy” via http://www.island. lk/index.php?page_cat=articledetails&page=article-details&code_ title=201032). So there is a real need for adaptability in subject combinations with Glocalization.

PERSONAL - SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY VS SIGALOVADA SUTTA

In this context as a graduate you need to identify the real meaning of “Responsibility” . The Association of American Colleges and Universities categorised five dimensions of personal and social responsibility (refer below)

Five Key Dimensions of Personal and Social Responsibility

Striving for excellence: developing a strong work ethic and consciously doing one’s very best in all aspects of college Cultivating personal and academic integrity: recognising and acting on a sense of honour, ranging from honesty in relationships to principled engagement with a formal academic honour code Contributing to a larger community: recognising and acting on one’s responsibility to the educational community and to the wider society—local, national, and global

Taking seriously the perspectives of others: recognizing and acting on the obligation to inform one’s own judgment; engaging diverse and competing perspectives as a resource for learning, citizenship, and work

Developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning: developing ethical and moral reasoning in ways that incorporate the previous four dimensions, and using such reasoning in learning and in life Align with this in the article of “Strengthening the Foundations of Students’ Excellence, Integrity, and Social Contribution” Colby and Sullivan(2009) explain the importance of “practical reasoning”. Here you can see their argument:

“Students need to experience engagement with the world so that they grasp the practical, personal, and moral significance of what they are learning. Hence, the importance of practical reasoning. We see this in the best kind of preparation for a career: teaching practices that place students in their future roles as businesspeople or nurses or teachers or other professionals so that they can experience the many dimensions of knowledge, skill, and responsibility needed to practice these demanding occupations (Colby and Sullivan,2009).”

Moreover, the future the researcher can study “Five Key Dimensions of Personal and Social Responsibility” with The Sigalovada Sutta (Advice to Sigala) in Digha Nikaya which more philosophically and more broadly articulated about how people need to respect the society by having a better understanding of the duties and responsibilities of individuals.

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS)

The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”. The SDGS, set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and intended to be achieved by the year 2030. Refer below for 17 Sustainable Development Goals..(https://www. un.org/sustainabledevelopment/ sustainable-development-goals/)

As per the Research Repository of the University of the West of England(uwe), Bristol they have examined its portfolio of programs of study, its public, and community engagements and its research activities. In so doing it has created a baseline assessment of the contribution of its arts, creative industries, education, health, science, business, law, environment and technology disciplines to meeting the Sdgs(https://uwe-repository. worktribe.com/output/919107)

Refer below for one of the section which University of the West of England (UWE) addresses the SDGS in their entity with different categories.

GLOBAL MANAGEMENT GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES

This context is important to see what sort of attributes can be considered as important to be with Global Management Graduate. Interestingly the article published by Dee Allen and Colin Simpson discuss attributes of Business management graduate for the year 2020. Refer below for the details,

Source : Allen, Dee and Simpson, Colin G ORCID: 0000000285913647 (2019) Inquiry Into Graduate Attributes: Reviewing the Formal and Informal Management Curricula. Journal of Management Education, 43 (4). pp. 330358

In that article, they categorized system thinking, Global Literacy, Change Capability, Digital Literacy, Ethical Entrepreneurship, Critical thinking and Business –ready Mind-set as main attributes for business management graduate. At the moment the University Grant Commission(ugc) in Sri Lanka also have some twelve categories of learning outcome comes under core areas such as

1. knowledge

2. skills

3. attitudes ,values, professionalism and vision for life,

4. Mind-set, and paradigm.

All above are targeting generally for all graduates and there is a need to specify this into management graduate accordingly. . So there is a challenge for Sri Lankan Universities to see how they can adapt certain flavour of this into our(sri Lankan) own equation aligning with our own value system and culture.

CONCLUSION

So there are many challenges for Sri Lankan Universities. In Sri Lanka, we can witness many people talking about soft skills. Furthermore we can observe section of people criticising the output of National Universities claiming that most of the graduates do not have “Soft Skills”. The same set of people define “soft skills “as “Language competency and IT skills”. But I do not agree with this. We need to read the “Big Picture”. The “Big picture “is not “Employability” , It is something we need to investigate with many perspectives . So there is a challenge for Sri Lankan Universities in Business to produce a global graduate with common sense. We should have a paradigm shift in Higher Education ! (This article is based on a Guest Lecture done for Faculty of Management, University of Peradeniya)