The way Forward Sri Lanka needs to establish Good Private Universities, Professional Institutions and Technical Colleges
The free education should be protected and developed further to cater to the talented students and it is important to further develop free education to be more systematic and produce employable graduates. The sad part of this process is that every child in Sri Lanka will not get the same opportunity to achieve what he or she would like to be. Out of the 250,000 students or so who sit the GCE Advanced Level examination only 25,000 get selected to state universities every year. There are 225,000 students who do not get an opportunity to enter state owned universities every year. This is the majority of the student population (225,000) who are in disarray and in dire need of quality education. Sri Lankan students wishing to achieve higher or tertiary level education have had two options; either perform well in their Advanced Level examination and gain eligibility to enter a state university or travel overseas and attend a reputed foreign university.
While both these options are unquestionably valuable and there is a large segment of the student population who are barred from travelling down either path, and are left to fend for themselves as best as they can. What happens to those talented students who fail to gain entry to a state university by one or two points/ marks? Or those students whose parents are unable to afford the exorbitant expenses to send these students to a university overseas?
Dr. Indunil Liyanage, Chief Marketing Officer at a leading state bank in Sri Lanka poses these questions to every intellectual, parent and authority figure in the country. Drawing a bell curve, Dr. Liyanage demonstrates that the number of students who do not attend either a state or overseas university is drastically higher than those who attend state universities. A part of the way forward the Government will have to formalize modalities to encourage private universities, foreign universities, professional institutions and technical colleges to set up campuses in the country similar to Malaysia. Malaysia has campuses of Monash University Malaysia and Manipal University Malakka and several other foreign universities. The Government will have to set up a Council of Higher Education in Sri Lanka under the University Grants Commission (UGC) to encourage and establish private universities and other institutions in the country. This council will have to introduce a set of rules and regulations to establish private universities/ institu- tions similar to those in the Asian region or in USA or UK (adopting best practices from developed countries).
Sri Lanka should open up for private medial colleges/ institutions to enroll more medical students where opportunities are available for them locally and internationally. Other governing professional bodies such as Sri Lanka Medical Council ( SLMC), Council of Legal Education, Institute of Engineers and any other professional bodies will have to be aligned with the latest educational developments to encourage this endeavor. The recognised professional associations and trade unions also need to support this national issue to find a suitable answer within Sri Lanka. Hope those professional bodies, associations and trade unions will take the lead role to provide necessary assistance to the UGC and thereby assisting to solve this national issue stated Dr. Liyanage. Otherwise the country will face a huge unrest among youth looking for a higher education and a way to overcome unemployment and the social issues as we experienced during past. The most important thing is the quality of knowledge you obtained from the education and it is immaterial whether it is from a Government or a private university/ institute. Either party could provide a quality education to students. There is no Government knowledge or private knowledge. The knowledge is the knowledge you grain from quality higher education stated Dr. Liyanage.
The Government also has a huge responsibility to protect free education in the country by allocating enough funds every year. “A stretched elastic will eventually snap,” said Dr. Liyanage, stating that the Government cannot take sole responsibility to provide free education to every student in the country who is unable to enter into a state university by allocating tax payers money. He suggests that a public-private partnership between the Government and reputed international universities or Sri Lankan investors who would like to set up private universities in the country would be more effective. Dr. Liyanage proposes that the Government should have about 25-30% stake in those universities/ institutions similar to corporations established right now. With the Government providing the land, electricity and other facilities and the university providing a quality education, the exorbitant tuition fees that students pay to get a degree would be minimized. The involvement of the Government should be in the form of subsidizing the tuition and scholarships to the really talented. Since the Government will not have to spend taxpayer’s money for the development of the infrastructure and operating cost of these private universities/ institutions the Government could utilize the funds saved for subsidizing tuition and awarding scholarships.
The country needs ‘job creators’ in the place of ‘job seekers’, departing from the templated education that students are accustomed to. Furthermore, entering into a public- private partnership with globally accepted universities, Sri Lanka will be able to attract foreign students from around the world to attend those universities/ institutions and the foreign currency flowing into the country may increase. Our children can study in world class universities within Sri Lanka. Additionally, it may prevent brain drain and the national income flowing out of the country every year.
Dr. Liyanage firmly believes that the involvement of multiple stakeholders ranging from the Government to intellectuals, academics, educationalists, experts in education to parents to students, various trade unions, societies, interested parties may ensure finding a suitable solution to this issue as soon as possible. However, at present, it is only an idea that lives within the heart of Dr. Liyanage. Therefore he invites the readers to enter into a discussion/ dialogue or a debate regarding the merits of the system, improve it and work towards turning it into reality to have a better higher education system with public-private partnership for future generations in our country.