Why Sri Lanka
needs private universities? Sri
Lanka needs more universities and the annual intake
of students to the universities be increased.
Considering the number of people per universities in
other countries, Sri Lanka needs to establish a
minimum of new 40 universities. This is not an easy
task for the government, with other priorities in
health, transport, and infrastructure development
sector, etc. to invest in 40 more new universities
and increase the current intake. The government has
to think innovatively to cope with this massive
demand for university education
By Ajantha Premarathna
MBA (Sri J.), FIQS-SL, FRICS, ACIArb. Chartered
Quantity Surveyor
The topic of private universities has surfaced again
in Sri Lanka following government recognition of
private medical college in Malabe, South Asian
Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM). There
had been several arguments presented by the both
parties to prove their case. Opposing parties to
Private Medical College primarily are medical
doctors and in general undergraduates, leftist
political parties, mainly JVPers who are opposing to
any kind of privatisation in Sri Lanka.
The main reason of them to oppose to the opening for
private investments in university education is that
they think that private universities would harm the
present free education system in Sri Lanka. I was a
student fighter in my school and tertiary education
time against privatisation of education in order to
safeguard the free education that I have enjoyed 30
years before. The time has now come to explore and
analyze, whether this slogan still valid to the
present global trend of tertiary education and
social culture.
Free education
The fact that a significant number of GCE (A/L)
students, who qualify for university education, fail
to secure a place in the universities in the country
has created a major social and economic drawback
within the society. Although, the government has
provided free education at primary and secondary
levels since the beginning of the free education
policy, it has failed to make free education
available to all those eligible to receive a
university education.
Lack of university education for the majority of
Sri Lankans is a national issue which has an impact
on all sectors of society. Compared to other
regional countries, the number of people with a
university education in Sri Lanka is extremely low.
The crisis is being discussed from the 1970s to
date. Numerous proposals have been discussed and
attempts made to implement them. The proposal made
by the then government in the form of a White Paper
to expand the education system in Sri Lanka in the
early 1980s is an example of such failed efforts. In
the recent past limitations in university
admissions, the quality of university education and
discipline of undergraduates have been discussed in
many national forums. In these forums great emphasis
was given to inadequacy of university admissions.
With the expansion of International Schools, and
more and more GCE (A/L) students being left high and
dry without further sustainable directions, and
without university education opportunities, the
seriousness of this issue is of very close concern
to the general public. Unlike a few decades back,
contemporary society is well aware about this issue.
Therefore, a policy decision to increase university
education opportunities for Sri Lankans would be a
warmly welcomed by the general public.
Current policy
The education system in Sri Lanka cannot be
discussed without reviewing or referring to the free
education policy in place within the island for more
than 60 years. Free education is part and parcel of
the fabric of Sri Lankan life. Any changes to the
current policy would not be welcome by Marxist
political parties, graduates, and undergraduates.
The free education policy has provided 100% primary
and secondary education. However, it has not been
able to provide a similar status to university
education. The architects of free education did not
envisage the influx of a massive student population
from secondary education to university education.
Further, they did not formulate a sustainable
solution for those students who qualify for tertiary
education. Consequently, around 85% of the students
who qualify for university education fall by the
wayside. This has created the following social and
economic issues within Sri Lankan society:
(i) Unrest arising from the deprivation of a
university education for the youth was politically
exploited by Marxist political parties on several
occasions in 1971 and the late 1980s.
(ii) A shortage of university educated people in Sri
Lanka compared to other regional countries. This is
mainly because only 0.001% of the population of Sri
Lanka enters universities each year whereas in other
regional countries it is nearly 5% of the
population.
(iii) Increasing unemployment among the youth and
growing fears of a bleak future also cause deep
frustration.
(iv) In this unfortunate situation, opportunistic
institutions will lure these frustrated and
misguided youths to various unorganised and
unaccredited so-called higher educational courses.
(v) Over as many as 10,000 students who were not
enrolled for free university education would go to
foreign countries for university education or follow
foreign university degrees within Sri Lanka
annually.
(vi) The brain drain from the country is exacerbated
as these students who left the country for foreign
university education and children of Sri Lankan
expatriates who are also studying in foreign
universities do not return to Sri Lanka following
their graduation.
(xi) The unnecessary expenditure on GCE (AL) private
tuition and stiff competition to enter the
universities have produced an imbalance in Sri
Lankan society and disturbed the conventional social
and family life of parents and their children.
A close analysis of the reality of the free
education policy shows, in fact, that there is no
100% free education in Sri Lanka today. School
admission charges, private tuition fees in almost
all the subjects from primary to secondary school
level, other fees and expenses have to be incurred
by parents under the so-called free education
system. Further, since it is being delivered free,
the quality of the education has declined. Students,
especially those preparing to university, have to
rely heavily on paid private tuition. This is the
case in even primary and other secondary levels of
education. Further, to some extent both primary and
secondary education systems have been “privatised”
through private schools and international schools.
However, no such private institutions have yet been
established in a regulated manner to grant
university degrees Therefore, students leave the
country annually to follow university education in a
foreign country. This drains billion of foreign
exchange from the country.
In view of the above, Sri Lanka needs more
universities and the annual intake of students to
the universities be increased. Considering the
number of people per universities in other
countries, Sri Lanka needs to establish a minimum of
new 40 universities. This is not an easy task for
the government, with other priorities in health,
transport, and infrastructure development sector,
etc. to invest in 40 more new universities and
increase the current intake. The government has to
think innovatively to cope with this massive demand
for university education. It has to formulate a new
radical policy objectively to increase opportunities
for university education. The effective use of
existing limited resources, Public Private
Partnership (PPP), private sector investments, and
allowing recognised foreign universities to
establish in Sri Lanka are a few such policy
decisions that need to be taken immediately.
Private universities
As the government permitted the private sector to
embark into hospitals, transportation (private
buses), primary and secondary schools (private and
international schools) it should open the door for
the private sector to set up universities as well.
This is the trend followed by other countries. In
India private higher education institutes and
colleges are over 10 times as many as government
universities (337:3616), in Pakistan it is almost
twice (547:957) and in Bangladesh, it is 21:199 is
nearly 10 times. Interestingly, in these countries
the per capita of Gross National Product is well
below that of Sri Lanka and yet they manage to
promote the private sector in university education.
Innovative and forward thinking visionary leaders
are pouring billions of dollars into higher
education, particularly for science and technology.
Partnerships are being established between the
universities of those countries and reputed
institutions like INSEAD (the famous Business School
in France), the Sorbonne, Monash, and MIT. According
to the London-based ”Observatory on Borderless
Higher Education’’, China is leading the race in
international higher education with increasing
numbers of foreign campuses attracting star-class
researchers and academics.
There are many factors which dictate the
necessity for private sector investment in
university education in Sri Lanka:
(i) The limited number of seats in the public
universities.
(ii) It will attract qualified high school students
who are unable to gain admission to public
universities.
(iii) Many students are not admitted to their
preferred programmes and to their preferred
university. They will opt for private university
over the free public university as they can choose
their preferred degree programme in line with their
talent.
(iv) Private universities would have selection of
more practical and job-oriented programmes.
(v) Private universities turn out graduates with a
better command of language and better developed soft
skills which are important to employers.
(vi) Student unrest, strikes, and violence are
forcing regular closure of public universities,
resulting in lengthening the time to complete the
course compared to private institutions.
(vii) Influence of political parties, particularly
parties like the JVP, disrupt the normal functioning
of the government universities would not effect to
education of private universities.
(viii) Practice of violence and brutal “ragging”
would not be in the private universities.
Compared with other middle income countries such as
those in East Asia or Latin America, the private
sector in Sri Lanka still has plenty of room to
improve. This new trend has been adopted in those
countries and many other developed and developing
countries. While the public sector education remains
as the norm in many countries, the private sector
plays a significant and growing role.
Similarly, there are a number of advantages in
establishing private universities in Sri Lanka.
These advantages range from social to economic
benefits: (i) Private universities when established
in Sri Lanka, it will compel public universities to
maintain high standards, thereby gradually they
reaching top world ranking, (ii) Due to
inter-university competition and in order to survive
in a competitive market by private universities, it
will have to increase their quality and standards;
thereby the students and the country will derive the
benefits of quality outputs from the universities,
(iii) Sri Lankan students who could not enter public
universities would be able to graduate locally
rather than going out of the country, (iv) It will
attract more private sector investment, (v) The
government would be able to provide more funds for
the expansion of the present public universities,
(vi) More job opportunities will be created in
academic and non-academic fields in the private
universities, (vii). Students would get high quality
university education as the private universities
have to maintain commercial sustainability and
compete with other universities locally as well as
internationally, (viii) The brain drain will be
minimised as most of the students who have not
received public university education will be able to
enroll with private universities within the country,
(viii) Those students who have not received an
opportunity to enter government universities would
have an alternative route to obtain a university
degree locally, (ix) As the students are studying
locally, it will retain a considerable amount of
foreign exchange within the country.
By arranging student bank loans at very minimal
interest, scholarships by the private university
itself or organisations, scholarships based on
merit, etc. would safeguard the free education
concept to an extent within the private university
culture. Furthermore, measures to expand private
sector universities and colleges could include
establishing a sound quality assurance and
accreditation system, and introducing voucher,
stipend and loan schemes for students enrolled in
private universities.
The government shall set up a policy for
establishing the private universities and should
dictate in which places those universities should be
established. At present, most of the private
education institutions are centered in Colombo.
Therefore, private universities need to be located
in other districts such as Hambantota, Ratnapura,
Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Jaffna and Ampara, etc.
Foreign universities
Another proposal to meet this uphill task is to
allow foreign universities to establish their
branches in Sri Lanka. In the context of the higher
education revolution that is taking place around the
globe, countries such as Egypt, UAE, Qatar, China,
India, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore have
opened their doors to foreign higher education
institutions like never before. International icons
such as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Monash, and
LSE are invited and actively solicited by these
governments to set up campuses in those countries.
The Sri Lankan government shall also allow those
renowned universities to be established in Sri
Lanka. Further, the government should not worry
about the quality and standard of such universities
as they have been ranked top in the world.
There are many advantages in inviting those world
class universities to Sri Lanka: (i) At present none
of the public universities have been ranked within
the first 2,000 top universities in the world.
Having established such world top ranking
universities in Sri Lanka, public universities will
be compelled to maintain high standards, thereby
gradually reaching world standards, (ii) Sri Lankan
students would be able to graduate from such top
universities locally rather than going out of the
country, (iii) No government financing is required
to set up those foreign universities; rather the
government could charge some fees from them. This
will ease the budget constraints of the government,
(iv) It will attract foreign investments to Sri
Lanka, (v) The government would be able to provide
more funds for the expansion of public universities,
(vi) More job opportunities will be created in the
academic and non-academic fields, (vii) Students
would get world class, high quality education from
the world’s renowned lecturers, (viii) As most of
the students will be retained in Sri Lanka, the
brain drain will be minimised, (ix) Students who
have not received an opportunity to enter government
universities would have an alternative route to
obtain a foreign university degree locally, (x) As
the students are studying locally, it will retain a
considerable amount of foreign exchange within the
country, (xi) These foreign universities would be
able to attract foreign students which will be an
additional foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka.
The government shall formulate a policy for
establishing the foreign universities and should
decide in which place those universities are to be
established. Presently, most of the core activities
of the economy are centered in Colombo. Therefore,
new foreign universities need to be located in other
districts such as Galle,Hambantota, Ratnapura,
Anuradhapura and Trincomalee, etc.
There are number of private institutions
operating in Sri Lanka, mainly in Colombo, to train
students for foreign university degrees. Students
may follow the full course in Sri Lanka and in some
cases follow the final years of the courses in the
country where the university is located. Further,
the quality of training received in these
institutions is not regulated and there is no proper
quality assurance. Therefore, by establishing
foreign universities formally in Sri Lanka these
deficiencies could be eliminated and it will provide
university education to more Sri Lankans locally.
Private colleges
To establish a full-fledged private university or
foreign university needs considerable capital
investment, resources, and management and operation
expertise. It will take some time to finalise the
formalities before operations. In view of this
long-term investment time lag, it will be more
convenient to establish private colleges to grant
university degrees. These colleges could be
affiliated either to local or international
universities or both. The colleges can specialise in
their respective academic streams such as College of
Estate Management, College of Business Management,
College of Science and Technology, Law Colleges,
Medical Colleges, etc. The quality and standards
shall be on par with the universities to which they
are affiliated.
Establishing private colleges to grant university
degrees has a number of advantages: (i) It will
assist the government to increase university
education to the majority of Sri Lankans, (ii) Since
the respective colleges have expertise or
specialisations, their standards in the specific
sectors would be very high compared to the
traditional universities (iii) The unit cost of a
subject or unit cost of the course would be
comparatively lower than that of private and foreign
universities mainly due to relatively low investment
of capital.
Further to foregoing proposals and analysis, the
authorities shall take each proposal for further
detailed evaluation and shall prepare blueprints for
the implementation within a specific timeframe.
Further, they should be wary about the social unrest
that may follow private sector investment in
university education. Prior to implementing any of
these proposals, a public awareness campaign shall
be launched in order to educate the general public.
Emphasis shall be given to the lack of government
funds or limited funds and resources to expand the
current public universities and to establish new
universities. Therefore, the mindset of the general
public must be taken into account in considering new
innovative proposals like establishing private
universities and colleges, and conducting dual
sessions (day and evening and night in the
government universities.
If the decision makers make a serious attempt to
resolve the chronic crisis in university education
and its concomitant social and economic impact, they
should have a clear action plan. The action plan
shall be measurable in terms of the intakes
increases, and within which period of time it is to
be implemented. Compared with the present annual
intake of approximately 20,000 students, the target
should be to increase the intake by more than double
the present intake through various specific means.
In order to achieve this challenging target within a
specific timeframe the specific means that would
pave the path to achieve the target number should be
carefully worked out. |