Sri Lanka as a Knowledge Hub - the Opportunities and Challenges"

Sri Lanka as a Knowledge Hub - the Opportunities and Challenges"

by Prof. M.T.R. Jayasinghe

One of the key achievements envisaged in “Mahinda Chinthana” is achieving the status of a Knowledge Hub for Sri Lanka by the year 2016.  This is a huge challenge for a country with a primarily state funded higher education sector though we have witnessed some opening up of opportunities with the private sector funded fee levying courses.  In this article, attention is mainly focused on the state sector universities that numbers 15 at the moment with full time courses and the Open University concentrating on “Distance Learning Mode”.

One of the key needs of state universities of Sri Lanka would be to produce KSAM graduates (graduates with proper Knowledge, Skills, Attitude and Mind set) with high employability and communication skills in English.  Most of the graduates falling into this category would be able to find gainful employment with high pay within three months of completion of final year examination.  The under employment is almost not existent with such graduates.  The unemployment ratio is generally zero six months after the graduation.  The important question is that how many of our various faculties in our universities produce such capable KSAM graduates.  It would be necessary for all faculties in our state universities to produce such graduates if we are to realize the goal set as the “knowledge hub of Asia”.

In this context, some of the faculties of our universities have performed remarkably well.  For example, the three engineering faculties of our state universities, Moratuwa, Peradeniya and Ruhuna, have performed very well and even rank them as producing “World Class Graduates” though these state universities may have a long way to go to be ranked as “World Class Universities”.  The reason is the exceptionally good lecturers available for teaching that has been instrumental in excelling in teaching though there will be a lot of room for developing the research culture and the associated publication practices  to reach the coveted title of “World Class Universities”. 

Since there is ability to produce “World Class Graduates” (WCG), the students who pass out with the basic degree have been able to find employment in the international markets.  This has on the one hand has resulted in brain drain with those who seek greener pastures.  On the other hand, some of these graduates have found gainful employment in many other countries like middle east and Korea with exceptionally high salaries like US $ 5000 to 8000 per month.  A lot of this money would finally end up in Sri Lanka thus further strengthening the balance of payment position in favour of Sri Lanka.  Thus, the number of engineering graduates produced should not depend on the needs of the Sri Lankan industry, but shall depend on the ability of our engineering graduates to gain good employment with 6 -12 months of real industrial exposure after the graduation (if possible even finding employment abroad immediately after graduation).  This is a situation that would ideally be expected from many other faculties of our state universities.

The challenges that we have to face in elevating our state universities to such a state is explained in detail with some emphasis on the opportunities that we have to capitalize to reach the goal of “Knowledge Hub of Asia”.

The history

For over 30 years, Sri Lanka country was involved in a protracted war since 1979.  So, our university system did not receive much money for development (the capital grants and money for Research and Development).  The academics, who stayed in Sri Lanka with tremendous courage and dedication did a remarkable job with the state sector university education (others left seeking greener pastures and it is difficult to blame them for doing so).  However, the staff had to device our own strategies for survival since many of our faculties did not have new equipment, attractive research funding, good research students, etc.

The strategy that was generally devised at successful faculties was to develop our teaching to very high level.  So, some universities like University of Moratuwa could promote the idea of "World Class Graduate" (WCG), the graduate who can fit the world at large and also can secure admission to the world's best universities effortlessly.  However, this would be very different to a "World Class University" (WCU). 

WCU is not easy to reach and we will need at least 10 more years where each faculty will need a capital grant of at least Rs 50- 75 million per year continuously for the next 5-6 years with at least Rs 50 -75 million per year allocated for R & D related expenditure (funding the stipend of Research Assistants, Teaching Assistants, traveling, purchasing of software, etc.).

The ground situation

After the end of the war in year 2009, GOSL got an opportunity to actively pursue the goals of Mahinda Chinthana.  One of the key features of Mahinda Chinthana was a Knowledge Hub.  So, many administrators at University Grants Commission and Ministry of Higher Education started promoting the "Ranking of a university".  When this was floated first, many staff members were baffled since it was very different to producing quality employable graduates with well planned undergraduate courses.  A highly ranked university will need a lot of post graduates undertaking cutting edge research where there is a good and competitive funding mechanism to sharpen the research and development work.  Thus, the academics in our state universities saw a rapid change of the goals set for them.  Previously, the main goal was producing “World Class Graduates” with the students sent to our state universities as undergraduates.  Now, the new goal has been having a higher rank with our state universities which means concentrating on both the undergraduate programmes and post graduate research.           

This change in the goal set for the state universities is a need to achieve the knowledge hub status.  Thus, it has to be pursued with vigour in near future by the state universities irrespective of the ranking that each state university has gained so far.  It should be stated that our state universities do not have noteworthy rankings at present.  Even University of Moratuwa is ranked below 2000 when it comes to world rankings based on various criteria.  Some state universities can be ranked below 5000.  It is with this background that some opportunities and challenges are discussed.

The opportunities

1.      Our state universities absorb about 23000 students each year.  One of the key differences is the age of the entry of our students when compared with the global trends.  Our students enter the university at an age of 19-20 years.  However, globally, the entry will be at an age of 18 in most of the countries with a well developed and recognized university system.  Thus, urgent action would be needed to bring this age of entry down to 18 in the next two years to be in par with other countries.

2.      Many of the faculties conduct their courses either in Sinhala or Tamil medium.  The faculties that conduct the courses in English medium such as Engineering Faculties, Medical Faculties, Architecture Faculties, many faculties of Sabaragamuwa and Uva universities, Science or Agriculture faculty of Jaffna University, etc., do not have a serious employment problem with their graduates.  Those graduates who concentrate on having the university education in their mother tongue generally struggle a lot when finding gainful employment and often suffer from under-employment.  Thus, every extra student taken for such faculties would be a burden on GOSL since these students have to be absorbed to the government sector through graduate employment schemes.  Thus, GOSL may have very little motivation to increase the student intake.  However, a higher intake is a must for reaching the knowledge hub status. 

3.      Our state universities have a well set hierarchical administrative system.  Most of the tasks related to the administration is conducted by Vice Chancellors and Registrars.  They are amply supported by Deputy Vice Chancellors, Deans of Faculties, Heads of Departments, Deputy Registrars, Senior Assistant Registrars, Assistant Registrars, Bursar, Deputy Bursar, etc.  In our state university system, generally, the entry qualifications for academics have been maintained at a very high level such as Ph.D. or M.Phil.  However, such a situation is not seen with the other administrators and Bursar.  This has to be gradually corrected since often it is seen the progressive ideas being blocked by the administrators citing various clauses in regulations and circulars.  This is generally called “hiding behind the regulations and circulars”.  To implement the regulations and circulars to its letter, it is sufficient to have clerks.  Qualified and capable administrators are needed to bend the rules within a legitimate framework so that the progression could be maintained until the unnecessary obstacles placed by the regulations and circulars are amended.  Such circumventing of regulations and circulars will certainly pave the way for a better managed system in the long run.  Thus, this change in attitude can create many opportunities for our state university system by enhancing its dynamism.

4.      Sri Lanka has seen a vast improvement in its infrastructure in the recent past.  These will need many professionals to run efficiently these newly developed organizations like new harbours, airports, tourist hotels, roads, water supply, etc.  Thus, a massive expansion of the faculties of Engineering, Agriculture, Economics, Information Technology, etc. may be a need of the hour.  This may have to be addressed with the setting up of new engineering faculties along with other faculties in the state universities.  For example, the number of engineering faculties in Sri Lanka could be increased from present 3 to about 6 or 7 in the near future.  In this context, strengthening of the newly formed engineering faculty at South Eastern University is a top priority.  There is also a possibility of starting a new engineering faculty at University of Sri Jayawardanapura (USJP) with an initial intake of about 600 students per year.  This new faculty can benefit a lot from the close proximity to the University of Moratuwa (UOM) since the academic staff of UOM will be able to support USJP engineering faculty a lot in its inception and during the first few years until it is fully developed.  The strategies for expansion of engineering faculties are presented separately in this article. 

5.      There is a serious need to strengthen the research culture at both undergraduate and post graduate levels.  This will need the strengthening of research funding and also the funding mechanisms available through Senate Research Committees, National Science Foundation, National Research Council, etc.  There should also be a serious attempt by each university to explore the 300% tax concession given to private sector companies to fund collaborative research and development work with government funded universities.  This avenue shall be pursued with a well planned and supported scheme.

The opportunities available could be many more.  These will become more pronounced only when we embark on the process of implementing some of the above ideas.

The challenges

1.      One of the key challenges is providing adequate funding for enhancing the research and development work undertaken by the staff and the students of the state universities that will finally lead to more publications in well recognized journals and international conferences.  Since a boost is needed at present to convert the state universities from the present state of teaching universities to fully fledged research universities, it would be needed to have at least Rs 50-75 million per faculty allocated for meeting the capital expenses associated with equipment, software, etc. and also to meet the recurrent expenditure needed for funding the stipend of the research assistants and other associated expenses.  For example, GOSL allocated Rs 100 million each for Universities of Colombo, Moratuwa, Peradeniya, Kelaniya and Sri Jayawardanapura during year 2011 as a pledge made during the budget speech presented in November, 2010.  This funding has made a significant change to one of the key performance indicators related to the post graduate research.  That is the number of Ph.D. students registered at a given time.  This number has improved significantly due to that capital infusion.  A similar encouragement is a requirement in the coming years to make a quantum change in the research culture currently prevailing at the state universities.

2.      It is also necessary to have a very active Senate Research Committee which will call for applications once in three months until all the funding for a given year is exhausted.  When the research culture gains momentum over few years, it would be possible to allocate the research funding on competitive basis with thorough evaluation of the research proposals as usually done in other countries like USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.  A similar proactive approach can be taken by National Science Foundation and National Research Council when funding is allocated for research projects. 

3.      Another key challenge for the state university sector will be producing employable graduates in streams like Arts and Commerce.  One of the key drawbacks is the use of mother tongue of students as the medium of instructions.  Although many attempts have been made to change to English as the medium of instructions, this has not been successful due to many challenges like the reluctance of some academic staff members to teach in English medium.  This obstacle is likely to prevail for many more years in future as well.  This will be detrimental to realizing the goal of “Knowledge Hub”.  Hence, a well thought compromising solution would be needed.

4.      One of the compromising solutions to this challenge is to offer some optional subjects in English Medium.  It could be like 1 subject in first year, 2 in second, 3 in third, 4 in fourth.  It could also be possible to consider all final year subjects being offered in English medium.  This approach will also allow the academic staff members who are keen to use Sinhala or Tamil medium to continue while giving the students a chance to get exposure to studying in English medium.  With good background in Information Technology, these graduates with some exposure to English language will be able to obtain gainful employment in the private sector if their graduation age can be lowered to 22 or 23 by ensuring that they enter the university at an age of 18.  Even such an approach will not bear good results if the graduation age is 25-26 years as can be seen today.  Thus, a quantum change may be needed in the whole school education sector to make this happen so that the education system in Sri Lanka can be considered as in-par with other developed countries.

5.      When the state sector universities relieve the burden on GOSL of finding employment by producing graduates who can easily fit the local and international job market on competitive basis, GOSL will also find that a greater degree of investment in university education as a possibility that will bring fruitful results.  Such encouragement is a requirement for GOSL since the general perception at present is that more graduates means a bigger problem for GOSL since finding jobs for not so employable graduates produced by state universities also finally be on the shoulders of the government. 

There could be many other challenges that may become visible when a proactive approach is taken to reach the knowledge hub status in future.  If these main challenges could be faced on head on while capitalizing on the opportunities, it would be possible to make a quantum change in our whole education sector benefitting the next generation and also taking the human resource base of Sri Lanka to a new height.

An example with new engineering faculties

This example is given with the proposed engineering faculty at University of Sri Jayawardanapura (UOSJ) which will allow its first batch of 600 students enrolling in November of 2014 if all the plans could be implemented as envisaged.  The Faculty of Engineering (FOE) at UOSJ will be used as a key center for setting up of other engineering faculties in other state universities.  These 600 students will join three departments with 200 each as the number.  The departments disciplines envisaged are “Software and Computer Engineering, Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, and Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering”.  The students will be allowed to have further specialization with the optional subjects offered in the final year.  The infrastructure will be developed to have lecture rooms that can accommodate 200 students and an auditorium that can accommodate all 600 students along with necessary canteen, library, hostel and staff accommodation facilities with multi-storey buildings like 8-10 storey to facilitate these massive expansions with minimum use of available land in the present university premises.  Innovative designs based on green technology can be used to make such large buildings livable and also cost effective with the minimum use of energy while generating part of the energy used.  The possibilities can be presented as follows:

1.      At the moment, there is certain uncertainty with the creation of engineering faculty at South Eastern University (at Oluwil) due to severe staff shortage.  This can be solved to a great extent by creating “Smart Class Room Environments” (SCRE).  In this, the students in remote locations will be equipped with cameras and micro-phones and will be able to interact with a lecturer at a separate location on real time basis. 

2.      Faculties of Engineering at South Eastern University (SEU) will have to adopt the same curriculum and the time table as UOSJ (FOE at UOSJ will act as the key center giving the leadership and direction while facilitating a quality education in all new engineering faculties).  Using the SCRE, it will be possible for the students of SEU follow the same class offered at UOSJ simultaneously using the ICT based links.  Immediately after the lectures, the video of the lecture can be uploaded to the web for any further studies by the students of UOSJ and SEU (or even the students of University of Moratuwa, Peradeniya or Ruhuna if they are interested).  At present, many engineering software is learnt by the students using various lessons that can be down loaded using “U-tube” where they will get an opportunity to repeatedly listen to a tutorial or a lecture until the student fully understand the contents.  This is a radical departure from the traditional class room based teaching or the distance learning mode adopted by the Open University of Sri Lanka.

3.      The examinations can be conducted simultaneously at the respective Faculty of Engineering as adopted for GCE A/L where the same examination is held at many locations simultaneously.

4.      This will allow having 100-200 students per department at South Eastern University depending on the size of the class rooms available.  If 200 per department is taken with direct entry, it would be possible to have a total of 900 engineering students per year as the intake thus increasing the total intake to 2300 from the present number of 1400 with year 2014 intake.  This 900 will comprise 600 at UOSJ and 300 at SEU.  When this 900 is added to 1400 taken at present, the number will be 2300. 

5.      It can be argued that the dynamism of courses in separate universities will be lost with this type of synchronized approach for the course in the first three years.  However, in an engineering course, generally the first three years is devoted for teaching fundamentals and design theories along with some practice.  The real specialization could easily be concentrated to the fourth year where there could be many subjects that will be conducted by visiting lecturers who would be specialists in such areas due to real exposure to such areas with their day to day work.  These visiting lecturers could easily be practicing engineers with sufficient post graduate qualifications or professionals qualifications.  Such engineers could easily persuaded to conduct lectures if attractive payments could be arranged to motivate them to participate in this knowledge dissemination for the final year engineering students.  This will again need some rules to be bent by the administrators rather than stating that under the present regulation, the payment possible is restricted to a certain amount. 

6.      Some of these students can be allowed to take optional subjects and specialize in new areas such as Aeronautics Engineering (aircraft engineering), Petroleum Exploration Engineering, Petroleum Refinery Engineering, Green Technology, Infrastructure Economics, Infrastructure Design, etc.  Such specializations can give sufficient exposure to the new areas required for Aviation Hub, Tourism Hub, etc. For example, a massive number of engineers with exposure to Air-Craft Engineering can facilitate the setting up of an Air-Craft repair center at Mattala Airport thus bringing a lot of foreign exchange to Sri Lanka.  The climate with only 3 months of rain at Mattala is ideal to even repair the planes while keeping those outside without having the need for many large hangers (shelters) as usually needed at many other airports undertaking such repairs.  The list of opportunities can be much longer with many more examples of this nature.

7.      A serious investment will be made for giving exposure to the students with the state of the art software used by the leading researchers and practicing engineers on day to day basis during the third and final years of these courses.  For example, the students of Department of Civil Engineering of University of Moratuwa are given exposure to over 15 best used software such as Prokon, SAP2000, ETABS, Safe, OpenSees, Ansys, AutoCAD, Civil-3D, Mike-11, Mike-21, Plaxis-2D, Plaxis-3D, Microsoft Project, DEROB, DOE 2, etc.  Such exposure to cutting edge software based technology has made the civil engineers produced by Civil Engineering Department of UOM to gain very high starting salaries such as Rs 65,000 to 75,000 while contributing to a significant knowledge transfer to the Sri Lankan construction industry that can lead to a quantum change in it with time to come.  At present, committed civil engineering graduates of University of Moratuwa can easily compete with any graduate from some of the best universities of the world.  This has all been made possible due to a proactive approach on the part of the academic staff and also a continuous investment with GOSL funding and also using the funds generated by the department with short courses, training programmes, M.Sc./M.Eng. programmes, consultancies undertaken for the industry, etc.   

8.      It will also be possible to consider the start of two more engineering faculties at Rajarata University and Wayamba University as well by year 2015 with an intake of 600 each (Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Jaffna would be able to follow in a subsequent year along with University of Colombo, University of Kelaniya, etc. to adopt similar strategies).  These could be well supported by all three existing engineering faculties, Moratuwa, Peradeniya and Ruhuna during the initial years.  There is also a possibility to link all these new engineering faculties to Faculty of Engineering at University of Sri Jayawardanapura using SCRE technology for the first three years.  The final year could see producing engineers with diverse expertise or specialization.  Thus, increasing the intake to even a higher number like 4100 by year 2015 or even more is a good possibility by year 2016 reaching about 5300.  This number could be compared with over 100,000 engineering graduates produced in India per year.

9.      In order to ensure direct interaction with the students, the staff members who are taking lectures using this ICT based technology at Faculty of Engineering (FOE), University of Sri Jayawardanapura will be required to visit FOE of SEU at least two occasions such as before the start of a semester and during the mid-term vacation (with good rail and road links, this will be possible and such interaction will remove the feeling of the students at remote locations that they are getting a step motherly treatment).  For this, extra payments could be made available for the lecturers who would have to make an extra effort when getting ready to do a lecture under SCRE.  This extra payment could also compensate for the extra effort needed to teach about 200 students each at three different locations simultaneously.  All these will need a proactive approach from the academic and non-academic administrators of our state university sectors.  Those who hide behind regulations or circulars may be unlikely to make things happen for such an ambitious scenario envisaged.

10.  Since this model will place some additional strain on the current staff of Faculties of Engineering of UOM, UOP and UOR, there may be a need to further strengthen the staff cadre of such faculties supporting the establishment of new engineering faculties at the state universities.  A similar approach may be possible with many other faculties specializing in other disciplines in demand.

11.  With this proactive approach, a kick start can be given to many Faculties of Engineering at many other universities with positive results for the country and also assisting in realizing some key goals of “Mahinda Chinthana”.  A similar approach could be possible with many other disciplines that are capable of producing employable KSAM graduates.  Finding employment for such large number of KSAM graduates should never be considered as a burden since these graduates will fit the international employment market and will not be restricted to the local job market.

This is an innovative scheme to realize the knowledge hub status envisaged as one of the five.  It can also assist in the realizing the goals of other hubs as well since a well educated human resource base can initiate wonders when there is healthy competition among the degree holders entering the local and international job markets.  However, all these will be possible only with capable, dedicated, motivated and committed administrators who would take appropriate decisions and implement those without too much worrying about how they would be answering the audit queries that will arise due to not adhearing the rules to its every letter.  Such a dialogue can gradually lead to the amendment of the rules, regulations and circulars that can become stumbling blocks for creating a proactive and dynamic culture at our state universities where the teaching will be carried out with the use of state of the art technology to produce “World Class Graduates” while achieving the coveted title of “World Class University” during the next 5-10 years.

About the writer: The writer of this article is a Senior Professor in Civil Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa.  He also practices as a professionally qualified Chartered Structural Engineer specializing in high rise buildings and long span bridges.  He is well recognized by the local construction industry as a good researcher and an innovative designer and has been instrumental in producing designs in collaboration with capable engineers in the industry like cost effective four lane Orugodawatta flyover and many structures in the Southern Highway Galle Matara extension, etc.  He is also an expert on Green technology and Green Rating systems that is needed to promote sustainable development and also fully supported the setting up of Sri Lanka Green Building Council.  As a student at university of Moratuwa, he obtained his B.Sc. Honours in Civil Engineering with a First Class while winning the “Gold Medal” for the best engineering student in 1987.  He also won 7 out of 10 special awards as a student of Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa.  He has obtained the award for “Excellence in Research” from 1999 to 2011, a total of 12 years continuously from University of Moratuwa and he is the only lecturer with that achievement at UOM.  At present, he is the supervisor of 7 students reading for Ph.D. while having many others reading for M.Eng.  He read for his Ph.D. at Cambridge University and returned to Sri Lanka in year 1992.  His service in the state university sector is more than 25 years and is well versed with the strengths and weaknesses of the system.  More information could be found in http://www.civil.mrt.ac.lk/academic/mtrj/index.html or typing M T R Jayasinghe under Google search.