I am of the view that it is vital to change the existing curriculums and teaching-learning processes related to the field of Arts, General Sciences and Commerce degrees offered by Sri Lankan universities. As long as we are unable to restructure the current university education system in the disciplines mentioned above unemployment problem among graduates who do not hold professional degrees such as engineering and medicine will be at a high level. Furthermore, it is vital to develop human and physical resources in the university system. The government should understand that there is a severe brain-drain in the current university system in which it is impossible for us to to develop not only our university system but also our country without the support of those expertise knowledge. Our nation’s wealth is spent to train such people but their services are hired by other developed nations of the world to achieve their development objectives. What a catastrophe! In order to stop this tragedy I strongly believe that academics should be given due respect in their job by providing answers for their unsolved problems. In addition, providing facilities for academics to obtain postgraduate qualifications in ranked foreign universities and directing them to engage in research etc. are also vital to uplift the standard of the current university education.

In particular, the comment about turning out mere ‘book worms’ is a very valid one. This can only be corrected by making higher learning a two-way and not merely a one-way learning process. Caution may have to be exercised in view of the large numbers of students involved. For example, in a one hour lecture could not the last 10 minutes be set aside to question time and encourage studenst to clear up doubts? Likewise short practical projects, as done in some Universities, depending on the subject of course, are to be encouraged as part of the final degree award.

One can fully empathise with the plight of unemployed graduates after years of study especially if they are from poor families as pointed out above. It also lies at the root of some serious turmoil among the educated young in recent decades. The point made out about teaching the students “to think” with a view to problem formulation, analysis and resolution has great merit. Wherever feasible field level practical orientation to suit future needs in the market like interneships too has great merit. A higher level collective partnerships are indicated.

“So what needs to be changed is the way in which universities operate. Encourage research. Get students involved more – turn lectures into discussions, encourage questioning, encourage free thinking. This is definitely a must, though things are not going in that direction at the moment.”-

When is the above going to happen? Who is going to do it? We all know that change is necessary.

The private sector in Sri Lanka is a club. Those who do not speak English and hold a different attitude are not welcomed into this club. The majority of people in this country do not belong to this club.
That is why after a local university education our grads are unable to find employment in the private sector. You do not need university education to join the private sector. Ability and English are necessary though.
Any foreign grad will be snapped up by the private sector.

The problem is it is very one dimensional. Lecturers pretty much dictate to students what’s in books (there are exceptions, but they are being exceptions tells the story) and students take everything in without much questioning. Come the exam time they reproduce what they took in, and graduate. At the end of the day, all that is done, throughout four years, spending bucket load of money is merely passing something somewhere written to the new generation. Not much ‘learning’ is involved, and most definitely whatever the bit learned is not applied in a useful manner. No creative thinking is encouraged even. Again, do note that this is the general picture and that there’s always exceptions.

So, once they step out to the corporate world they are left with a huge amount of stuff they ‘took in’, but no knowledge of how to apply them at work. Why is it that hardly anybody invents anything in Sri Lankan universities anymore? Because it doesn’t encourage out of the box thinking. This is just a gut feeling, but I’m pretty sure that if you conduct a survey about new inventions made in Sri Lanka, I bet that most of them were by people who hasn’t been to a local university.

So what needs to be changed is the way in which universities operate. Encourage research. Get students involved more – turn lectures into discussions, encourage questioning, encourage free thinking. This is definitely a must, though things are not going in that direction at the moment. Let me tell you one incident happened while I was in university; a leader of the ragging bunch once asked, no, ordered their younger ones NOT to question during lectures so that the lecturer will be able to cover the syllabus in time. Pity.

We sure do need a chance in attitudes. Top to bottom.