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by Mahinda Abeywardane,
Secretary General, Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO

Local undergrads - living together, a challenge

'Learning to live together is the keystone of education for the twenty-first century, learning to live with others means the development of an understanding of others in spirit of pluralism, respect for differences and peace. Its principal focus is the development of an appreciation of the growing interdependence of individuals.

The university students must learn to accept reality of other people's distinctiveness and the fact that they are unlikely to change themselves to please one dominant group. The students should identify the roots of misunderstanding and differences which lead to student violence and thus be able to overcome them.'

Indiscipline and student violence are two major problems ailing the universities. Although both are interrelated, the causes that lead to student violence are different to general indiscipline among students in a university.

Student violence has reached a very serious proportion and this should be corrected without delay. In most cases, violence in universities reflects the climate of violence and injustice that characterises the environment in which these universities function.

Student violence in universities may arise from student agitation towards obtaining better academic or other facilities or due to excesses resulting from ragging freshers or clashes between different student groups.

The most serious type violence takes place due to clashes between various student groups and this problem should be addressed immediately to make universities safe places for learning.

Factional clashes between various student groups take place mainly because of one student group vying for student leadership by any means with no respect for the views of other students or groups of students. They tend to use undemocratic methods to achieve supremacy and continue in leadership.

Such groups suppress the views of others by using force and that will ultimately lead to violent clashes. There is also an element of politics among these student groups.

Learning to live together which is the keystone of education for the twenty-first century, is what is lacking in our universities.

The International Commission on Education drew up a document on the essential role of education throughout life for the future development of individuals, nations and humanity. It emphasised that education had 'a treasure within' and developed a vision of education for the twenty-first century based on four pillars:

* Learning to know refers mainly to broad-based general knowledge with deeper knowledge of some subjects for being able to benefit from learning opportunities.

* Learning to do refers to acquisition of occupational skills.

* Learning to be refers to the ability to develop one's personality around a set of core values and to act with greater autonomy judgment and personal responsibility.

* Learning to live together, learning to live with others means the development of an understanding of other people in a spirit of pluralism and respect for differences.

Of these four pillars, the first three had been identified as essential for the sound development of persons of communities.

The fourth pillar is of a different nature, its omission may result in the annihilation of all other educational, health and development efforts through violence, terrorism, the deterioration of human, financial and other resources. The non-availability of the fourth pillar is the plague affecting some of the universities.

The universities should lead a discussion on how to reform conventional university education so that young people will grow into responsible and tolerant citizens and be prepared for the world of work.

They should reorient basic educational policies to include issues such as human rights, peace, democracy and understanding among cultures. It is also necessary to develop new approaches in non-violent conflict resolution in the universities.

There is a need for universities to step up its focus on quality education, stressing the need for diversified content and methods that foster the acquisition of values, attitudes and skills needed to face the challenges of contemporary society and sustainable development.

These reforms will help to improve the image of graduates produced by our universities. The outlook of the private sector that is not willing to employ graduates in big numbers will also change.

The university authorities should apply these methods or any other suitable method relevant to the local context. Without undertaking a serious study or application it will not be possible to tackle this problem and it will aggravate further.

Unlike in schools the universities are blessed with resourceful experts whose services could be enlisted towards conflict resolution or for crisis management. But this does not happen in universities as these resourceful persons are either not used for this purpose or they prefer to remain non-committal.

The next major problem facing the universities is the breakdown of general discipline among students. It has become impossible in some universities to take any disciplinary action against the students. There is no law and order in some universities.

Rules and regulations are for civilised societies to behave in a dignified way. The mission of education is to produce a good citizen. Therefore the university students should be made aware that they should respect and follow the rules and regulations of the university.

The students while in school come under the disciplinary control of the Principal of the school and his teaching staff. Once they are in university their attitude towards discipline changes. This is a matter the university authorities should do a detailed study on.

If any student is punished for any wrong doing the students as a group agitate until such punishment is withdrawn. It has become very difficult to take any disciplinary action against students and the law of the jungle prevails in some universities. In this scenario it is paramount importance for university authorities to educate the students on the values of discipline.

It will be interesting to ascertain why such conflicts which lead to violence frequently cannot be prevented or controlled or minimised and why there is a breakdown of discipline in the universities.

In this context it will useful to discuss whether the present organisation, the structure and the governing legislation and the law enforcement machinery in the universities are adequate to meet present day challenges facing the universities.

The Universities Act No. 16 of 1978 governs the universities and it has lasted for nearly 25 years without any major amendments. Time has come now to review whether the Act in its present form could address the issues confronting universities.

In terms of the Universities Act the Vice Chancellor of a university is entrusted with the responsibility of student discipline and even the by laws of the universities that governing student discipline has empowered the Vice Chancellor with every disciplinary function.

At present it is only the Vice Chancellor who could suspend or even issue a letter of warning to student. The experience has proved that the Vice Chancellors are unable to exercise these disciplinary powers in the present form.

The Vice Chancellors normally exercise these disciplinary powers with the assistance of the Director, Student Affairs, a few student counsellors, few officers, Marshals or security personnel. The disciplinary power of the Vice Chancellor if delegated could be more effective to regulate student discipline.

This function could be delegated to the faculty where Boards of Discipline can be established at Faculty level with Dean of the Faculty as chairmen of such boards like in foreign universities. The Dean of a Faculty should be given a certain degree of disciplinary authority.

In the present universities Act, the Dean of a Faculty is only the academic and administrative head of the faculty but the Dean has no disciplinary power.

In the same way disciplinary power could be delegated to Heads of Academic Departments as well. This could be done through amendment to the Act and the relevant by laws. By doing so the Dean of a Faculty could be given the responsibility of maintaining discipline within the Faculty and a Head of Department within his department.

The present provision of the Act was adequate about 30 years ago when the number of students in a university was around 1500. Now some of the universities have a student population of about 8000.

An important aspect that has to be considered is whether the universities have the resources and the mechanism to maintain discipline. The universities have been experimenting with the Marshal System or security guard system at various times and none of these systems has been successful. The universities use the services of such personnel towards the maintenance of discipline among the students.

But they have failed as they do not exercise any authority or power. No system will work without some degree of authority towards the exercise of duties. The Marshal or the security officer has only the power to report.

In the USA the security officers in universities have some police powers even in the universities of Australia, such officers have a certain degree of police powers where they could prosecute a student in a court of law.

The security system in these foreign universities is very effective. The students respect and obey them without any question. In our universities such officers are at the mercy of students and they try to do their duties to please the students for their survival in the job. We have to think afresh and study the methods used by other foreign universities and come up with ideas that suit the local needs.

However no system will work here without the active participation and the involvement of academic staff in the maintenance of discipline in the universities. What happens now in the universities are a few members of academic staff who are keen to help the Vice Chancellor come to his rescue than as a matter of responsibility.

This attitude of the teachers has to be changed if we are to see more disciplined universities. If there is teamwork among officers and teachers of the universities you can achieve better results.

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