Reforming University Education: a critical need

Undoubtedly, education in our universities doesn’t seem to be in order. On the one hand, most of our graduates cannot find employment in keeping with the education they have received and on the other, universities have become a hot bed of indiscipline, often leading to student clashes.

Both these aspects of our university education are things to worry about. On top of this, the society looks at the ‘university graduate’ with scorn and contempt.

To understand the problems of university education, one must also examine the general school education. Every year, approximately between 350,000 to 375,000 children seek admission to grade I of the state-run schools. All these children however do not complete 13 years of school education, and for a variety of reasons only about a 50% sit the G.C.E Advanced Level.

The balance drop out of the school system at various levels. Some go out after completing primary education, while others drop out before they reach the G.C.E Ordinary level examination. Say, 175,000 children from a particular age cohort sit the ‘A’ Level.

Of this, whatever the number that qualify to get into any of our universities, there is room only for 15,000 students - a mere 4% of a particular age cohort.

That is why, sometime ago in this column, we highlighted the importance of vocational and technical education because 96% of those who enter the school system need to be accommodated in this sector. Unfortunately, that sector too is in bad shape.

One has to accept that at the end of a gruelling competition in the form of ‘A’ Level, only the best that can get into the universities. There is, then, no possibility that the incompetent students have got in.

A few, however, may have crammed and with a bit of luck got into the universities, but, by and large, it is the most competent and brilliant students who have found their way to the highest seats of academic learning.

Then why are these students after 3 or 4 years of university education unable to find good employment and even if they find some job, they become misfits in the world of work?

The fault cannot be with the students. That’s for sure, because they have done what they can. It is the education system and the environment in the universities that are finally responsible for this national debacle.

In other words, universities have been able to ‘convert’ most of our highly competent and academically brilliant students into unemployable graduates after three or four years of so called university education! What an achievement! Universities must accept the responsibility for making our academically brilliant young generation unemployable and despondent.

We must acknowledge that this is a recent development and not something that had been there since Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) established its own universities. Those who graduated up to mid seventies did not have much difficulty in finding employment, largely due to the State providing a variety of jobs in the government sector. Even those who wanted to join the private sector could do so with some effort.

Today, except for a few professional courses such as medicine, engineering, dentistry and veterinary science, others have great difficulty in securing decent employment. It is only the IT graduates who find employment without any difficulty.

All others undergo innumerable difficulties in finding a suitable job. Social science and humanities graduates are the worst affected. These Arts graduates go through hell to find employment that is in keeping with their level of education. Even if they find, the jobs are at a lower level than expected.

Most Arts graduates lament that they are underemployed, meaning that the job they hold is not in keeping with the education they have had. Not long ago, was the case of a graduate working in a betting shop collecting bets! It is also enlightening to look at the world of work and the employment market.

Public and private sectors throw up a large number of employment opportunities to young graduates. At times, these openings require experience of a few years. That is not an issue. There are suitable vacancies in the form of management trainees, teachers, and public sector executives etc., which do not call for any experience.

Every job has a profile and the entrants need to be able to match it with their knowledge, skills and attitude. This is where our young graduates have the problem. Entry into management grade positions such as those in the SLAS requires only a degree and a particular age limit. However, the private sector is not easy to get into.

Most jobs in the private sector require a good knowledge of English, ability to use computers in a wide range of applications, business competencies, and most of all willingness to unlearn some things, learn new skills, and apply what one has learnt in a given situation.

Sadly, most graduates who come from our universities cannot match up to these requirements and become misfits even when they find some form of employment in the private sector.

Most private sector jobs require its occupants to be flexible. Sadly, it has been evident that most graduates seem to have lost the ability to be flexible, which must have happened during their undergraduate education.

The obvious conclusion that one can come to is that the universities have very effectively made our brilliant youth, incapable and ineffective with their archaic teaching-learning methodologies and the destruction of the creativity of the students.

Students have been tested on their capacity to remember and reproduce what they remember at examinations. Quietly, but surely, creativity of undergraduates has been diluted.

What do universities really do today? It appears that universities do pretty much the same thing they did many years ago.

Most curricula haven’t changed; course contents have remained almost the same; teaching methodology hasn’t seen any modern developments, and above all, the university authorities including the University Grants Commission haven’t asked the end users what they expect university graduates to do in the employment market.

Interestingly, wherever universities have asked the potential employers, students graduating out of those universities have found jobs without any difficulty. These are demand driven courses meaning that these courses cater to the requirements in the employment market.

What should universities be doing? This is where we should focus our attention and look at a few home truths.

First, universities either through the UGC or by themselves must develop capabilities to do solid employment market research. Simply put, this means that universities need to ask employers in the private sector, what they require of the graduates in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes.

There are many soft skills that private sector employers want the graduates to possess. Obviously, public relations skills rank the highest among the bundle of soft skills. Communications skills, particularly usage of English, both written and spoken, are a sine qua non for most graduate level jobs in the private sector.

Secondly, a serious curriculum revision has to be undertaken throughout the university system. Some courses can be revised with certain interventions while others need to be totally abandoned.

This is a drastic step, but is essential if we are to make university education meaningful to our youth. With the information collected about the employment market, it may, most probably, be necessary to start new courses from scratch. Whatever that is done, the ultimate result should be to ensure that those graduating out of our universities are readily employable.

Universities must have their ‘antennas’ out to capture the ‘signals’ that come from the employment markets; in other words, universities must keep a track of changing job profiles as course curricula must also be changing to cater to the changing needs. For these things to happen, universities must become far more flexible than they are now.

Changes in the job profiles and skills requirements can be easily captured if practitioners were to be incorporated into the academic staff for most courses. If the private sector is to accept graduates of our universities, employers must be confident that they are getting their monies worth.

Having private sector practitioners teaching most courses, certainly on a part time basis, will enable students to acquire an understanding of the private sector and also absorb skills that are in demand.

The irony is that most of the practitioners may not have academic qualifications that permanent, full time university staff possesses. The academically oriented faculty will belittle private sector practitioners for this reason.

That is why most universities will harp on academic qualifications such as a First class in the Bachelors, a good Masters and a Ph.D., (in the case of professors) as entry requirements for the academic staff.

These qualifications were not often seen among most private sector managers in the past although today, a large number of private sector executives will have an MBA, and at times a Ph.D.

Another important activity the universities must pursue with diligence is to find out, through tracer studies, what happens to their students, once they complete undergraduate education. This certainly does not happen in our university system. Frankly, universities wouldn’t know where their students have ‘gone’.

Universities and their academic staff must be living in a world of fantasy that they have moulded thousands and thousands of undergraduates into very productive employees.

What an illusion and if they were to know that their former students are languishing at home without suitable employment, wouldn’t it prick their conscience? Surely, these learned men and women must be feeling somewhat guilty.

It is high time, therefore, that the whole higher education system undergoes a thorough reform to become responsive to the changing needs of the employment market. No longer can they be blind to what is taking place around them and conveniently ignore the ground situation.

All universities have a huge responsibility towards the younger generation, the country, and the employment market. Failure to understand this would pave the way to another insurrection because youth are not going to tolerate any more our incompetence to understand the reality.

We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought. - Bertrand Russell