Sri Lanka as an International Centre for Higher Education
Making Sri Lanka an Education Hub has been in the offing for some time. In its journey towards realising this wish, universities have to be conducive to international education, to attract foreign students, to retain local students who go abroad and to establish partnerships in research and invention, teaching and knowledge sharing. These interventions would contribute to bringing our education institutes to the next level of global presence. In hindsight, it would counter the dollar crisis and expand tourism. But, do we work towards achieving the goal or will they remain as dreams only? A few years ago the government declared “to be a partner in global higher education with a vision to become the knowledge hub in the region by the year 2020”. The vision remains a wish, and the year 2020 has already added to the history. Today the Ministry of Higher Education has come up with the vision to make “Sri Lanka an international Centre of Excellence in Higher Education” (https://www.mohe.gov.lk).
Will it also become a wish only?
Regrettably, the international outlook of Sri Lankan universities and other higher education institutes is far below expectations at present. The international outlook is measured by TIMES Higher Education (THE) World University ranking considering the proportion of international students, the proportion of international staff and the degree of international collaboration. ‘International collaboration’ according to THE ranking is “the proportion of a university’s total relevant publications that have at least one international co-author and reward higher volumes”. Looking at the performance of Sri Lankan universities we can say that universities work hard to develop an international outlook. The effort involves exchange programmes for students and staff, collaborative research, and postgraduate programmes, but action and attention to recruiting foreign staff and students for teaching and learning, and making a conducive environment for collaborative research is lacking. International affairs at some higher education institutions are, often, restricted to foreign travel, meetings and conferences. Bureaucracy in university administration is often accused of being a bottleneck in internationalisation efforts. There is only a few success stories on international collaborations for teaching, learning, technological and economic development.
By embracing internationalisation, the Sri Lankan higher education sector can contribute to the nation development immensely. Sri Lanka spends heavily on higher education abroad. Why don’t we set the stage here to discourage overseas education, and increase opportunities for foreign students here in Sri Lanka? Open a Sunday Newspaper and you will not miss the large number of announcements on higher education opportunities available internationally, inviting Sri Lankan students. There are mushrooming private higher education institutions affiliated with foreign universities. Albeit, most of these institutes are just wayside shops that sell degrees wholesale. These institutions promote the name of foreign counterpart and attract students. Profit-making is the prime motive of these institutions. Quality is often compromised in the panel of lecturers, delivery and the course content. Although, the market tagline is ‘international’, the international outlook is missing in these education institutions. Here education is a commodity and the students are consumers. Neither the student, nor the country achieves their aim of having a ‘truly international education’ through such institutions. Although, it is expected to adhere to international university standards to award degrees, implementation of the standard academic programmes is not always guaranteed, as
Sri Lanka is still lagging behind regulating non-state higher education institutions. Student migration, which got aggravated during the recent past, creates a significant impact on Sri Lanka’s economy. The outflow of foreign exchange and brain drain are issues associated with student migration.
Positioning Sri Lanka’s Higher Education Sector on the World Map
Singapore and China strategically execute to get the young blood trained internationally and get them back to serve the country and to contribute to the development. Simon Marginson, Professor of Higher Education at the University of Oxford says that, “Singapore uses the strategy of intensive internationalisation through benchmarking its higher education institutes against the world’s best universities, and targeting and attracting talented researchers from world over”. In their attempt to be internationally recognised, Malaysian universities promoted their faculty to publish in top-tier international journals, to get international awareness about the university and its human capital, to attract foreign counterparts for research and development, and to recruit more and more foreign students. Two decades ago Qiang (2003) suggested that higher education institutions adopt various approaches towards internationalisation; (1) activity approach to promoting the internationalisation of degree curriculum, student/faculty exchange, and admissions, (2) competency approach to develop skills, knowledge, attitudes and values in students, faculty and staff, (3) ethos approach to create a culture or climate that values and supports international/intercultural perspectives and initiatives, and (4) process approach to integrate or infuse international/intercultural dimensions into teaching, research and service through a combination of a wide range of activities, policies and procedures. Why don’t we adapt these approaches strategically in positioning Sri Lanka’s higher education institutions on the world map?
Government Mediation is vital
The entire responsibility of internationalisation cannot be entrusted on higher education institutions alone. It is also the responsibility of government media, and government ministries to support the endeavour with facilitation and creating awareness of our higher education sector around the globe. Singapore uses this strategy well. The CNA TV channel of Singapore promotes services, quality and contribution of the National University of Singapore (NSU) at least every 30 minutes at night. Expert academic advice on Singapore’s inventions, innovations, policies and practices is often shared. The name, NSU is registered in the minds of viewers, and the image of the quality of the university is engraved. No one would hesitate to develop collaborations with the NUS and reach NUS for employment and education. This is one strategy Sri Lankan universities can use to promote themselves among international community. Collaboration between state media and state universities is important, where TV channels can allocate air time to promote universities’ offerings; degree programmes, research and inventions. Reaching out to international mainstream media is another avenue to promote Sri Lanka as an education hub.
Expatriates are Ambassadors of Higher Education
According to Karl Dittrich, former Chair of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), more than a quarter of international Masters and Ph.D graduates remain in the Netherlands after graduating adding billions to the Dutch economy every year. Karl further says that the most important thing about having international alumni is that if they genuinely feel that they have been educated and trained well, they all act as ambassadors of the country. Similarly, those who go abroad from Sri Lanka can be ambassadors for our education system, our economy, our society and our culture. But, unfortunately, many Sri Lankans who have gone abroad reaping the benefits of Sri Lankan free education including higher education boast the systems in their host countries, condemning the Sri Lankan education system.
I hear them bragging; “The systems in these universities are perfect, Sri Lanka will never reach that status”. Another says “Sri Lanka would take 5,000 years to come to the status we enjoy here”. Yes, true, our universities need to break their iron cages and leap forward with efficient systems. Be collegial, student-friendly, staff-friendly and society friendly. However, we do not need to demean our system to learn from others. We need to respect our systems and others, learn from each other and change towards the betterment of all.
The government must create a mechanism to follow up on how and what higher education institutions activate under the name of internationalisation. For instance, the internationalisation approaches introduced by Quang (2003) could be channeled for implementation, giving prominence to ethos approach and process approach to set the path ready for internationalisation. Bureaucratic bottlenecks could be mitigated through relaxing irrelevant procedures and delays in designing, approving and promoting, higher education internationally. Through effective international relations, Sri Lanka’s higher education sector can become a catalyst for economic growth, acquiring technical know-how, attracting foreign aid, promoting tourism, and opening avenues for Sri Lankan intellectuals on the global stage.
(The author is a senior education administrator, researcher, management consultant and a lecturer. She can be reached at: v5imbulgoda@gmail.com)
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