SEC Chief moots three new approaches for university education in Sri Lanka

The Senior Alumni felicitate Irangani Serasinghe, Deloraine Brohier, B.D.K. Saldin, Lalitha Withanachchi, Tissa Devendra and Prof. Carlo Fonseka

Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka Chairman Thilak Karunaratne delivering the keynote address at the 34th Annual General Meeting of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo held at the Senate Hall at College House proposed three new approaches for University Education in Sri Lanka which would be a paradigm shift in policy, rules and regulations and in effect a complete change in approach for University Education.

He emphasised the need to encourage the culture of making endowments for universities which is presently virtually a non-existent practice in Sri Lanka. He said that we have, by our own standards, large corporates, banks, extremely large family owned businesses and other commercial ventures, not forgetting high net worth individuals who have the capacity to make these endowments. Yet, we hardly tap them for endowments for our universities. However, the situation is entirely different in the developed world and even in a few countries in the developing world. In these countries, big corporates generously offer endowments if actively canvassed by the alumni and the universities themselves. 

He further quoted an example where Harvard University currently has an endowment fund of $ 36.5 billion. Other leading US universities also have large endowments and they continue to collect funds which are professionally managed with investments in fixed income instruments as well as in the capital market. He pointed out that all these universities have professional fund managers looking after these funds. He said that even the UK, top universities such as Cambridge and Oxford have reasonably large endowments which of course are not comparable in size to those of the US. He said that he details of what they do with these endowments are freely available in their respective websites.

Karunaratne also raised concerns on the employability of graduates, especially those who come out with a degree in Humanities. He said that the alumni can get actively involved in training these graduates, with the collaboration of the university, in areas where they could be found reasonable employment. He suggested the area of Service Management. He pointed out that Tourism is booming in our country and we have not anticipated the exponential growth of tourists from China. 

He suggested that the University can run a Diploma Course which will arm the students with these skills. He said that the necessary finances and the teachers may be drawn from the industry itself under the supervision of our own staff. He added that this is just one area and there are many more. 

He said that during the period 2005 to 2014 the governments absorbed into public service these so-called unemployable graduates at a very low salary and without any specific duties to perform. This he said only bloated our public service which was doubled during this period, adding to the pension burden of the government which eventually will be passed on to the citizens of this country. 

He also mentioned that there was research to show that this phenomenon of un-employability was common to the region, and that even in countries such as South Korea, graduates spend another two years following courses of studies which will prepare them for the positions available in the job market. 

The third point raised by Karunaratne was the need for state universities getting into a PPP (Private Public Partnership) arrangement with prestigious foreign universities who are willing to add value to courses and also get their academia to join staff of our universities on short term basis without any additional burden imposed. He stated that to implement this idea there has to be a change of rules and regulations. 

Alumni Association President Rajeev Amarasuriya who presided at the Annual General Meeting, in his address highlighted the focus areas of activity for the next year which included a series of projects planned for the welfare of the undergraduates and membership development.

He said that an area that the Association will be focusing on is to encourage enrolling Young Alumni as members of the Association and encourage them to commence their involvement as active Alumni soon after leaving the university. He mentioned that the socio-economic environment was different today, and young alumni sometimes have greater priorities before serving their alma mater.

He said that the Association needs to move with the times and cater to the changing needs of the membership, and would therefore formulate a series of benefits for members.

Speaking at the event the Vice Chancellor Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake said that the university has been given Grade A ranking by the Institutional Review conducted by the University Grants Commission. Among the key initiatives outlined were the addition of two new faculties to the University of Colombo, namely the Faculty of Technology and Faculty of Nursing, which the Vice Chancellor informed is expected to be ready for student intakes as early as next year.

The Vice Chancellor also commented that the quality of teaching within the university was excellent as is the ability to learn amongst the undergraduates, given that it is the cream of the students who are admitted to the University of Colombo based on the high ‘z’ score rankings obtained at the Advance Level examination. Therefore the current expectations gap perceived by employers when recruiting university graduates is on account of the improvements needed with regard to the soft skills of the undergraduates. 

In order to address this lacuna, the Vice Chancellor mentioned that the university had launched several initiatives with long term vision such as strengthening of the Career Guidance Centre, tie ups with leading corporates in the private sector to source expertise in soft skill development and also internationalisation of the programs conducted by the university by signing MOU’s with several leading universities overseas.

The Secretary of the Association, Ruwandhi Thanthrige presented the Annual Report of the Association, highlighting several activities and initiatives undertaken by the Association in the last year.

Jithendra Gunathilake, the Treasurer of the Association also formally launched a mentoring program for undergraduates on this occasion. This program will consist of ‘one to one’ sessions as well as group sessions that will help the undergraduates to acquire soft skills that are necessary for them to be more employable for jobs in the government and private sectors. The unique feature of this mentoring program will be that resource personnel will be conducting the group sessions at the university student hostels in addition to the sessions that will be conducted within the university premises. 

The Executive Committee for 2016/2017 comprise of Mr. Rajeev Amarasuriya (President), Mr. LakshmanKeerthisinghe (Immediate Past President), Ms. SuranjaniWickremeratne (Vice President), Ms. RuwandhiThanthrige (Secretary), Dr. NaazimaKamardeen (Asst. Secretary), Mr. JithendraGunatilake (Treasurer), Mr. J.M.S. Bandara (Asst. Treasurer), Ms. MaheshaAmarasuriya (Editor), Mr. AjithJayawardene (Asst. Editor), Prof. GihanWickramanayake, Mr. M.K. Gnanasekera, Mr. Milton Arandara, Mr. G. Wijemanne, Mr. Channa De Silva, Mr. IsuruThilakawardena, Mr. NayanthaWijesundara, Mr. K.D.R Siriwardena, Mr. D.H.W Kirinde, and Ms. Ruhani De Silva, with Mr. TissaDevendra, Mr. J. CharithaRatwatte, Mr. ThilakKarunaratne,Ms. RamaneeAmarasuriya and Mr. P.W. Senaratne as Past President Advisors.

A UNIQUE FELICITATION OF EIGHT SENIOR DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI

To coincide with the AGM, a charming felicitation ceremony was conducted to recognise and felicitate eight Senior Distinguished Alumni of the University of Sri Lanka, which was the predecessor of the University of Colombo, for the outstanding services they have rendered to the nation.

They were veteran film actress Kala Keerthi Mrs. IranganiSerasinghe who graduated in 1947, Writer and former President of the Dutch Burgher Union, Colombo, and Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands Ms. DeloraineBrohier who graduated in 1950, former Director / Secretary of Forbes and Walker Ltd. and Chartered Accountant Mr. B.D.K Saldin,leading intellectual and winner of the World No-Tobacco Day Award by the World Health Organisation in 2012 and Chairman, Sri Lanka Medical Council Prof. Carlo Fonseka, Former Chairman of the Public Service Commission and Salaries Commission and founder President of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo Mr. TissaDevendra who graduated in 1952, the award winning writer and Gratiaen Prize Winner with Carl Muller Mrs. Lalitha K Withanachchi, Emeritus Professor of Economics and President of the Economic Association Prof. A.D.V. Indraratne and Agriculture Culture Specialist, researcher and author Dr. C.R. Panabokke who graduated in 1949.

Pix by Lasantha Kumara