Sri Lanka’s Brain Drain
By Anushka Saelen
Sri Lankan students at a foreign university
Growing uncertainty over the future of the university students in Sri Lanka have forced parents to look for alternatives overseas. This is despite promises made by the government last year to open foreign universities here to give more students an opportunity of higher education.
While the government remains divided over the Quality Assurance Accreditation and Qualification Framework Bill, students are being forced to go abroad in order to pursue university degrees as the local universities can accommodate only a small percentage of students who are qualified for university entrance.
Even those who enter local universities are forced to deal with university closures for various reasons. In 2009 less than 4 percent of students were accepted into the public universities. Those who were not accepted nor had the finances to go abroad are forced to take up vocational training or enter the workforce as unskilled labor.
The state universities also face major obstacles due to a lack of funding as the government continues to allocate only a small percentage of the annual budget to higher education. In 2012 the allocated budget for education is a lowly Rs. 33.25 billion. Of which only 18 percent is to be spent on higher education.
The shortcomings in Sri Lanka’s education system are highlighted by the shortages of locally trained professionals. In the government and private hospitals doctors from countries such as India and Bangladesh are being hired as there is a shortage of local doctors.
Despite the apparent shortcomings in the universities in the country, local student groups continue to oppose the opening of international universities in the country.
Inter-university Student Center Convener, Asanka Bulegoda, explained that “the private universities that the government are attracting to the country are low quality. The medical college in Malabe (South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine) follows a poorly designed curriculum and does not match the standards that are expected of medical professionals. However, the government has allowed it and now they will be producing second rate doctors. Sri Lanka has always provided free education to the people; if private universities are to be introduced they will threaten this.”
Bulegoda admitted that there are numerous shortcomings in the university system in the country but did not accept the opening of private universities would solve them.
Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr Sunil Jayantha Nawarathna, refuted these allegations. “All universities that the government is hoping to invite to the country are of the highest quality”, he said.
Dr Nawarathna refused to comment on what universities Sri Lanka was looking to attract to the country, but confirmed that they were willing to open branches here.
Dileesha Fernando, mother of Sanjeeva Fernando, is being forced to look at other options for her son’s future as he has not been accepted to a local university and she cannot afford to send him overseas.
“Those who are opposing the private universities are doing so because they do not truly understand the benefits it would bring the country. My son has not been accepted to any of the local universities, while the Ministry has not given any proper explanation. We feel that this is due to a lack of available spots. My husband and I can afford the tuition fees of a private university, but it is not possible to support him living overseas. If he was to go to England or Australia we would have to not only have to pay the fees but also his living expenses. In today’s economic climate that is not an easy thing to do. If the private universities were opened here, we would be able to send him to one of those,” she said.
With the growing concerns over their future, parents are turning to education programs affiliated to overseas universities.
On July 26 a press conference was held by ANZ Education to announce that twenty Sri Lankan students would be offered scholarships worth Rs. 50 million to go and study at the New Generations College (NGC) in Melbourne, Australia. Co-founder of NGC, Dr Neil Lennie, said that they planned to give full scholarships worth Rs. 2.5 million each to promising students from the country.
According to Dr Lennie they are offering the scholarships because they want to “take a few students who do not have the finances to pay for a proper college education themselves.”
The college is specially designed for ‘A’ Level students, with a wide range of subject choices. Those who graduate from the college will receive the Victorian Certificate of Education which is equivalent of an ‘A’ Level. With this qualification these students will have access to different universities in the US, UK and Australia.
Often when students go overseas for higher studies they choose to remain in those countries as the job opportunities are greater there. If this trend continues, Sri Lanka will find itself with a depleted skilled workforce.
Bet you will not post this….but
Brain drain is when educated people leave a country – not when young people go overseas to gain brain.
If education becomes commodity, then universities and colleges are the production units. Those commodities that can be sold in reasonably high price will be produced more. In this marketing competition the arts and literature and other social , political and linguistic subjects will definitely be marginalized as these can not be sold even lesser price in the market. This will definitely lead to identity crisis. In India this privatized education system is spoiling human relations. It compels to see even the love, affection and other emotional aspects as the commodity. Fathers and mothers are sent to Geriatric Homes. Anything(including parents) which are not useful are thrown into dustbin. If the foreign universities are allowed , as Edward Said said, the brain of SriLankan will be dominated with Western culture and ideas.
i_muthiah@yahoo.co.in
Your statement is a fallacy. Privatized education does not equate to a dearth in ethics or morals (which I believe you worded it as ‘human relations’). Ethics and morals are learnt through experience, family, and friends (what we collectively coined as society). The pedagogical skills and material of an education institutes (local or foreign, private or government funded) employees is not directly proportional to the outcome of it’s graduates life skills or ethics or morals. Asian culture and ideas are not superior than to Western culture, and vice-versa. However, the number of skilled people graduating from certain Western education institutions and their skills acquired are of higher value than in Asian countries. If you don’t believe that, look around you. Most of the things you probably use daily were invented in Western societies (most synthetic clothing material, the combustion engine, the automobile, the computer, the cellphone, the communication satellite, to name a few) and came to you at an affordable cost partly because of globalization (a Western invention), and partly due to those inventions being available to other countries to use.
Thanks for highlighting but nothing is going to happen.
Govt and its members are busy funding their pockets. No action will be taken up against perpetrators because if they do, there will be a confusion who points whom.
A massive restructure & clean-up is needed but unless and until public realize and strive for a want for this, lick you own A55eS.
Who in their right mind would want to live in SL, let alone get an education.
Dear readers please ask any student who sat for the A level exams whether he or she would like to get an education in an oveseas University in the west if they coul afford it,.the answer would be that an overwhelming majority would say yes. The stanadard of University education is in the doldrums. Churning out thousands of graduates with worthess Arts degrees who are a burden on society as they demand jobs as their right not a privilege. What we need are Graduates and technologists with skills. I dont see anything wrong with well recognised Universities from the west having campuses here. They could educate students who are of University entrance standard who could not enter local Universities.These Universities would bring the latest Technologies from the west that our Universities do not have at present. Of course The teaching of the sciences in Sinhala will be a No no.at these places of learning.If we want to keep our good brains here give them a chance by inviting Well recognised Universities from the west to have their branches an faculty here.