Before we examine the nature of the Higher Education Policy, which Sri Lanka proposes to project in the future with a view to bringing about a complete transformation of the system of Higher Education on the basis of the global considerations and changes, one has to begin this discussion with an examination of the colonial model of higher education which the country inherited during the British period. The legacies of the colonial model, primarily the Colonial University, in a way, still persist within the system as this tradition made a significant impact on the institutions of higher learning which came to be established in the twenties.

In India, the first University was established in 1857 whereas in Sri Lanka, what was established in 1921 was an apology for a university; the University College was established in 1921 to prepare candidates for the degrees of the University of London. The system of University education, since it began formally in 1921, has been in existence for little less than a century and the increase in their numbers during the last forty years has been almost phenomenal.

There is also a marked tendency to create more and still more universities; there is also the demand for the establishment of new faculties like medicine. This shows the interest which people at large have evinced in higher education. The expansion of the secondary school sector in the last fifty years has had a tremendous impact on the demand for higher education and the number of universities had to be increased in response to this growing demand for more and more higher educational opportunities in the country. It was discovered that mere multiplication did not necessarily imply a proportionate improvement in quality, standards and intellectual development. It needs to be pointed out that there is a deterioration in standards of intellectual activities of universities and this, in my view, needs to be analysed from the point of view of the historical considerations. In the period of the colonial university, which functioned on the basis of a restricted intake, the education imparted by the university made students strangers to their own traditional beliefs and their own culture and language.

In this context, I would like to quote Rajendra Prasad, the former President of India, who highlighted a vital aspect of the colonial university. He stated, "Universities were undoubtedly situated physically on the land and under the sky of India, but in their spirit, they had more in common with England or Europe than with India". What was taught to them in these places had absolutely no relevance to their home or to the life of their country’. This was the characterisation of the colonial university which, in the case of Sri Lanka, displayed a set of unique features, some of which were linked to the aspirations of the then nationalist movement. It was one segment of this movement which campaigned for a fully-fledged independent and autonomous university, which, in their eyes, was to ‘contribute to a renewal of indigenous Ceylonese culture’. The University College had an examination system which had a foreign curricula which, as Prof. Ralph Peiris pointed out, ‘resulted in the retardation of the indigenous languages and the stultification of scientific development’. Therefore, with the creation of the University of Ceylon in 1942, an attempt was made to break away from the tradition and the university began to give prominence to Oriental Languages and Culture, resulting in the emergence of traditional disciplines as the dominant areas of study in the University. Jennings, in his own way, saw the absence of a cultural background in the Colonial University and he, referring to the available tradition associated with a few learned monks, stated that "this tradition is extremely valuable, for though it does not provide a foundation on which to build, it enables the university to realise as its task, not the creation of a pale of imitation of the Western culture, but the revival of an ancient civilisation which would, in the process of re-development, absorbs the best that East and West could produce, and at the same time to associate a cultural renaissance with the nationalism of the politically-conscious classes".

Jennings, in fact, stated that "elsewhere colonial universities are not likely to have this advantage". It was on the basis of this tradition, which came to be established within the University of Ceylon in its initial phase, that traditional disciplines came to be enthroned in the entire system and even the universities, which came to be established in the sixties and seventies, emulated the same, and the curricula were based on this orientation. It was this intellectual tradition which culminated in the establishment of universities with strong Arts Faculties, which gave pride of place to both Humanities and Social Sciences, and this over-emphasis on such subjects created an army of Arts graduates, whose employment became a problem for the Sri Lankan State.

Although the Osmund Jayaratne Committee in 1970 did a study on this subject and proposed a rationalisation scheme of the university courses, this was not implemented. However, it opened the eyes of the policy-makers for the need for diversification of the courses in the Universities.

The growth of the Arts stream, though it was part of the legacy of the British period, was entirely due to the nature of the secondary school system in the country which from the British times has remained highly weighted in favour of the Arts subjects. In most of provincial schools, which are not as equipped as the National Schools, most of the students offer Arts subjects at the A/L examination, and this has resulted in a large increase in the Arts intake. In making adjustments in relation to access, this phenomenal increase of Arts students need special consideration as the country, with the assistance of the World Bank, proposes to diversify the system.

It is on the basis of the improvement of the access that both quality and relevance could be developed within the system. The access, through the external degree programme and enrollment in tertiary institutions, has expanded for the last several years. The expansion needs to be accompanied with inclusiveness, and it essentially means an increase in enrollment. The haphazard expansion, the adoption of ad hoc policies to tackle issues of access, and the over-emphasis on traditional disciplines, the continued reliance on the Arts system, resistance to curriculum reform, have affected the economic relevance and quality improvement in the higher educational sector. All these ills, including those factors associated with violence and closures of the Universities have created a situation where the graduate find it difficult to find a job in the private sector as they do not fit into the jobs in this sector. Therefore the burden is on the State and the perception of the graduate, articulated by certain political parties, is that it is the duty of the State to provide them with employment; the perception in this country is that a student goes to the university not to acquire knowledge but to get a job, and the whole concept of the University has been overturned.

The State, by compulsion, is expected to provide them with jobs. It is only through a rational diversification of the system, and also with an expansion of the non-tertiary sector that we can bring an end to such attitudes and perceptions. As long as the entire system remains totally State-funded such perceptions cannot be eliminated. In my view, a construction of a highly competitive system of higher educational institutions, embracing both the public and the private sector, would bring about a change in relation to these issues, which are part of the political culture developed as a result of the partial impact of the social demand model of education and once competitiveness enters the system on the basis of global considerations, the system is certain to produce both economic relevance and quality. Since the development of a knowledge economy remains an important goal of all the developing countries, the establishment of educational institutions of global excellence should be the priority of the countries in our region. Our experience in higher education, the role and capacity of our higher educational institutions, including those in the non-tertiary sector, is more than sufficient to build a base for the emergence of global centres of excellence.

The World Bank sponsored programmes in universities have laid a solid foundation for this kind of change, and quality improvement, in the form of a panacea, has captured the minds of academics, whose role, as both teachers and researchers, have visibly declined in the last two or three decades due primarily to the absence of a vibrant intellectual culture in the Universities. When I speak of a global university, as a centre of global excellence, I envisage, in my own way, a new curriculum and a research culture based on an awareness of the political, economic, social and cultural phenomena, without which issues of global significance could not be understood.