Mr. Gamini Gunawardane, in his article on the late Gamini Hatthotuwegama in The Island of the 18th of this month related how he was mesmerised by seeing in the flesh, exalted characters like Prof. Senarath Paranavithana and the like when he was an under graduate at the University of Ceylon in the fifties. This writer also has such warm memories about his university life. But the big question is, would the present day under graduates remember such mythical characters in their university lives, in the future? What caused a dearth of such intellectuals in our universities?

Most of the universities in the island are closed for even a trivial incident. The students know that the authorities have no far reaching solutions to the problems faced by the higher educational institutions in the country. The academic community and the administration are like the proverbial blind mice in this respect. When an incident occurs, their only solution is to close the university and reopen it after a few days or weeks. No one is interested in finding lasting remedies to these problems. The state has more important problems to deal with.

Most of these universities have management faculties but lack the will to find solutions to these never ending problems. The departments of social sciences and sociology always give attention to the outside problems ignoring the problems under their noses.

The main reason for the various untoward happenings in the universities is the lack of a close relationship between the teachers and the students. The students have lots of problems but no one is there to listen to them. Many members of the academic staff are engaged in a struggle to make ends meet. A labourer in the Petroleum Corporation gets more than a professor. Most of them run tutories or teach at various institutions to earn an additional income. Some cultivate politicians to get lucrative jobs in corporations neglecting research and their duties at the universities. Every government is misled into thinking that these university dons can work miracles in such posts.

The highest administrative officer in the university is a political yes man. Students also become the cats paw of politicians. This creates rivalry among them. Some universities established recently are unable to find teachers to teach subjects in their universities. Subjects are selected according to the whims and fancies of the teachers. They have not considered the appropriateness of such subjects in terms of what the country needs. Now in all universities there are management faculties. No one has pondered whether the country needs such a large number of managers. This is a criminal wastage of public funds and human resources. The University Grants Commission is unable to solve such problems for the future generations of the country. It is a failure. The best alternative is to scrap the UGC and empower the universities to operate freely and independently as in the past. The vast sums of money allocated to the UGC can be diverted for the development these institutions. The UGC started as a small unit and now has spread its tentacles over all higher education institutions making it a white elephant not contributing anything to the development of higher education in the country.

Inhuman raging has destroyed university life. This has made parents and students turn to foreign university degrees. They have realised that they can obtain a degree within a short period, and there is a big demand for such graduates in this country and in other countries.

Though Parliament has enacted a law against raging in higher educational institutions, this has not been implemented. Later, these bad elements are appointed as teachers in schools bring student discipline down. No country appoints teachers without a teaching certificate, but in Sri Lanka, government schools have become a dumping ground for excess graduates.

This vote catching practice must stop forthwith in the interest of the discipline and well being of the younger generation. The ultimate result of this unwholesome situation is emergence of international schools all over the country.

The authorities must make arrangements to identify the raggers, cancel their internal studentship and enroll them as external students. Further freshers could be admitted without the senior students and allow them to organise themselves to face any threat from the seniors before the seniors come back to the university. The admissions must be phased out in such a way so as not to allow the senior students to control the freshers. Under the Universities Act Student Unions are not allowed to have any affiliation with unions outside the university. It is high time the Inter University Students Federation was banned forthwith to bring peace to higher education institutions in the country.

Recruitment of teachers to higher education institutions has been a failure. Raw graduates without any experience are recruited to the staff. This has dealt a big blow to the quality of teaching in universities and other higher education institutions in the country. The number of permanent teachers must be reduced and the services of professionals from various fields must be obtained. For instance, managers must be trained by professionally trained managers and not by book learners without any practical knowledge.

The allegations of favouritism, in awarding marks could be removed by allowing the students to check their answer scripts after marking them. This may eliminate malpractices in the second marking of scripts. The present practice of conducting special degree courses must be scraped and students must be allowed to follow a general degree course if they prefer. The subjects at the advanced level examination prevent intelligent students being qualified to follow certain courses at the universities. A number of important common subjects must be introduced at the advance level examination so as to allow the students to select courses according to their interests.

No government will be able to provide government jobs to all graduates passing out from universities and higher educational institutions in the country. When recruiting employees to various posts in the government service, priority must be given to candidates selected for admission to universities and they must be given the opportunity to further their education when they need to upgrade their skills.