Doctoral 248
Liberal Arts 217
Masters 573
Professional 324

The first two types are more oriented to producing scholar types who have majored in some Arts or Science subject and the latter two types more likely to graduate students with professional degrees directly geared to the work place. We once had a undergraduate in classics interning in our office. She had no trouble learning the ropes help us set up a database in Access. Scholars may not be trained for a job but they can be quick learners.

Universities in Sri Lanka produce neither fish nor fowl. More like they take semi-atrophied minds and complete the process.

What should be the role of the universities of this country today?

Is it to produce the workforce required in the job market of tomorrow or is it purely to make scholars, without giving any regard to the demands of the job market?

If it is former, there is no point in producing a large number of Arts and Science graduates who cannot match the available vacancies in the job market. If government (=universities) continues to produce this high number of Arts and Science graduates nobody should question why the private sector cannot absorb them. The private sector cannot simply because it does not need scholars who know only about Buddhist Civilization. There might be few vacancies for Science graduates, but that too is limited.

The kuppi culture will remain as long as students do not see a direct correlation between what they study and what they may later use in their professional life.

A Chemistry graduate, who might later work in a bank, does not use 99% of the stuff she had studied in the university. So it will be more convenient (and more productive) for her to cram the equations, write it for the paper and then forget all about it.

True, the IT and management faculties are more loosely linked with the world of work. Those links are more difficult with the arts and sciences (A&S) where we are still producing about 50% of the graduates. The ratio of arts and science to other degrees has changed over time with the universities giving out more professional degrees, especially management degrees.

In any event, the universities can not continue have a kuppi class culture and expect the industry to do the actual education of students. A&S education (or a liberal arts education as they say in the US), can be a good preparation for life, but much depends on the teachers. Academic staff in sciences has the PhDs and all but they themselves need to be trained in the art of education, before they educate their students. The staff development units are key in this regard and they are actually making a difference from what I have seen.

In the Arts faculties, the qualifications of the academic staff is a real serious issue. Our study shows that 23% do not have any post-graduate qualifications. Of the 50% with masters as the highest qualification almost all are local masters degrees with close to half being masters from the same university. These teachers are often people who are themselves products of a kuppi-class education experience and I am sure they have spent all their lives either taking exams or giving exams.

There are close to 1000 academic staff in arts and another 1500 in sciences. Investments in the continuing education and real-life (private sector) exposure to these individuals are the true leverage points in higher education reform, I think.

I fully agree with Chanuka’s steps for the govt.

Is there a limit to the number of graduates we can absorb to the private sector?

I do not think the situation can be generalised so easily. The number of graduates that can be absorbed to the private sector at any moment depends on how fast the private sector grows at any point.

After 1990s, the Sri Lankan banking sector grew fast and many graduates find good jobs in banks. The same happened in the apparel sector. Not many people know that a large number of graduates work in the apparel sector, not in the factory floor, but in the offices, as IT support staff, procurement officers, accounting officers etc.

Of course, nobody can expect the private sector to do blunders like giving jobs for 40,000+ graduates, without checking for their skills, and for vacancies that never existed in the first place. No private company wants to be an inefficient yet huge dinosaur as the government. After all, business is not charity.

Very briefly these are some of the things various parties can do, if they want more graduates finding jobs in the private sector.

Government:

1. Stop the war.
2. Introduce and implement reforms.
3. Let the private sector grow. (So there will be enough job opportunities)

Universities:

1. Change their syllabi to suit the needs of the industry better.
2. Maintain close links with the industry. (Computer Science and Eng. Dept. of Moratuwa University already does this.)
3. Encourage students to work as interns in the private sector so they will not go for the interviews as “fresh graduates” who knows nothing about the industry. (Management faculty of the J’pura University already does this.)
4. In addition to the regular staff, always get visiting lecturers from the industry to teach students (So students will have a feeling about the industry)
5. Do not limit the teaching just to theory. Teach students how to survive in the competitive job market

Students themselves:

1. Change their negative attitudes towards the private sector
2. Improve English and IT literacy
3. Work with private sector closely even while studying. Use their free time to work for a company, instead of organising strikes, attending protests and beating other student groups.
4. Most importantly, have a goal. (If a student aims to work in a bank, there is less point in doing Chemistry as a subject)
5. Do not think degree is everything. Do external examinations like CIMA, CCNA, BCS etc. These will be very helpful as additional qualifications.
6. Get out of the mind set that someone else there is waiting to give a job, just because a student has a degree. It is a competition and if everyone has a degree, the one with most additional qualifications win.

Computer Science and Engineering Department of Moratuwa University has a history of getting jobs for ALL its graduates, even before they are passed out. I agree that IT is a growing field, but if everyone else try, there is no way that they will fail.

His comments also support the analysis of Dr. G Usvatte-aratchi that there is a limit to the number of graduates that our economy can absorb at this point. Is that true for IT, though? According to a SLICTA survey of employers, there is a significant gap between the demand and supply for IT graduates, more demand than supply. More on that in a later post on the job market for graduates.

Kuppi? Well, to my understanding, it’s mostly used in reference to
revision classes that take place close to exams. It doesn’t really
mean “seniors teaching juniors,” although it _could_ be used in that
nature. Maybe it originally had a narrow meaning like that.

As far as I know though, it currently means a revision class of any a
kind. As in, even group study classes are often referred to as kuppi.

For example, a batch mate might tell me – “Exam uth langay, heta
kuppiyak damuda?”.

Another use is where a kid gives another student individual help in a
certain subject. Like, if someone is doing particularly well in a
certain course, another student might ask him/her – “Mata ara anthima
kotasa therenney nae bung, kuppiyak deepang ko.”

Of course, the seniors-teaching-juniors meaning is also still present.
Close to exams you will see posters from the various Student Councils
with dates for kuppi for each subject. These are usually taught by
seniors.

To sum up, I’d say the semantic meaning of ‘kuppi’ is pretty wide, and
encompasses just about any study class on campus.

One thing I haven’t seen however is what you mentioned at the end of
our conversation yesterday – that seniors tell kids that the stuff
taught in class is “old” and that they need to come for kuppi to be
taught current stuff.

Maybe this is campus specific, because I’ve never heard/seen this KLN
at all. In general, be it seniors or juniors, everyone is trying hard
to keep up with the workload, and any kuppi that take place are just
hurried revision classes closer to exams. I doubt that seniors have
the time or energy to keep up a continuous kuppi for juniors, let
alone find them ‘newer’ information than the Faculty can.

Oh, and you obviously know this, but just thought I’d make sure -
etymologically, kuppi was probably coined from ‘kuppi lampuwa,’ the
universal (at least in the universe of Sri Lanka symbol of
studying. Interestingly, the term doesn’t seem to have existed in the
undergraduate vocabulary when my parents were in university.

I have enough practical experience in recruitment, while working for my former company.

As a policy, we always went the last mile to get as much graduates to our team, but there were so many reasons that prevented us from doing so. Finally, out of the people I have involved in recruiting only about 10% were local graduates.

1) None of the local graduates whom I have interviewed ever wanted to take a job in marketing. (There are always plenty of vacancies in marketing, in the private sector) However, invariably every graduate wanted a “technical” job and was not willing to take a challenge.

2) The local graduates have either little or no practical experience on the type of the work we did. So we could only take them as trainees. The allowances for entry level trainees were in the range of Rs. 3,000 – 5,000. (This will change after six months or one year later, depending upon the performance to a higher level, say may be Rs. 10,000 – 20,000 or even more) Usually graduates wanted higher salaries, in spite of not having any experience and obviously could not be productive from the day one.

3) Overall, graduates were not ready to take challenges and risks. The high school dropouts (especially those from Colombo schools) were always ready to take challenges and risks, and flexible, so they obviously got the preference.

4) Some of the graduates were already married (even before getting a job) and expected high salaries. So there was no way we could accommodate them.

5) English knowledge was not all that good in case of local graduates. (But we were prepared to overlook this.) PC literacy was usually okay with every one of them.

So it is not just a question of lack of knowledge per say. It is a more complicated issue.

To summarise what I can say is most of the entry level jobs at the private sector are (perhaps unconsciously) designed for high school dropouts.

So, if graduates wanted to enter the private sector they have to either;

(a) Forget they are graduates, bite the bullet and go through the process (as I myself have done) or
(b) Have some sort of practical experience before they apply for the jobs

There is no other way they can beat the system.