The future of many young Sri Lankans are largely determined by their performance at the GCE A/L examination. There is a two-fold consequence of this unhealthy situation in the higher educational sector; firstly, it creates intense competition for the limited number of seats available in universities and it frames the students based on the subject stream offered at GCE A/L.
Only about 20% out of 194,297 students who qualified for higher education in Sri Lanka through GCE A/L in 2021, would be admitted to the State universities to pursue higher education. Fortunately, there are a variety of avenues availableunlike in the past, for the rest of 80% students who passed the GCE A/L to accomplish their life goals but are not free of cost as in the State universities.
The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) is one of the outstanding avenues available for the students to make their dreams come true in higher education. OUSL offers them with all the facilities and academic environment like in other 16 State universities. In addition, students can enjoy unique privileges of the open and distance learning (ODL) system, in pursuing their higher educational goals at the OUSL.
A pioneer in higher education
The OUSL was established in 1983 to provide opportunities for Sri Lankans to develop their professional and academic capacity, at any stage of their life. OUSL is the second oldest Open University in South Asia and a global pioneer in introducing degree programmes in science and engineering in open and distance learning (ODL) mode.
The OUSL offers 75 study programs ranging from certificates, degrees to PhDs with over 1000 courses. These courses are offered by six faculties: Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Natural sciences, Engineering technology, Management and Health sciences with competent academics of whom nearly 40% have PhDs.This is in par with the academic standards of other State universities (fig 1). With more than 40,000 registered studentships at present, the OUSL operates over nine regional centers (similar to mini campuses) and 19 study centers island -wide and boast of being the largest university in Sri Lanka.
Open for all
Unlike the other State universities, the OUSL offers an opportunity for any person to develop their academic and professional qualifications at any stage of life. In case if they do not possess the required entry qualifications, arrangements are there in the OUSL to fulfil such requirements.
This is an excellent opportunity for those who like to change the field of higher education from the subject streams they studied in GCE A/L. All students in the OUSL are considered as internal students and all qualifications offered by the OUSL are considered as internal qualifications and degrees. There is no difference in recognition of the qualifications offered by the OUSL and other State universities.
The ODL mode practised at the OUSL endows learners with the opportunity to carry on their learning from the place where they are at a pace, sustaining with other work independently. This mode of learning is now time tested to be the most resilient mode of learning under any prevailing conditions including the pandemic.
Conventional face-to-face learning mode of many universities is rapidly adopting ODL features to withstand the impact of pandemic.
The flexible learning approach integrated with the ODL mode offers students to learn while they work. Multiple entry option allows students to enroll to the academic programmes at different levels based on their prior learning.
For instance, a student who completed the first year in a recognised university can enroll to a degree programme in the OUSL from second year onwards. Similarly, students can exit the degree programmes at different levels, for instance, at the end of second year as higher diploma holders and return to complete the rest at a later stage. Moreover, students can register to two academic programs (ex; degree programs) simultaneously. Students of OUSL can adjust the academic workload to accommodate their social and personal responsibilities.
Lost opportunity regained
A large majority of students in the OUSL are employed. A recent study in the Faculty of Natural Sciences revealed that 56% of students were employed. The substantial percentage of students who are following degree programmes, particularly in management, science and engineering are school leavers.
A recent study in the Faculty of Natural Sciences showed that students with average passes (z = 0.4720) in science stream of GCE A/L perform well in their degree programs and obtain degrees with second or first classes. These students open up avenues to further their education upto Masters or PhD level. This scenario also indicates the existence of a student-friendly teaching and learning environment in the OUSL.
In the 40 years of its existence, the OUSL has paved the way for thousands of students to become graduates or diploma holders in various fields and elevate their living standards. Some of them even stepped far beyond, taking the OUSL as a springboard, to earn their Masters and PhDs from other universities including those overseas.
Some of them have joined up as scientists or academics in several research and higher educational institutes here while others have opted to live overseas. There are several OUSL academics serving in the OUSL as lecturers. The OUSL is the affordable avenue to make true the dreams of thousands of students who could not gain entrance to the conventional universities through GCE A/L.
Simply put, the lost opportunity for higher education can be regained from the OUSL. The annual graduate output in three faculties in the OUSL is above the average of other State universities under UGC (fig 2).
A recent study in the Faculty of Natural Sciences indicated that 85.2% of the students are 18-30 years of age. A comparative study revealed that OUSL spent the least amount of Government funds per graduate produced, out of all national universities (fig 3). Hence, OUSL can be regarded as a national asset with a unique role.
Way forward
Nonetheless there are several aspects in the OUSL to be improved to make it a vibrant national university. Many of the existing functions need to be reviewed and upgraded to match the current demand and this includes alleviating the student politics in some faculties.
It was observed that OUSL is required to attract a substantial percentage of high performing students and those of affluent backgrounds to its study programs in future. An innovative approach is required for this which may include introduction of courses and programs in demanding fields, integration of student mobility programs for international exposure and international internships, fast-track degree programs and offering full scholarships for students with higher Z score at GCE A/L or with outstanding talents.
Even the world class universities practice similar strategies to attract high performing students. It is well documented that a higher percentage of high-performing students contribute to uplift the overall academic standing of the students and the institute, on whole.
Catering to students’ preference
Another innovative strategy, the OUSL could adopt is dual mode delivery of courses. Each component course has two perspectives in the mode of delivery here. Such a scheme enables it to cater to the students’ preference of learning mode.
The students who prefer attending conventional face-to-face learning can take up that mode while the others can follow the same course in conventional ODL mode. Face-to-face learning is an inclusive mode in ODL which could be effectively deployed under this scheme to meet the demand by young school leavers. This dual mode delivery would be a model of futuristic university education. Student evaluation can also be improved by incorporating alternative assessment schemes supported by the island-wide IT network in the OUSL.
Joint study programs
The demand for overseas academic programmes from the school leavers is increasing and many private higher educational institutes in Sri Lanka pitch their study programmes to fulfil this demand.
Given its vast resource base and the young student population, OUSL may set up a separate academic wing to offer joint study programmes with local and overseas counterparts at a nominal rate for local students across the island.
Such a strategy, in turn, may be helpful in attracting overseas students from newly developing nations in Asia and Africa to increase the income. OUSL is looking forward to making use of existing partnerships with the foreign universities, some of which include student exchange programmes (ex; with Oakayama University in Japan).
Services to other universities
The OUSL has a wealth of resources and assets of which the utilization can further be enhanced and expanded. The fully-fledged Centre of Educational Technology and Media and university press has unprecedented facilities to develop learning resources for higher education. The network of regional and study centers with island-wide IT infrastructure could be upgraded to offer academic and testing services to other universities throughout the island.
Mobile laboratories built in 40-foot containers could be introduced to supplement the dearth of resources, particularly for courses in science, engineering and health sciences, at the regional centers so that learning requirements could be provided efficiently when and where they are in need.
This seems to be a more cost-effective strategy than building complete laboratories and maintaining instruments which are used for a limited time of the year. The island-wide learning facility is considered as a strategic requirement to carry on university functions under the present pandemic situation. There is no other decentralised higher educational facility managed through a centralised administration in Sri Lanka.
The future of the OUSL should be based on innovative educational business models that uphold the quality standards and inclusivity further. This model must take into account the unique role played by the OUSL in Sri Lanka and enhance it further while opening new avenues to gain competitive advantage in the higher education field. The community around us can be visualised as a pond of lotus through the educational perspective. In the cross section of such a pond can see flowers and buds at various stages of development. Those flowers which are in bloom resemble those who attain academic achievements promptly while the buds in the pond are like those who are planning to achieve their academic goals at the later stage.
Various reasons could have contributed for them to delay the development but once they attained to the blooming stage, there is no observable difference between them and those that bloomed early.
However, if failed to secure the opportunity to rise above the water, most of these buds may perish in the water. Over the 40 years of its excellence, the OUSL rendered exceptional service to the nation by providing opportunities for thousands of people to rise above the surface to attain their blooming stage at any stage of life.
The writer is a Senior Lecturer in Botany and Director of International Affairs at the Open University of Sri Lanka.