By Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda in a speech to the researchers of the University of Peradeniya argues that the current idea of a university in Sri Lanka is no longer adequate and needs to be reinvented.
He begins by tracing the history of the idea of a university in Sri Lanka, arguing that the early founders of the University of Ceylon envisioned a localized version of the British university model that would be appropriate to the needs and conditions of the local society.
He also argues that the early university had a transformative social role to fulfill, providing social emancipation for the underprivileged, marginalized, and structurally excluded social classes.
However, Uyangoda argues that the university in Sri Lanka has decayed significantly since independence and is no longer able to fulfil its social mission. He identifies two main reasons for this:
The dismantling of the welfare state since the late 1970s has meant that the university can no longer provide free education and vernacularizing of the university education, which had enabled the brightest of the underprivileged social classes to achieve social emancipation.
The neo-liberalization of the economy and the education system has led to a redefinition of the social role of education in terms of the market logic of its contribution to the competitive labour market, economic costs, returns, and profits.
This has delinked the university from society and re-linked it with the capitalist market and its profit-maximizing priorities.
Uyangoda argues that this neo-liberal idea of a university is incompatible with the idea of a university as a transformative social space or a transformative agency.
He concludes by calling for a reinvention of the idea of a university in Sri Lanka, one that is based on the progressive aspects of the thinking of the early founders of the University of Ceylon, and that is committed to the social emancipation of all citizens.
Key points:
The current idea of a university in Sri Lanka is no longer adequate and needs to be reinvented.
The early founders of the University of Ceylon envisioned a localized version of the British university model that would be appropriate to the needs and conditions of the local society, and that would have a transformative social role to fulfil.
However, the university in Sri Lanka has decayed significantly since independence and is no longer able to fulfil its social mission. This is due to the dismantling of the welfare state and the neo-liberalization of the economy and the education system.
The neo-liberal idea of a university is incompatible with the idea of a university as a transformative social space or a transformative agency.
Uyangoda calls for a reinvention of the idea of a university in Sri Lanka, one that is based on the progressive aspects of the thinking of the early founders of the University of Ceylon, and that is committed to the social emancipation of all citizens.
