An Academic Spring in Sri Lanka?

The Island 28/07/2011

By Camena Guneratne and
Harini Amarasuriya
Open University of Sri Lanka

The Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) has called off the trade union action it launched more than two months ago, somewhat unexpectedly. The blogsphere is buzzing with comments, reactions and analyses of the suspension of the trade union action. This reaction itself shows the degree to which FUTA had succeeded in mobilising university teachers. It now appears that the FUTA membership may have been a few steps ahead of the FUTA leadership; thus, the unexpected suspension of the union action, without sufficient consultation with the sister unions has created a storm. The intention of this article is not to analyse FUTA’s decision or the reaction to it, but rather, to offer a perspective on the recent mobilisation of university teachers which evolved during more than two months of university wide trade union action.

Although the FUTA trade union action originated in a demand that the government honour its undertaking to increase salaries, it has metamorphosed amongst the membership into a movement of much greater significance. After decades of invisibility the academic community is now asserting its place in Sri Lankan civil society. Emboldened by the strength and commitment of its membership FUTA’s platform has also broadened from the original demand of a salary package to ‘attract, recruit and retain’ academics within the state university system. Today the academic community is not merely demanding a salary increase and other emoluments but is questioning the fate of higher education in Sri Lanka, university autonomy, academic freedom, student rights and the need to protect democratic spaces. This signals something more than the anger of a disgruntled, under paid and unappreciated professional body, but also an awakening of a sense of social awareness and responsibility. This movement has brought together university academics from different universities, disciplinary backgrounds and political affiliations in ways not seen in recent times. FUTA suspending the trade union action when many of these demands including that of salary have not been satisfactorily addressed, has certainly shocked many university teachers who supported the union action passionately.

This activism and resurgence among the academic community has been compared to the awakening of a sleeping giant, of academics proving that they have vertebrae, of a community emerging from a long, largely self imposed silence. This suggests that prior to the events and activities of the past two months, Sri Lankan academics (by and large) have been not just asleep but somewhat irrelevant for society. University teachers who have spoken out in the recent past have done so based on political party affiliation. We have not been making ourselves heard as independent social commentators and analysts in our own right. But the signs are there that this is now changing. Picking up a newspaper in Sri Lanka during the past few weeks or browsing the web, it was evident that academics had (and will continue to have) plenty to say on a range of issues. Our intention in this article is to consider the role of the country’s academic community in this broader context and to try and understand the recent activism as well as the past silence of Sri Lankan university teachers. The changes that we have observed in our community recently, we hope, signals a reawakening that will lead us towards a critical reflection of our role in society and the establishment of the kind of university culture that would help us fulfil this role.

Role of Higher Education

If we follow the recent ‘official’ discourse on the role of higher education in Sri Lanka, one may be forgiven for believing that the sole purpose of higher education (and therefore of academics) is to solve the unemployment problem in the country. In other words, what we are expected to do is to create ‘employable graduates’. Universities and academics are under enormous pressure to produce ‘marketable’ graduates and programmes. However, this is an extremely narrow and short sighted vision of higher education. According to the Bonn Declaration adopted at the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development 2009, higher education has three core functions:

1. Research,

2. Teaching

3. Service of the community

Service of the community includes generating knowledge and advancing the understanding of issues that challenge the sustainable development of society. Our core function of teaching relates to producing ethical citizens who are committed to the values of peace, human rights and democracy. This clearly is a much broader vision of higher education than that envisaged by successive Higher Education authorities in Sri Lanka recently. The suppression (at times with the complicity of academics) of this broader mission for higher education is what has also kept Sri Lankan academics asleep and in exile during the past few decades.

The importance of academic freedom and university autonomy needs to be considered within this broader understanding of the role of higher education. In order to be able to fulfil our core functions with responsibility, universities and university teachers need to be independent and critical. They must develop the kind of culture which encourages debate and discussion, rewards academic rigour and intellectual curiosity and, most importantly, a sense of social responsibility. If we understand the role of higher education and the responsibilities of those involved in higher education in this context, then the role of academics is far removed from the mere pursuit of knowledge. Research cannot be only for the sake of promotions and career development. Teaching cannot be merely about regurgitating notes that have circulated for years among students. Our role calls for an active engagement with society, especially with our students; in fact, it calls for academics to take the lead in speaking out on issues concerning wider society. Academic freedom and university autonomy are rights that the university community enjoys in order to fulfil its social obligations in a responsible manner. We cannot fulfil our core functions if we are restrained and kept under control.

Autonomy & independence

The academic community in Sri Lanka today has recognised the need to fight for its autonomy and independence and its relevance in civil society. However, we will not be successful in our efforts to do so, if we imagine that this fight is only with external forces. This fight has to also take place within our universities. Just as much as we call upon the authorities to refrain from undermining our freedom and autonomy, we need to reflect on university culture in contemporary Sri Lanka and attempt to understand how and why we silenced ourselves and contributed to our irrelevance during the last several years. How did we get into a situation where different political regimes were able to interfere in our institutions with such impunity or politically controlled Vice Chancellors and the University Grants Commission could influence our academic spaces to the extent that they do now?

This is where it is important to consider how we should continue to mobilise and remain active outside of trade union activity. While FUTA gave us a spur, the changes we seek cannot be achieved through it—or certainly not through FUTA in its current shape and form. We need to reform our institutions, including FUTA to be in line with this broader agenda. Firstly, we need to reflect on our past silence and inaction. University culture often reflects broader cultural and political contexts; they present us with a microcosm of life outside the universities. And the politicisation of institutions as well as the growing authoritarian nature of governance systems, which has taken place in other institutions in Sri Lanka, certainly did not spare the university system. However, in this article, we would like to consider another factor which contributed to the erosion of university autonomy and academic freedom.

To be continued tomorrow

If we follow the recent ‘official’ discourse on the role of higher education in Sri Lanka, one may be forgiven for believing that the sole purpose of higher education (and therefore of academics) is to solve the unemployment problem in the country. In other words, what we are expected to do is to create ‘employable graduates’. Universities and academics are under enormous pressure to produce ‘marketable’ graduates and programmes. However, this is an extremely narrow and short sighted vision of higher education. According to the Bonn Declaration adopted at the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development 2009, higher education has three core functions:


Read Part II