By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

Dear Editor,

I refer to the letters from Rev. Dr. Albert Jebanesan and Rev. Nadarajah Arulnathan, and deny their charge that my article is inaccurate. It is funny that the former should write a protest letter with misleading and untrue statements and then append an opinionated  letter from the latter to buttress his accusations with no facts in support.

I was on the UGC at one time and many foreign graduates seeking employment in Sri Lanka would come to us for a letter certifying that their degree is accredited. Given that there are tens of thousands of universities, and we lacked the means to examine each one, our policy was simple. If that university was a British Commonwealth University and was listed in the Commonwealth Universities Year Book, then it was recognized and we issued a letter of certification.

Up to 2006, Serampore was not listed. Its degrees up to then therefore were not recognized in Sri Lanka. I doubt that something happened since then to change that. Even if it did (living in Jaffna I have no access to that book now) and Serampore was listed after that, such recognition would apply only to degrees issued after that change.

My research since then, however, shows that the Protestant Church authorities are heavily cheating on the matter of accreditation of TCL degrees. Pilimatalawa which, yes, issues Serampore BTh degrees as stated in my article, is a scandalous institution where Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Anglican and other Protestant Ministers are trained.

I have shown that for many years with Rev. Arulampalam Stephen of the Anglican Church as Dean, papers were set by students and marked by them – all purportedly by Stephen – to give themselves high marks. Rev. Stephen is blind and the authorities including Bishop Dushantha Rodrigo must have known that something was fishy when he did the exam paper setting and marking. When poor quality students are admitted it becomes necessary to find ways of passing them. Worse, there would be no clergy to staff clergy positions in the parishes if ways were not found to pass those incapable of passing exams. It was therefore a “wink-wink” situation as obvious when the scandal broke and the student Andrew Sujeevan who broke the story was punished with expulsion (reflecting Anglican clerical authoritarianism) whereas Stephen was merely demoted to Assistant Priest after a brief suspension. I reported it separately to the Serampore management and its Senate. There was no reply. I suppose they figured that punishing Pilimatalawa would have exposed their disregard for standards whereas ignoring the concerning reports would be less damaging.

Jebanesan joined the Methodist Church as a Minister in 1984 and therefore his BTh degree is unaccredited. During the war years academic standards collapsed. Many LTTE Maaveerar (Great Heroes) received degrees from Jaffna without admission/examination.

Gajaying

At Peradeniya one Gajendrakumar in earlier better times lived unofficially in the Peradeniya hostel and ate free. That practice is known as Gajaying. One TNA MP with  a similar name is said to have entered University of Jaffna “horse-riding” (that is, another sits the AL impersonating him) and Gajayed living in the hotel at Jaffna fomenting student unrest on behalf of the LTTE. The Faculty Board dutifully ensured that he passed his exams to be a graduate even though his marks were nearly always fail marks. Much of this is widely known, and friends who were on the Faculty Board then would say so in private but deny it for obvious reasons if asked directly.

This was a time when the UGC was reluctant to interfere with goings-on in Jaffna. Soon the UGC which is responsible for academic standards, would hide behind the catch-all mantra that universities are autonomous and that the UGC should not interfere. Today this is a cover for a university council to violate UGC Circulars and make anyone a professor. Slowly some with unaccredited degrees were enrolled in postgraduate programs in Jaffna. Kelaniya followed. But the fact is that a BTh degree holder cannot apply for a government graduate-teacher job unless further qualifications are obtained. This is because a BTh degree is not recognized.

Contradicting Jebanesan and Arulnathan and their Lies

Albert Jebanesan and Principal Nadarajah Arulnathan would say that what I say is opinion not based on fact. What they contest is my following statements:

1. OL Failures are admitted to TCL and graduated from TCL.

If Jebaneaan and Arulnathan insist that this is untrue, I will release the names of such admittees who are now Anglican priests and the process by which at least some of them were admitted. Jebanesan’s and Arulnathan’s is not mere opinion but untruthful. Outright lies.

2. TCL degrees are not accredited by our UGC.

To prove TCL degrees are accredited by our UGC, Jebanesan and Arulnathan cite recognition by UGC India. First, UGC India is not UGC Sri Lanka. The two supposed Ministers of God give a list of colleges affiliated to the Senate of Serampore College. What they hide from us is that even this Indian UGC recognition that the National Assessment and Accreditation Council has given its accreditation to, is only for the secular degree programs of Serampore College, a sister institution (separate from the Senate of Serampore College), for the degrees that are awarded through University of Calcutta (Arts, Science and Commerce, NOT theology or divinity) and that “Seminary students having degrees that are not listed under UGC Act of Section 22 are not eligible to sit for public service examinations, or avail public employment or government research grant, etc. based on their degrees.”

Again, despite being Christian Ministers, the two are straying beyond personal opinions into stating outright lies.  They are using the arts, science and commerce UGC accreditations of Calcutta University (through which Serampore issues non-theology/divinity degrees)  to claim a bogus accreditation to their own theology and divinity degrees which are not from Calcutta. Of the two untruthful ministers, one is a former Principal of TCL and the other is the current Principal. Is it any wonder that the two defend the bogus degree awards they presided over and that TCL question papers are drafted by the students and graded by themselves at TCL?

Jebanesan claims having “earned both B.Th. and B.D. degrees from the Senate of Serampore College, I can attest to the respectability and recognition of these qualifications.” Again blatantly untrue. He is self-certifying the standards of his own degrees with bogus accreditation.

Jebanesan makes much of his doctorate from Edinburgh, a much respected university. However, many prestigious universities have their main track with high standards, and a very small secondary track for the elite with whom they wish to have connections – children of political dynasties and very rich men, potential bishops, high government officials on scholarship, INGO Managers, et al.. For the latter, the GRE scores (a normal requirement for graduate admission, increasingly so even in the UK) are not insisted on – I say this because, knowing the OL qualified persons who got into prestigious master’s programs, I know they could not have passed the GRE, particularly the quantitative section. Such dual track universities include Oxford, Harvard, Toronto, Princeton, Wharton, etc.

I am aware of persons admitted to graduate programs without even a first degree who thereupon successfully completed their graduate degree. These numbers being small the overall standard of the university is not compromised, and the research thesis is heavily corrected and improved by the supervisor to help the candidate pass. This weakness of some postgraduate programmes is why a good university would usually rely heavily on the first degree for maintaining standards. Also, many universities rely on work experience and project reports (often by consultants under them whom they themselves hire and then claim their reports as their own reports) to waive the lack of an undergraduate degree.

I am aware of two Save the Children Managers from Sri Lanka who were able to get graduate admission into big-name graduate progrsmmes without a first degree, as if they had an inside track. So admission to a graduate programme is by itself not proof of a good first degree. Admission to master’s degree programmes in Jaffna and Kelaniya means nothing. Universities here are hungry for the tuition fees that the department can use. Once a student is admitted, we as supervisors have a big say on who their thesis examiners would be of a thesis we would have heavily corrected and would help us earn points to become professors.

When doctorates are purchased and the title freely used in the university and Christian organizations like World Vision and the CMS, the Peon at Jaffna University’s Graduate School wanted to make a point. He bought a doctorate and now titles himself as doctor. No one can stop him. His point is well-made.

Seeing this, a Director of Education also set out to buy himself a doctorate. When he spoke to the institution, he was told to pay up Rs. 30,000.00. “Ah, so cheap,” he reputedly said, rather well-pleased. “Give me three, one for me, one for my wife [in the Education Ministry] and one for my bank manager son.”

With Protestant theologians leading the crooked claims as Rev. Dr. Jebanesan and Rev. Arulnathan do, is it any wonder that academic corruption is so rampant in Sri Lanka?