Sri Lanka’s so-called ‘top universities’ have fared miserably in the latest survey of ranked Universities in the world according to the internationally recognized Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asian University Rankings for 2018.
The University of Colombo is ranked as 156, just one ranking higher than the little known Beijing Foreign Studies University. It has slipped even lower than the University of Dhaka at 124th place according to the rankings. The University of Colombo at one time offered honorary doctorates to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Colombo Telegraph learns that Former Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s doctorate in law was approved by the University Higher Degrees Committee despite numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes in the thesis.
Meanwhile the University of Peradeniya is ranked even lower, at 242nd place.
The QS ranking lists over 400 universities. It assesses universities looking at 10 primary indicators, including academic and employer reputation, the proportion of PhD qualified academic staff, and the proportion of inbound and outbound exchange students at the university. The list is topped by the US based universities, MIT, Stanford, Harvard and Caltech respectively. The UK’s Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, University College, London (UCL) and Imperial College, London, are placed at 5, 6th, 7th and 8th places respectively.
The Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) is placed at 11th place and is the highest ranked from Asian Universities.
Jimsofty / October 24, 2017
I think lack of excellent Library facilites upto date journals, new text books, money to buy new research equipments can be problems too. Because all the universities that have come up the list are from very rich countries. what ever it is Sri lankan Graduates are very intelligent. that is not a question. On the other hand, these rankings should be for their ability to do high quality research. As Sri lanka can not compete in that ranking, Sri lankan education should be targeted for country’s needs as well as for exporting intelligent graduates to the world market.
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Native Vedda / October 24, 2017
Jimsofty Dimwit
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“what ever it is Sri lankan Graduates are very intelligent. that is not a question. “
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Are they?
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“Sri lankan education should be targeted for country’s needs as well as for exporting intelligent graduates to the world market.”
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How many “intelligent graduates” does the country produce in an year. If you export them the country may be burdened with all the stupid graduates.
How do you distinguish intelligent from stupid?
–
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Jimsofty / October 24, 2017
Dumb Native Veddo: the answer for your last question. their marketability in competitive or fast changing industries.
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yusuf / October 24, 2017
Dumb Jimmy,
This is a conspiracy by Western agencies to blacken the good name of Sri Lankan education. The best female toilet operatives are Sri Lankan
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lkcricket / October 25, 2017
Yousuf
That includes your wife too. Do not spit while head facing the sky because it will fall on your face! You are a such an insane idiot.
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edwin rodrigo / October 25, 2017
Shall we say, the best female toilet operatives are all Wathies from Sri Lanka.
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LAC3 (rtd) Buddhadasa / October 24, 2017
Idiot Jimmy,
“Because all the universities that have come up the list are from very rich countries”
Is Bangladesh a rich country?
“what ever it is Sri lankan Graduates are very intelligent. that is not a question.”
Surely you must be a graduate then.
“Sri lankan education should be targeted for country’s needs as well as for exporting intelligent graduates to the world market.”
Ha, Ha, and Ha again!
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justice / October 24, 2017
The rot in post secondary education set in when Sirimavo B, as prime minster, cancelled the holding of London University exams in Colombo twice a year by the Department of Examinations. No reasons were given. Many who obtained top marks were awarded scholarships by UK universities.
But she sent her two children to UK & France for post secondary education.
London O and A Level certificates were recognised by commonwealth countries and others like USA, for entry to graduate and postgraduate courses abroad.
Most of present lot of university teachers in Sri Lanka hold qualifications which will not qualify them for posts abroad.
Some VCs are not fit to teach here or abroad. One VC even sent female undergrads for “Virginity Tests” to hospitals because they appeared too friendly with their male counterparts !!
But a few made it to the top abroad – a lady (PhD from Cambridge & Stanford) became President of a university in Canada, and another became President of the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Great Britain.
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Agnos / October 24, 2017
Justice,
Who is that lady? The only one I know, Indira (Arulpragasam) Samarasekara, didn’t attend Cambridge, nor Stanford. After graduating from Moratuwa, she attended UC (Davis) and then UBC, Canada.
People shouldn’t take these rankings too seriously; apart from varying criteria used by different people/institutions doing the rankings, these rankings reflect many biases of those doing it. Some of the criteria used make no sense even in developed countries, let alone developing countries. To hold tiny, autocratic Singapore’s Nanyang as 11th worldwide shows how these rankings distort reality.
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SJ / October 24, 2017
Agnos
Indira graduated from Peradeniya.
I agree with the manipulation of rankings, as higher education is big business now.
Yet there are problems at home that need to be looked into.
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Agnos / October 25, 2017
SJ,
OK, it seems my info on Ms. Samarasekara was wrong. It is good to know she was from Peradeniya. I fully agree that Sri Lankan universities have many problems and those need to be addressed. They need to compare themselves against universities in countries like India and Malaysia and try to catch up with them, but they don’t need to give much weight to UK-based rankings such as Q-S and the Times.
Some Indian universities like Birla Institute of Technology and Punjab University, which have produced many outstanding graduates whom I have known in the US, seem to have very low ranking on this list, so Colombo and Peradeniya need not panic. But the University of Malaya, where the late Prof. Jeyaratnam Eliezer, I believe, was VC, is much higher on this list. SL universities must do better to catch up , but without raising K-12 educational standards, universities can’t raise theirs.
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SJ / October 25, 2017
Agnos
Thanks.
But things are not quite rosy in Malaysia or India.
India has one of the most corrupt systems of higher education. The IISc, IITs and a a few universities are exceptions, but subject political pressure.
The consequences of Malaysia’s BP policy are still there and not all universities are good. Also it is used as a vending outlet by degree merchants, mainly from Australia.
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Agnos / October 28, 2017
SJ,
Many Indian university graduates are well-regarded in the industry and academia in the US, not just those from the IIT’s and IISc. Even with the political interference and corruption that you allude to, their universities are able to generate respect. You cannot say the same about Sri Lankan universities, even if a few graduates do very well in the West.
SL needs to look at what factors cause this, and try hard to catch up. Some of this may have to do with India simply being so big, with a large pool of talent, and a fairly large home-grown industry. But focusing on high-growth, high-demand technologies, becoming hardened by facing greater internal competition, better language skills, etc., could also be a factor.
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Meghan / October 25, 2017
Very true!!! Rankings just gives a prestige for those who come out of it , but doesn’t necessarily mean that the graduates are of the best quality….Sri Lankan universities do produce good quality graduates
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justice / October 25, 2017
Agnos, You are correct.
https://www.ualberta.ca/about/history/past-presidents/indira-samarasekera/biography
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Gembala / October 24, 2017
The Bandaranaikes are the scum of Sri Lanka. Utter hyporcrites! They should never hold public office again, for ruining this country!
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Native Vedda / October 24, 2017
justice
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“The rot in post secondary education set in when Sirimavo B, as prime minster, cancelled the holding of London University exams in Colombo twice a year by the Department of Examinations. “
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She was on a self sufficiency mode/drive.
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A word of caution, SJ doesn’t take kindly to anyone criticizing the weeping widow.
If anything goes wrong in this island just blame TNA, TULF, Federal Party, Chelva, Sampandan, ……………………
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old codger / October 24, 2017
If Peradeniya and Colombo Unis are ranked so low, what about their affiliated Medical colleges? Do GMOA members have any right to talk about SAITM’s standards?
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Native Vedda / October 25, 2017
old codger
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How many research journals does this island publish?
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How many honest historians has this island produced?
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How many inventions have been patented by this island?
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Now the Dimwit thinks this country can export “intelligent graduates” abroad.
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What has got into these little islanders head?
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old codger / October 25, 2017
“How many honest historians has this island produced?”
Hey, you forget the great Ellawala Medhananda of Hiru Mahavamsa fame and “Dr” Mirando Obeysekera, the expert on prehistoric nuclear weapons.
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Native Vedda / October 25, 2017
old codger
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Thank you.
I will stop at Mahanama.
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Is Mirando Obeysekera the one who discovered the first ape spoke Sinhala and prayed to Buddha from his collection of puskola poth (palm leaf manuscript)?
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SJ / October 25, 2017
OC
Rankings apart, there are academic and professional norms that are upheld in our universities.
The degrees are recognized by international professional organizations.
*
The problems with SAITM concern qualifications for admission and academic and training standards. There has also been deception about recognition by a foreign university.
SAITM is a money making venture that serves the interests of parents with means and children falling short in qualifications.
(BTW, was not SAITM founded as South Asian Institute of Technology and Management?
*
Higher education should be seriously rethought to make it accessible to all who qualify and with diversity directed at profitable employment at home.
We need many more paramedical and other medical support staff in the country to address health needs.
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old codger / October 25, 2017
SJ,
“Higher education should be seriously rethought to make it accessible to all who qualify and with diversity directed at profitable employment at home.”
As far as I know, the best graduates in the country are produced by SLIIT, NIBM, and SAITM, mostly in IT and management. They seem to get snapped up even before they graduate. All charge money, plenty of it.
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SJ / October 26, 2017
OC
Guys with NDT find jobs more easily than engineering graduates.
Can anyone explain?
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nalmen / October 24, 2017
no research is done in any of our universities and they produce 3rd rate graduates
this is reflected in the low quality of public servants
imagine giving doctorates to mr ,gota ,and wijaya . are they mad?
spending taxpayers money on them is an utter waste
is it a wonder that most graduates are unemployed
the private sector will not touch them with a bargepole and we are increasing the number taken in
to these low quality institutions .miracle of asia my foot
it is a good thing that the minister of higher education does not have a uni degree things might have got worse
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Sunil Dahanayake / October 24, 2017
I am an academic and writing from an overseas.
In order to get international rankings, the universities need to invest in research. So that it is not the fault of the universities. But it is the fault of the government who does not understand the need for good universities in Sri Lanka and value in research.
However, even without good rankings, our universities, academics and students , doing an excellent job of producing quality graduates to international markets and Universities.
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Nelum / October 24, 2017
Surely , this gentleman can not be an academic in an English speaking country.
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Jagath Fernando / October 24, 2017
Sunil was from Jayawardhenapura university and then moved onto Australia. Was in Canberra and Sydney and not sure where he is now.
Sunil- where are you now? Did you move to USA?
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raman / October 24, 2017
I believe he is a graduate in toilet practice in Canada, also known as JIm the Dim.
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SJ / October 25, 2017
Lotus
What is so special about an English-speaking country?
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LAC3 (rtd) Buddhadasa / October 25, 2017
Come on, Prof, which University would you have gone to:
Magnitogorsk Tech University
Beijing 14th engineering college
King’s College , UK
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Jagath Fernando / October 24, 2017
Sunil
You must be dreaming.
If you want to see the caliber of our graduates please come to Lipton Circus or In front of the Fort Railway station.once a week.
Look at our academics.
1 teach about 4-6 hours per week
2 poor IT and communication skills
3 no publications in world class magazines
4 not held accountable for non employability of graduates
5 free from 12 noon to 2 pm to pick up school kids
6 gets duty free car permit
7 free to do fee levying external under grad and masters programs during weekends
Sunil has forgotten as to how academics in Australia lost their jobs when demand drops from students for a given course.
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Shamalie / October 24, 2017
But the graduates in several fields such as Law, Medicine and Engineering outdo their counterparts when do seek greener pastures. Don’t judge a genre of graduates by a sample of politically motivated students. There are many such examples in every profession and walk of life.
But I do agree that factors such as teacher student ratio, accessibility to resources, technology and research are critical aspects we fail to score on.
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Goraka / October 24, 2017
Sunil, Sri Lankans are smart people. Our education system need an overhaul.
Ask this question, will you send you child to ANY Sri Lankan schools? Surely not, there are some good ones, but most of them sucks.
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Amarasiri / October 24, 2017
RE: Miserable Rankings Of Sri Lanka’s “Top Universities”
“Sri Lanka’s so-called ‘top universities’ have fared miserably in the latest survey of ranked Universities in the world according to the internationally recognized Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asian University Rankings for 2018.”
What do you expect, when the mean IQ of Sri Lankan Paras is 79, that of Europe and USA 99 or 100, and Singapore 108. The Paras, on average, lack the intelligence to excel.
Reference.
National IQ Scores – Country Rankings
https://photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html
The intelligence scores came from work carried out earlier this decade by Richard Lynn, a British psychologist, and Tatu Vanhanen, a Finnish political scientist, who analysed IQ studies from 113 countries, and from subsequent work by Jelte Wicherts, a Dutch psychologist.
Countries are ranked highest to lowest national IQ score.
Rank
——– Country
———————– %
————-
1 Singapore 108
2 South Korea 106
3 Japan 105
4 Italy 102
10 USA 98
28 Sri Lanka 79
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The Professional / October 25, 2017
Despite these global rankings, our undergraduate degree courses in medicine, engineering, and hard sciences are considered as very good by the foreign QAA Panels that visit our universities. There are some comments by visiting panels, which may be considered as negative:
1. Engineering degree courses still use old land surveying techniques but European and American universities use GPS;
2. Architecture degree courses in SL do not use “virtual reality” but many in Europe and USA use it.
3. Our medical students have the opportunity for examining patients with almost all diseases under the sun but medical students of Australian, British and US Universities do not have such opportunities;
4. Our Agri students have the opportunity to study plants in wet, dry and intermediate zones;
5. Our students are gradually becoming Tech Wise but the procuring system at universities is very weak and therefore introduction of new technologies, techniques for advanced research is very slow;
6. Age old collection development policies in Universities deprive the students the opportunity of accessing good and latest books and also accessing information on line.
7. Academics of some universities do not want to change and therefore universities do not change.
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Upali / October 24, 2017
Now the GMOA will want to stop medical degrees from Colombo and Peradeniya for lack of standards.
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Jimsofty / October 24, 2017
So, the govt goes ahead with thieves and dismantle SAITM. What will happen to the Middle class parents who spent money and all they had to get thesee children educated. All goes in water because some one wants to have political hits. Who are behind it other than GMOA ?
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Thanos / October 24, 2017
Get rid of most of those sh!++y Arts degrees except for a limited number mainly focused on language since this is a multilingual nation along with other degrees that actually create employable graduates. Education should focus on employability and to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields are critical. Who here needs tens of thousands of Political Science, Fine Arts, Performing Arts, Liberal Arts, etc, etc graduates? Seriously?
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Socrates / October 24, 2017
Liberal arts are an essential part of education . The problem is not the Arts Degrees but how and what is taught . Engineering ,science or other technical degree holders too need to study subjects that give them the breadth and not be limited to specialization to be mangers which the world needs.
Working towards a baccalaureate degree in the so called developed universities in Arts or Sciences involves taking courses in what are traditionally referred to as the “liberal” arts. This means that your courses will be in general areas of study–philosophy, mathematics, literature, art history, economics, languages, and so on–rather than in applied or specialized fields. A liberal arts education is not intended to train you for a specific job, though it does prepare you for the world of work by providing you with an invaluable set of employability skills, including the ability to think for yourself, the skills to communicate effectively, and the capacity for lifelong learning.
“ Thanos “ parroting popular thought is less helpful . The soft skills are a vital component. Changing the way is what is important. The problem is in the sophist way of teaching from childhood to end of degree or post graduate.
As Sunil Dhanayake says where is the research??
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Thanos / October 24, 2017
Developed world? Excuse me, I have a British Degree in Computing and Mathematics and post graduate in Software Engineering and they never forced me to do philosophy or religion or music or anything like that unlike my sister who studied in the US up to her MBA. There is a reason why highly skilled foreign graduates with Technical degrees from India, China, and other 3rd world countries are hired in large numbers in the developed world especially the US. Highly specialized graduates from even Sri Lanka get stolen away quite quickly. There was a nice study done in the US in 2014 named “Not all college degrees are created equal”. And you can just go to youtube and type “Michio Kaku: US has the worst educational system known to science”. My issue is not a “Science Vs Humanities” thing. I too studied elements of management, accounting, communication as part of my higher studies. This is about those specific arts degrees offered in large numbers that has produced large number of unemployed graduates especially in SL.
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the truth speaker / October 24, 2017
university undergraduates in UOC spend public money watching tv videos and other korean and indian dramas. the university does not update books properly and are often decades late in comparison to other universities.
a research culture is not encouraged and few lecturers really understand what they are saying…extremely poor standards in the university, especially in terms of their current affairs and new developments awareness as well as anything beyond what has been taught to them during their undergraduate years.
some lecturers misinterpret facts, are clearly lacking in good (or even decent) English speaking and understanding skills and do not encourage students to think critically.
favouration is openly visible and those who do not fall in line to the lecturers line of thinking are penalized.
frankly im surprised we are so high up in the first place. if many of you really went inside the institution you would no longer call it a university.
it is not a case of faculty or subjects. its a case where a ragging culture is overlooked, where a research culture is discouraged and where lecturers are chosen to teach students despite their pitiable understanding of the very subjects they are chosen to teach.
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Analyst / October 24, 2017
The truth speaker
Yes you have spoken the truth here.
The Bogus qualifications given by the donkey universities need to b questioned.
How did they get the MSC, PHD , AND PROFFESSORIAL Qualifications??
Innocent students and the Parents spending their life savings to send their children to schools and Universities. In return what do they get??
Qualifications from Crap Universities. They receive during their pompous graduation ceremonies.
The Sinhala Modayas are not only Blind ! They are in DENIAL.
THE MOUTH OF THESE INDIVIDUALS IN POWER ARE UNBELIEVABLE.
No it’s all known publicly!!
Now we know How this LAND OF EDUCATION AND HONEY HAD BEEN DRIVEN DOWN TO???
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Don Carlow / October 24, 2017
Why do they GOMOOOAA strikes, do all street protest disturbing thousand of innocent peoples day to day life, hunger strikes,all sort of nonsense against SAITM,
First of all they have to clean up there own house, do all these strikes to get a better ranking at least in Asia.
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Sigma / October 24, 2017
One should not take these rankings too seriously. Some SL Universities gave at least some of us fantastic education: They trained us to ask questions. We did, and we ran away! (That doesn’t happen in Singapore.)
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S.R.H. Hoole / October 24, 2017
Colombo at 156 is unbelievable in a worldwide list. If one adds America’s and Europe’s best, and then Japan’s, India’s and China’s best, they number more than 156, and they are all surely better than Colombo.
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Kmal / October 24, 2017
No Hoole, it’s in Asia. World ranking is #751-800. You should search it in the given link.
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Nimal Maharage / October 24, 2017
Colombo is at 156 only in the Asia region. If you see Colombo in the world ranking, it is below 2011. These SL universities are good to offer honorary doctorates to dumb asses like Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapakses and Willie Ganage.
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SJ / October 24, 2017
The figures I thought were for:
” Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asian University Rankings for 2018.”
The introductory statement could have misled.
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srinath.gunaratne / October 24, 2017
This should be shown to some of the university lecturers and the administration, They over estimate them quite a lot!
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sbarrkum / October 24, 2017
I would say this is a very good research record, specially as it is Physics.
http://science.cmb.ac.lk/physics/member/prof-j-k-d-s-jayanetti/
Looked at a random few in the Physics Dept and they appear to have very decent Publications in International Journals
http://science.cmb.ac.lk/physics/academic_staff/
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Deen / October 24, 2017
Why has UoM not mentioned and only Cmb? UoM is in the bottom list compared to UoP or UoC
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SJ / October 24, 2017
That is because UoM is more of an Institute of Technology.
Universities generally cover a wider range of disciplines, although there are several dedicated to a limited range of subject areas.
*
Comparison of programmes may yield more favourable results.
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Estate Labourer / October 24, 2017
Less than 25% of our university professors, senior lecturers and lecturers have an excellent command of spoken and written English. That is a basic reason for their poor academic accomplishments.
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SJ / October 25, 2017
EL
Do you think that fluency in English will transform frogs into princes?
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old codger / October 25, 2017
SJ,
One Mr. Trump is quite fluent in English. But he still looks like a frog.
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SJ / October 26, 2017
OC
…and croaks like one too?
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Amarasiri / October 26, 2017
Estate Labourer
“Less than 25% of our university professors, senior lecturers and lecturers have an excellent command of spoken and written English. “
Almost 100% of the Americans have a decent command of English, yet 25% of the Americans believe that the Sun goes around the Earth. On the other hand the average IQ of America is 98, whereas that of Sri Lanka is 79. This is reflected in the a academia
However, the poor command of English combined with a low average IQ makes it worse.
1 in 4 Americans Apparently Unaware the Earth Orbits the Sun
http://time.com/7809/1-in-4-americans-thinks-sun-orbits-earth/
Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?
When asked that question, 1 in 4 Americans surveyed answered incorrectly. Yes, 1 in 4. In other words, a quarter of Americans do not understand one of the most fundamental principles of basic science. So that’s where we are as a society right now.
The survey, conducted by the National Science Foundation, included more than 2,200 participants in the U.S., AFP reports. It featured a nine-question quiz about physical and biological science and the average score was a 6.5.
And the fact that only 74 percent of participants knew that the Earth revolved around the sun is perhaps less alarming than the fact that only 48 percent knew that humans evolved from earlier species of animals.
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Goraka / October 24, 2017
Look how the Sri Lankan Doctors behave!
If that is an indication, our universities are handing out pieces of paper as degrees and diplomas.
So sad!
It is time to privatise all universities in Sri Lanka and provide financial help to students who cannot afford.
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SJ / October 24, 2017
Thank successive governments for the decline in investment in education and self seeking operators for unprincipled meddling with university education.
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Non Patriot / October 24, 2017
We all are aware the politicization of the university administration in Sri Lanka. When politicl jokers are selected for the posts of vice chancellors and chair person of the University Grant Commission etc, we have witnessed behaviours of these jokers during the 2010 and 2015 Presidential elections how they appeared before the State Television Channels and shamelessly campaigned for the ruling party, can we expect better results than these? A war monger, racist and mass killer was awarded honorary doctorate by the Colombo University. The Academic staff who made the proposal at that time is now appeared to be a arched enemy of them and shamelessly calling the authorities to revoke the honorary Doctorate.
Securing total autonomy and ensuring the universities are managed free of party political interference is an utmost need of the hour. Until we create informed citizens, this will not happen.
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K.Pillai / October 24, 2017
Following seminal work on White-van technology, the inventor GR created his pride and joy, Kotalawela Defence University (KDU). Where does it sit on the ranking?
GR was a militarisation fanatic. He insisted fresh undergrads undergo bootcamp. He trained Principals in handling guns. His vision was to fill Lankan administrative positions with KDU graduates.
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douglas / October 24, 2017
This “Miserable Rankings of Sri Lankan Universities” would have prompted the Junior Minister of Finance Mr. Erand Wickramaratne recently announcing that he proposes to give complete discretion to Commissioner of Immigration & Emigration to “import” IT engineers from India. Also he would have definitely observed how our “Academics” are performing in various Government Ministries and Agencies and the modus operandi adopted to pilfer and rob the Public coffers. That, of course is very “Creditable”, in my opinion, judging from the “Bond Scam”. Has this “Rating Agency” taken such performance of our “Academics” in evaluating the “Ranking” of the Universities and other Institutions who produced them into consideration? If such an study was undertaken, I am certain our Universities would have been Ranked No. 1 in the world.
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Lal / October 24, 2017
I would like to know if one of the following universities or few of them open medical university in Srilanka such as MIT, Stanford, Harvard , Caltech, Cambridge, Oxford, University College, London (UCL) and Imperial College, London, what would be the reaction of GMOA
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Amarasiri / October 25, 2017
Lal,
“I would like to know if one of the following universities or few of them…………University College, London (UCL) and Imperial College, London, what would be the reaction of GMOA”
They won’t because the average IQ is low, , and GMOA would not like to be exposed as Idiots, either.
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Lanka Don / October 25, 2017
Why are we surprised at these miserable rankings? When most of the faculty and administrator appointments are political and not the best qualified candidate, how do you expect the universities to be ranked high? Just look at the last two VC selection and appointment process for the Jaffna University.
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SJ / October 25, 2017
LD
Serious meddling is involved when the first preference of the Council is overlooked to appoint another owing to political pressure.
Chandrika did it but the LTTE torpedoed it;
Mahinda tried but Douglas undid it;
and Maitri did it– but no protest from upholders of justice and fairplay.
*
Who decides the best qualified candidate? Electronic media debates?
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wannaku abayasekara / October 25, 2017
method of recruiting their own graduates should cease unless second degree is from a good ranking university anywhere
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Paramanathan K / October 25, 2017
Miserable ranking of our universities is not a surprise. The educational mechanism in Sri Lanka is inefficient and corrupt from top to bottom. The aftermath of the independence quality of our education declined gradually and the outcome is “Miserable Ranking”. Since then the Politicians of this country continue to ruin the education system by implementing substandard reforms every time a government comes to power. This trend is still continuing regardless of the deterioration in standards. We should note that the root cause of the problem has been created by political leaders and some academics of the past and present like playing with fire. Worst is yet to unfold.
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Keynes! / October 25, 2017
The much touted IITs of India have also fared poorly.
IIT Mumbai Bombay is ranked 34 in the Asian rankings.
Sri Lankan monetarist and Buddhist Dr. Harsha de Silva obtained a highly competitive full scholarship to pursue his postgraduate studies in Economics at the University of Missouri, Colombia. Try guessing the ranking of this university.
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Siri Gamage / October 25, 2017
Don’t read too much into these rankings. Analyse the 10 criteria first. Who devised them? Are they biased toward Western and American Universities?
I am not saying the quality of SL universities are excellent but they have limitations as described by many here in CT. We have a colonial mindset in university administration, centralised and politicised control, disciplines that convey old knowledge(in social sciences at least), and lack of competetive spirit(as the funding comes from the government anyway). There dont seem to be enough room for innovation or creativity or out of the box thinking.(see how Sarachchandra emerged as a nationally respected figure without the express support of Sinhala department in K N O Dharmadasa’s article in the Island. Can download from the net). Learning institutions in Sri lanka are embedded in the Western knowledge production mechanisms yet they are unable to get the recognition in rankings? Should they follow a different path in knowledge production and dissemination? and be recognised for innovation, creativity, etc rather than the number of PhDs (from the West)? Low ranking is the result of imitating old knowledge pradigms and practices on one hand and not knowing/recognising one’s own knowledge sources and paradigms through the university system.Not only the politicians are to blame for this,,
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SJ / October 25, 2017
Siri Gamage
All too true.
Add to it the heavy teaching load in several faculties.
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Keynes! / October 25, 2017
Siri Gamage,
Here are the 10 criteria and their respective weights:
Academic reputation (30%)
Employer reputation (20%)
Faculty/student ratio (15%).
Citations per paper (10%) and papers per faculty (10%)
Staff with a PhD (5%)
Proportion of international faculty (2.5%) and proportion of international students (2.5%)
Proportion of inbound exchange students (2.5%) and proportion of outbound exchange students (2.5%)
Please analyse.
Are they biased toward Western and American Universities?
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Siri Gamage / October 26, 2017
This is the point Keynes. Who determines,for example, academic reputation of a university and on what basis? It is a criterion worth 30 percent. Are there any Asians on the panel determining this? What evidence do they use to judge academic reputation? Without further information, it seems to me to be a highly subjective criteria,isn’t it? Put some Indians on the panel and you will see many Indian universities with high rankings if you use such subjective criteria..,Take citations per paper. Do they use citations in journals or books published in languages other than English? I doubt. Here is the Western bias. Proportion of international faculty. Why only 2.5 per cent? It should get at least Ten. The weightage given to different criteria matters and they show ( cultural) bias. Likewise,we all know that proportion of inbound students is high in English speaking countries like the UK,USA,Canada, Australia and NZ. So that criterion favours those countries even though the weight age us small. How do they determine employer reputation? Not clear? I don’t need to go any further to show Western bias,do I? I’m not denying the weaknesses of our universities in Sri Lanka but to believe these rankings are objective,scientific or neutral is a serious error of judgement.
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Agnos / October 26, 2017
Keynes!,
If you filter the QS ranking by country for the US, and then compare it with a US-based ranking of the same US universities, you will find vast differences with QS ranking., with the latter getting it mostly wrong below the top handful.. That should give you clues as to why these rankings distort reality.
How do you measure the first two criteria for Asian nations? Even in the West, there is no sure way of doing it.
Say, the journalists who know nothing about science or engineering ask some professors they know, probably UK-based, about their opinion of other universities/programs. That is hardly an objective way of doing it.
Is there a uniform worldwide standard for measuring how employers value graduates, when different countries have different employers with different cultures and expectations?
Moreover, students choose universities based on the ‘desirability’ of the country to live in and work after graduation. So, given the option to choose a country to study, how many would choose autocratic Singapore or China over democratic US, UK, Canada, Australia? Such factors matter a lot because the competition to enter the universities in more desirable countries is much higher, regardless of what someone’s rankings say. I didn’t see student acceptance rate in the criteria. Even that statistic can be manipulated by targeted ads to raise the # of applicants while intake remains the same.
There is no uniformly accepted standard to measure student talent, and the admission processes across countries remain uneven; there is no globally accepted metric for quality. Universities in rich countries spend money specifically to target these criteria and try to raise their ranking and profile. Can poor countries compete by increasing state-funding for their universities?
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whywhy / October 25, 2017
Money is put at the centre of every aspect of life . Substance of today’s
talk in every corner is Fraud and Corruption and in the centre of all
SCANDALS are Degree holders who are called GRADUATES . This is
Srilanka . No need to name professions , all professions are nose deep
selling off everything at their disposal ! Who is to blame ? Can it be
changed ? One latest news report says , a police team that was
dispatched to catch organized cow thieves in the North found the
thieves having a party in the company of an ASP ! Some ASPs are
promoted from lower ranks and some are selected graduates ! All
are supposed to work for a crime free nation . It is a very simple
theory to look at how the whole education system work in the country.
IT IS NEVER AIMED AT RAISING GOOD CITIZENS FOR THE COUNTRY.
IT IS NEVER AIMED AT HIGHER STANDARDS OF ANYTHING . THE
END RESULT AT ANY COST IS , SWOLLEN HEADS . AND SWOLLEN
HEAD IS A SYNDROME . TO CURE IT , LONG TERM TREATMENT IS
NEEDED FROM WHERE IT STARTS . IT IS A CRONIC DISEASE . CURE
IS POSSIBLE IF DIAGNOSED IN THE EARLY STAGE .
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Asoka / October 25, 2017
We can know how the Rajapakes got thier Doctorates . We know their capability when it comes to Queen’s language MR ,GR,WR, with spelling mistakes in the thesis. It is a shame that we have slipped such low levels. In the past we were virtually had very high rankings. We produce mutts from he Universities and Medical colleges now. Only good for protest marching, and for sologans
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SJ / October 26, 2017
Asoka
“In the past we were virtually had very high rankings.”
When may I know?
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edwin rodrigo / October 25, 2017
University Standards: Better and more graduates? Who is going to pluck the coconuts?
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SJ / October 26, 2017
Edwin
The way things are, we may not be left with any to pluck.
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Goraka / October 25, 2017
Every politician should follow a degree at our ESTEEMED universities in “How to rob Sri Lanka dry.”, no O-Level needed.
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whywhy / October 26, 2017
“Every politician should follow …….” No need Goraka ! The
country’s 20.2 million knows the job perfect . Our
parliament is the university with 225 well qualified lecturers
guiding the citizens who have chosen them the best to do
the job . Everything going well , no worry ! Even the temples
recently released some Monks to go on the job with the bowls
in hand , A NEW TECHNOLOGY AFTER CENTURIES OF
RESEARCH , to collect money instead of the old habit of food
collecting ! And what more , we even have MONEY LAUNDERY
NOW , so much money in circulation that need laundering !
We only knew of clothes laundering before , didn’t we ? All
thanks to whom ? Our parliament campus GRADUATES !!!
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