2016 Feb 15
by a Student of the University of Moratuwa
It was a warm Wednesday morning. My friend and I entered the air-conditioned room for the meeting. Ten minutes later as we stepped out, the crude voice of the German University Representative rang in our heads; “Two C’s and an S is insufficient. Sorry, but Germany is not willing to lower their standards accepting students with such meagre levels of accomplishment.”
My friend finally breaks that uncomfortable silence complaining, “Madness. So many universities in Bangladesh and Nepal accept students with even lower results.” It crossed my mind that perhaps emulating those first world countries with advanced health care systems might be more worthwhile than adopting the practices of the under-developed states, but being the true friend I simply muttered back “Yeah… The thick-headed German! Doesn’t get a thing”.
The bad news is left behind as we depart that cold building. Three months later I hear ‘good news’ from my friend. He’s studying medicine at SAITM. I had just begun life at the counterpart state university, where everyone demanding the shutting down of SAITM. So I decided to look up for myself the truth behind their claims.
Work on SAITM had begun after 17th March 2008, with an application to the Board of Investments (BOI) Sri Lanka regarding the establishment of a private university teaching Information Technology, Engineering, Management and Finance, Vocational Studies, Nursing, Languages and Health Sciences. However there seemed to be no information about the setting up of a medical school.
It was only on June 24, 2008, Dr Neville Fernando, Chairman of SAITM sought BOI approval to change its name to South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine,” state BOI reports. Approval was granted for this expansion as a medical school only on March 31, 2008 subject to certain conditions. However, despite conditions number five and nine of the BOI letter stating that the enterprises should obtain approval from the Ministry of Health (MOH) prior to providing training in health science and SAITM was permitted to offer degrees only after affiliating to a recognized foreign university respectively, neither of these two conditions were complied with before starting the said course. Students had already been admitted to their medical degree programs with absolutely no accreditation for the university by this time.
Thus it is evident that SAITM is an institution with extremely controversial beginnings that has been willing to deceive the students, public and state institutions, and it is fair by all to suspect and expect only mediocre levels of everything from such a body.
The key issues with regards to the functioning of SAITM are 3 fold. Firstly the process of admission to the university is simply reprehensible. Secondly, the students lack proper training and are incapable of getting through the EPRM examination. Thirdly, this ‘profit making private organization’ unfairly utilizes government hospitals maintained with public funds for their degree programs.
In addition to this, we believe state universities face a heap of various problems ranging from state university lecturers moving into private universities for higher pay, government resources that would otherwise be utilized for state universities being allocated to SAITM and so forth. It must be noted that the recurrent government expenditure for the provision of an equivalent state university degree per student stands on the likes of 20 million whereas SAITM charges its students up to 120 million for their degree program. Thus, this better resource allocation and higher pay for lecturers may have its negative impacts on the counterpart state universities, and one may argue it is the wrong time for the establishment of such institutions in a time when the government is failing in its duties towards the state universities. Inadequate hostel facilities, insufficient numbers of lecturers and presence of only limited laboratory and technological facilities for large student groups are just a few issues in current state universities left unsolved by the government.
Yet, let us keep aside all of this in the name of “free markets always settling things down in the best possible way in the long run”.
The number one key issue is the admission of students with extremely low results into SAITM. A majority of these students will never be accepted into university in most 1st world countries for medicine programs. Entering such students into the medical profession is simply going to destroy our health care sector as it must be understood that medicine is not like marketing or law. You work directly with lives, and a certain level of accomplishment is required for one to understand the complicated processes of the human body.
Secondly, we understand that these students lack proper training. I must give in that it is an extremely ambiguous argument. The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has explicitly stated that SAITM provided inadequate training to its medical students as of now. However, one may argue that adequate training is something not measurable in absolute terms, and many students studying medicine in foreign universities who are allowed to practice here cannot be ascertained to possess this. What must be noted is that each country has its own medical council similar to the SLMC here, and it is a globally accepted norm that each such governing body ensures the quality of medical schools in the country. Thus the obligation of ensuring that every university in Sri Lanka is above standards falls upon the SLMC. Their concerns regarding SAITM, and therein the voice of the state universities that are to later shoulder that responsibility is definitely justified.
Further, we may note that unlike the graduates of foreign universities, the students of SAITM do not take the EPRM examination compulsory for all medical graduates in Sri Lanka that grants them the license to practice.
Finally comes the unfair utilization of state hospitals. These government hospitals are maintained through taxes paid by the entire populous of our country. It is true that SAITM pays a considerable amount for the utilization of these hospitals, but the government sharing its resources with one private company (SAITM) in order for that institution to gain more profits by enrolling more students is unethical from multiple points of views. It is unfair for all other private universities because we definitely do not witness the government supporting them in similar ways. Further it is an unfair decision by the government to create unnecessary elevations of risks for patients by interning SAITM students who are currently accused of being below required standards.
Thus summing it all up, action needs to be taken against SAITM, may it be shutting it down or fixing all its faults. Private universities are essential for the progress of this country. However the correct methodologies must be followed in doing so, and the state universities’ standards must be kept untainted in this process of introducing private higher education.
“Passion alone won’t make you the best artist or musician in the world. You need that skill or that voice. And you definitely need a proper training. So are the sciences.”
Check out below the article by the Editorial on the Private University students side to the story.
