We are aware that Sri Lankans have started a civilization of immigrants from about 2500 years ago. Our ancestors have been able to build structures, reservoirs, and canals that astonish even the modern world with much technological advancement. Places like Sigiriya, Yoda Ela, and many Thupas in the North central province still provide firm evidence to this claim.  Yet, why are we compelled to fly all the way back to that age to be proud of our history? Why is there a huge void between the era of King Parakramabahu or King Kashyapa and the modern Sri Lankans who live on their knees in front of various lending organizations? What went wrong after that? Is it really the funds or some other reason that slows down this process? Are there any hurdles in the university system itself for this growth?

You might guess that the European invaders are responsible. Yet, why did we have to surrender when they came with guns?, and why are we still on the knees after 50 years as a free country? Due to some reasons, innovation has slipped out of our culture. With that, a fair part of the dignity and independence also eroded. The vicious cycle has started to spin against us, and that has led to increasing numbers of professionals giving up and leaving the whole country though they love mother Lanka.

To revive the country’s true independence and dignity, our investors need good professionals trained in innovative environments to mark their place in the competitive international markets. On the other hand, the universities keep on increasing the intake in an attempt to meet this need. Yet we find a staggering 40% of the graduates unemployed. University lecturers increasingly leave the country and returning to Sri Lanka has been a nightmare to those who are already working in foreign universities.

There is one important fact I want to stress here. The effectiveness of a man arises as a result of an interaction between a man’s internal strengths like attitudes, skill, and training and the environmental conditions like efficiency of the system, reliability of information, attitudes of senior people etc. Therefore the system in which one works is very important for his/her performance. The following survey finds out that the Sri Lankan system has worked against the professionals than what it has done to improve their careers.

Therefore, we must get up and work to understand the possible causes behind this catastrophe and find ways to revive that part of our culture we lost. But, where are we going to start from? It is my view that in a developing country where one finds very few large-scale industries that can initiate and finance research projects, the alternative place to start focusing is the university system. The universities then should work hand-in-hand with the industries. Yet, have our universities identified the essential difference between mere tuition classes and universities?

To find answers to these questions, an on-line survey was maintained in the Lanka Academic ( www.theacademic.org ), which is supposed to be the most read on-line newspaper among expatriate Sri Lankans. The information of how to access the survey page was sent through emails to local professionals researching and teaching in the Sri Lankan universities. The email addresses were found from the official university homepages. Over a period of one month, fifty three researchers who had experience both in foreign and Sri Lankan research environments participated in the survey. Forty one of them (75%) had PhD degrees and the rest were with Bachelors or Masters degrees. Professionals from disciplines such as Medicine, Surgery, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Management, and Engineering participated in the survey.

The following figure 1 shows the research environments of the participants. There is a noticeably large majority of professionals (84%) from the academia who were interested in the survey.

Figure 1: The research environment

The following figure 2 shows the country of residence as a percentage of all those who participated in the survey.

Figure 2: The country of residence of the participant Sri Lankan researchers.

From figure 2, it is clear that 57% of the Sri Lankan professionals who had participated in the survey live outside Sri Lanka. The fact that they participated in the survey itself reflects that they are still worried about the higher education system in the mother country.

What made them leave the country? Who are responsible? How can we reduce this huge brain drain? Please continue reading if you think brain drain is bad for Sri Lanka.

Before looking at the reasons, let us ascertain whether there is a real problem. The following figures 3 and 4 shows the participant researchers’ assessment of the progress in their research careers while in Sri Lanka and while living outside Sri Lanka.

Figure 3: Progress of the research careers while working in Sri Lanka.

Figure 4: Progress of the research careers while working outside Sri Lanka.

Figure 3 shows that a staggering 68% of the professionals who work in Sri Lanka at present, feel that their research careers have deteriorated while working in Sri Lanka. On the other hand, figure 4 shows that 83% of the professionals who work outside Sri Lanka at present felt that their research careers had improved while working outside Sri Lanka. This proves that there is something gravely wrong in the Sri Lankan system. One should be very happy to see that there are about 23% of the professionals who have survived swimming upstream. It is a universal reality that there is a small percentage who survive in any harsh condition. But whole throughout the human civilization, people thought of ways to provide better atmospheres to increase the number of intellectuals who remain serving a given country. When I contacted some of the participants, they said that a person who expects a good research career can afford to live in Sri Lanka on average three years. Beyond that, one becomes irrelevant in the current trends.

To my amazement, there is a World Bank project to fund universities to upgrade the quality and relevance of the university graduates under the quality enhancement fund (QEF). The project requires the senior staff members to go on training. This is never needed in universities with good research environments. Usually the senior staff members give training to other professionals based on the continuous development of know-how within the university through research projects. It should be a gradual growth of knowledge rather than sporadic improvements based on foreign training.

What is the importance of research to a country?

It helps a country to be proactive: I do not have to explain the value of being proactive to those who live with competition. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka has been very poor in being proactive. Instead we have been very good at being reactive. Perhaps it is because depending on foreign aids whenever we hit a wall is easier. But we have to keep in mind that it is more expensive than the investment for being proactive and most importantly it erodes a Nation’s dignity and independence. It may be also due to the fact that nobody in the Government institutes gets fired for not being proactive. The Nation bears the costs of these reactive pundits.

If I may take a simple example of a proactive measure in any organization, we are aware of depreciation of assets. By depreciating, we set aside some money each month so that this artificial expense will one day leave you with enough liquid funds to purchase a replacement. If I take research, see how Japanese faced the oil crisis. They did the required research to develop a fuel efficient car that helped many automobile companies to survive the shock. You find millions of examples in the defense industry that made countries be able to face threats by doing the required research well in advance.

If I may take a simple example that I am faced with, we have more than one million landmines to be cleared from the North and the East before re-settling the internally displaced civilians. We should have done proactive research to develop cheaper local know-how to face this situation well in advance. Yet, today we have come to the point of clearing these landmines and find ourselves begging from foreigners to come and do the demining. It would have been more prestigious if we had enough technical know-how to be a little more independent. When I asked some responsible people including politicians for some help to continue the related research, some replied that we are now in a hurry; therefore, we do not have time to do research, and therefore we have to ask foreigners to help us. This is a typical answer from a reactive officer. Quite interestingly, these foreign countries have the required technology though they do not have a single landmine in their countries. How did that happen? They were proactive. They did the required research in advance expecting applications in the third world. As usual, we are on our knees.

There are numerous more examples in the energy sector, fisheries, and agriculture I am aware of, where we have lost a lot of money by being loath to invest in proactive research projects. A discussion of which may consume hundreds of pages.

Proactive research can not be done if the required culture is not there. If we suggest a proactive research project when we do not have the required culture, people tend to say that it is an irrelevant project to the current needs. Yet, people in countries with good research cultures easily understand that research is aimed at the future situations and you can not always find immediate applications. Therefore, they take the risk of initiating things in anticipation of future relevant contexts like the landmine issue in Sri Lanka. Therefore, research helps a Nation to be proactive and through that make the way to enjoy a better economy in the country.

It helps a country to be independent: As we discussed, research is necessarily a proactive exercise. If a country has solutions developed well in advance to the current problems, there is less need to depend on others when problems arise. We are now living in a global village, where we are in a “give and take” deal with other countries. We must be able to offer things and take things from the rest of the world. If all what we have is some tea, rubber, coconut, graphite exported as raw material, or housemaids almost working like slaves, we can expect things that are equally valuable. If we want to live with a better standard of living, either we have to borrow money or beg from the richer Nations. That undermines the whole goal of staying independent.  Those who do research will produce things with more value than what you can get from just raw material, and the people in the country will have a better value as workers. Therefore, a research culture will help a country to stay independent in a world running on give and take virtues.

It helps a country to reduce brain drain: Those countries who offer better opportunities to the researchers will continue to prosper by reducing the brain drain. Any developing country has to live with a certain level of brain drain. But all developing countries should try to minimize it not by banning migration, but by offering better opportunities to professionals. Why do we need professionals in a country anyway? The basic reason is, a person who has spent four years in a university will catch up things faster than other people, because they have been trained to analyze things and look at things with a critical mind.  Therefore, they are needed in organizations that need to survive in dynamic environments. Sometimes, I have heard that people without degrees do better than those with degrees in private organizations. It can be true as far as we live in a relatively stagnant business environment. If an organization wants to survive in the modern global business environments, a little bit of dynamic blood will prove to be very important. People who work like machines are also important, but in repetitive jobs. But this distinction will decay down if the universities themselves are not innovative with good research cultures.

Figure 5: The relationship between research and the economic growth

The immediate question one might ask is whether we have enough economic power to invest in research and development. The relationship between the economic growth and the research culture is very strong. As suggested by figure 5, 85% of the people believe that the economic growth and a good research culture go parallel to each other like what the history of many advanced Nations teaches us. That means these two are tightly yoked to each other. There was a significant 12% who believed that research essentially lead economic growth. When contacted personally to find out why they hold this exceptional belief, I was convinced that it has been a basic principle in the human civilization. In fact they were very senior people working in well recognized institutes.

It helps a country to have graduates with relevant knowledge while having a motivated academic staff in the universities: This is a cause and effect process. By doing research in a university, the lecturers are constantly kept updated about the latest ideas in the field. This up to date knowledge is transferred to the undergraduate students who take lectures from them. Therefore, students go to the society as relevant people. This will improve the demand for the graduates. If organizations have access to good graduates with relevant knowledge, they will grow and the countries economy will start to grow. This will allow the organizations or the government to fund more research projects. I remember one union speech given by the US president while I was working in the US. The most striking thing in that speech was that he stressed upon the need to have more investment in the advancement of the American education system. He said, good education means good jobs for the people, and the economy will strengthen with the good graduates. Unfortunately this cycle has frozen in a warm country like Sri Lanka. In fact 95% of the researchers believed that the quality of their lectures would improve if they were to live in a better research environment according to figure 6.

Figure 6: The effect of doing research on the quality of one’s teaching.

What seems to be blocking a revival of the research culture?

Advisors to the policy makers: The survey asked the question, why is Sri Lanka far lagging behind its successful Asian counterparts in terms of the progress of a research culture.

According to figure 7, 54% of the researchers believed that the relatively low National priority has been the reason for the situation we experience today. 25% of them believed that it is the wrong priority list of the senior officers in the academia. They are the people who are responsible for feeding right information to the top policy makers. 21% believed that the lack of professionals to do research is the biggest problem. If we believe in cause and effect, everything is a result of a set of causes and conditions. The low National priority is decided by the policy makers. Policies are made based on the information given to the top policy makers. If the information providers have a wrong priority list, obviously, wrong information will be provided unless they base their information on real surveys that cover the bottom level. The lack of professionals to do research is a result of a huge brain drain Sri Lanka has produced adequate researchers. It is not the problem. The problem is that the other two reasons have chased most of them out of the country. They have performed well in prestigious places of explorers abroad. The credit of their great contributions never comes to Sri Lanka. That goes to those Nations who fostered a good environment to those inventors.

Figure 7: The biggest reason why Sri Lanka is lagging behind its successful Asian counterparts.

Long red-tape in procurement: Figure 8 shows that 33% of the professionals feel that the time consumed in the procurement process in the Sri Lankan university system is more than 20 times longer than that of foreign universities. 82% feel that it is more than double the time taken in the foreign universities. Sometimes, this delay makes research projects irrelevant. This problem is severe if you have to frequently go through the central supplies department. According to figure 9, 68% of the researchers have to go through the long red-tape at least five times a year. 32% go through this time consuming process more than 20 times a year.  They must be doing the most hardware extensive research work. Being one who works on hardware extensive research projects, I was not at all alarmed when I saw that 32% of the professionals go through the same nightmare.

If we consider an average of 10 times inefficiency in the Sri Lankan system (from figure 8), 32% of the researchers are 10*20 = 200 times inefficient than their foreign counterparts who would want to buy similar items and 68% of the Sri Lankan researchers are at least 10*5 = 50 times inefficient than their foreign counterparts only due to the inefficiency in the procurement procedures. A researcher can not survive with this kind of a scary difference in the efficiency with their foreign counterparts.

Figure 8: The relative time taken in the procurement process in a typical Sri Lankan university.

Figure 9: How often researchers go through the central supplies department when they work in Sri Lanka.

This problem is very severe in disciplines like engineering because engineering is a hardware intensive job.

Before, our brilliant advisors to the policy makers decide to ban engineering in Sri Lanka, I must say that it is also an important need to uplift the standard of living in a country and to evolve a better manufacturing culture in Sri Lanka.

The next question is what makes our system so inefficient? It is not really the people who are involved in the supplies department or in any other nodes of the red-tape. It is the unnecessary length of the red-tape. Universities outside Sri Lanka have much more decentralized structures. Research laboratories are treated as living entities that can directly keep contacts with outside and maintain independent bank accounts and keep their own credit cards so that purchasing items is not an issue. The issue of justifying the items comes only at the point of negotiating a research grant. There, you have to justify the cost of items to the funding agency. Then you do not have to convince it again to about five officers in the red-tape of the university who does not know about the requirements of the project.

Another hilarious law found in the Sri Lankan university system is that, even with the funds one has secured from outside funding agencies like the National Science Foundation, you can not specify the exact item you need when you order an item through the university. You can only specify the need. It is like if you really need a trouser to attend a wedding, you can not say you need a trouser. You can only say that you need a dress to cover your body bellow the waist. The supplies department calls for quotations and go for the cheapest. Therefore, the supplies department can buy you a sarong! Though you may go to the wedding in a sarong, you can not do that with a research project.

In a technical environment, the individual researcher knows best about what items are suited to the application in a given context. Other than the cost, we sometimes look for different other things related to a given item needed in a project. For instance, if I need a microcontroller, I look for the available programming platforms. If the laboratory already has a programmer and the compilers for a particular brand of microcontrollers, we may not go for a completely different brand of microcontrollers that needs fresh compilers and programmers because that is another huge additional cost. Other important factor is the time available to finish a project. If the results are needed soon, we do not look at a small saving in the hardware items we buy. We buy those items we are familiar with so that we can finish the project within the required time. The supplies department can buy you a strange item at a very cheaper price. But the inability to meet the deadline due to time spent on familiarizing the new items will be more expensive. We do try new items like new types of microprocessors, but in a relaxed environment. Things like after sales services, speed of delivery, and durability of the items are all very important subjective judgments that are not written on the application forms. Looking at the cost alone is good if you buy things like toilet papers, curtains for your window, half-sheet bundles, etc., but not items needed for research projects.

Yet, the law requires you to send the application through the head of the department, dean of the faculty, sometimes to the vice chancellor, tender board, bursar and finally to the supplies department, though none of them know anything about the relationship between the need and the item.

Research grants: Figure 10 shows the views about research grants as an important factor to stimulate a better research culture in Sri Lanka. 58% believed that the efficiency of the university system should be improved to attract industrial partners to do collaborative research work. If the applied researchers can attract more industrial partners, the government will be left with the freedom to support more basic research that will have no immediate financial gain. Basic research is the mother of an explorative culture in a country. If we think about United States as a country, their scientific image is very much carved by the level of achievements in basic research.

Figure 10: Research grants

Professor Albert Einstein or Professor Stephan Hawkins would never have done research if they were asked to find industrial partners to fund their work.  If you take universities like Johns Hopkins or Princeton, you will notice that most research projects are aimed at understanding the rules of nature around us. When these beautiful minds teach young people, the young graduates get inspired to think about the realities that governs our lives. They become more creative and be able to think outside the box. The result is a life grounded to the beauties in the real world. Products designed and manufactured by those minds will have more value from other people’s eyes. Even an explorative wife and a mother can be an asset to a family than one who just follows standard recipes to cook food, talks nothings new but neighbor’s gossip, etc. A creative entrepreneur is an asset to a country than one who just faithfully follows what western giants tries several decades ago, or just imports commodities and markets in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the country must support free exploration in all walks of life. That stimulates a revival of all aspects of a society. The schools and universities are ideal breeding sites for that.

However, in figure 10, 33% of professionals believed that the National allocations on either basic or applied research should be increased to 4-5% of the GNP. One must notice that people did not make unfair demands like 10% of the GNP.

Figure 11: Financial reward system to do research

Financial rewards: We are all aware that humans work with a motivation. That can be one significant behavioral difference between humans and other animals that still have very stereotypical behaviors.  Researchers being humans, there must be a good incentive to continue doing research. Of course a large part of the motivation comes from an intrinsic drive to explore. Yet, in a Sri Lankan environment, the salaries paid to senior academic staff members is less than the average starting salary of a fresh graduate in the industry. With that peasant salary, new returnees can not maintain a decent standard of living. When they pay a rent in Colombo, maintain a car, send kids to schools, what is left for food, dresses, and recreation is awfully inadequate. Therefore, most of them decide first to be financially stable before resuming a research career. They first depend on doing extra part-time jobs like teaching in various private institutes that pay on average meager rates like Rs. 500 per hour. They take up this hard life with a hope to return back to the wonderful research life one beautiful day and that day never arrives till most of them pack up and leave the mother country. Therefore, in figure 11, 100% of them expressed their strong recommendation to set up financial reward systems based on research performance.

I am convinced that setting up sticks to measure research performance is a tough task to many advisors to the policy makers. One thing you have to keep in mind is that something is better than nothing. Perfection is a destination of an adaptive evolutionary process. Something should trigger this process. That something can be things like number of publications in peer reviewed journal papers. For some disciplines, there can be only Sri Lankan journals. Yet, it should not be a problem. Please do not try to generalize because it can not be done. Try to have suggestions from each discipline and adopt a democratic method to arrive at a decision for each discipline. What do we do if new problems arise? Then, deal with the special cases in a special way.

Figure 12: Funds to subscribe to professional bodies.

Contact with peer professional bodies: A researcher lives in a research community. It is only by living in that community one tests his/her ideas and receives valuable feedback. When most of us were studying abroad, we lived in that culture. By attending international conferences, we could develop new contacts that sometimes led to good international friendships and research collaborations. Moreover, we came to know how others react to the new ideas we propose and how we react to the new ideas proposed by others.

When professionals return to Sri Lanka, many lose this exposure. That gradually pushes them away from the peer groups and finally they get completely isolated from the rest of the world. Yet, funding people to attend international conferences in the developed world is a big burden to a country like Sri Lanka. Therefore, in figure 12, 56% of the professionals suggested to allocate more funds to sponsor more international conferences in Sri Lanka. That will help expatriate Sri Lankans also to visit the mother land with a professional agenda also.

Furthermore, 42% recommended allocating grants to attend at least a limited number of international conferences. This can be limited to those who present papers.

Figure 13: Facilities to attend international conferences.

Figure 14: Funds to subscribe in professional bodies to have access to latest information.

Subscription to professional bodies: This is very much related to what we just discussed. A subscription to a related professional body is very important to one’s survival. The subscription brings you a lot of benefits. One is the journals or periodicals you receive and the right to download the same articles as soft copy files as member services. These journals carry latest research articles. That helps you to keep yourself updated. The other benefit is the concessions you can enjoy in the international conferences organized by the particular professional body. Therefore, according to figure 14, 68% of the professionals suggested that attention is needed to improve the grants for subscriptions to professional bodies so that the researchers in a given university can download research articles from any computer in the university network. If this is very expensive if we apply as a university, the next best alternative is to increase the personal allowances to subscribe to professional bodies. This decision should be taken after surveying the number of researchers needing articles from various professional bodies and specific journals. According to figure 12, 18% suggested this measure. At present the universities do have an allowance for this. Yet, when I compare the current rates and the allowance, I am sure the allowance has not been revised recently. However, unlike other questions, 13% said they are satisfied with the current allowances.

Figure 15: Speed of the internet to download articles.

Speed of the internet to download articles: Today’s researchers are virtually net-sapiens. They heavily depend on the internet to search and download up to date information. We have to constantly be on the watch for new publications from at least some target research groups. We should be able to download these articles and search the web as fast as possible. If we feel that the internet link is too slow to download heavy articles, we tend to lose the competition from those researchers living with better internet facilities. Figure 15 depicts that 86% feel that the links in Sri Lanka are at least five times slower than what they are used to while working abroad. Availability of the links is also a very severe problem in Sri Lanka. For those who feel that the links are more than 20 times slower, the life must have been miserable, because feelings are always relative. If you have lived in a system much, much better than the system you live in today, that tends to frustrate you faster. Therefore, the universities or at least research laboratories should be provided with faster links.

 Are there any alternative macro remedies?

From among the many things that we think the top policy makers should pay attention to, let us see what the most important factors are.

The top two important points: Among the items we discussed, 61% suggested that the most important factor is the availability of research grants according to figure 16. Amazingly, 13% of the researchers said the most important hurdle is the staggering time wasted in the procurement process. According to figure 17, 42% believes that the second most important factor is the staggering length of time wasted in the procurement procedure.

I am sure many of you did not believe that this waste of time in the procurement procedure is that significant. According to this finding, there must be a significant number of people who left the country to avoid being a failure due to this apparent inefficiency in the university system of Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is clear that the universities can not be run like other government institutes. Universities need more flexible structures.

Figure 16: The most important factor.

Figure 17: The second most important factor.

Figure 18: Graduate schools in universities as a fundamental solution

Graduate schools: From figure 18, 83% of the researchers believed that a graduate school will solve many of these problems. In fact, many foreign universities have adopted the strategy of having a graduate school in the university, where you have rules and regulations appropriate to foster a better environment to do research. Very often, people argue that we do not have enough academic staff to maintain a graduate school. Yes, if you take a snap shot of the current situation you may notice that we do not have the manpower. But if we look at it from a more futuristic and dynamic perspective, a graduate school that will create a better environment conducive to do research work efficiently will encourage more researchers to return to Sri Lanka while retaining those who are very likely to leave after becoming fed-up with the present system.

Figure 19: Allowing research laboratories to maintain independent accounts to improve the efficiency of research projects.

Decentralization of responsibilities pertaining to research: Decentralization of responsibilities like purchasing, to department, research center or laboratory level will reduce the bureaucracy. In fact figure 19 depicts the views about such decentralization. 71% of the researchers suggested that the procurement should be decentralized to individual departments or research center level. 21% suggested that individual researchers should be able to keep their funds in independent bank accounts and have the full responsibility of purchasing items. In fact in the laboratory I worked in the Johns Hopkins University, our principle investigator (the research leader) had such independent accounts for different grants. We had no trouble at all when we wanted to buy things. When I wanted a new computer to start work, he sat with me and ordered a computer through internet. It was just a matter of entering a laboratory’s credit card number. The computer was on my table within days. This is a fairy tale in Sri Lanka! One talks in months or even years when it comes to ordering computers even if you have a grant secured through a research proposal you wrote that mentioned the need of a computer.

In addition to procurement, people pointed out the importance of decentralization of responsibilities pertaining to research to minimize the adverse effects from professional jealousies from senior staff members. This was a serious problem in the field of Medicine. Almost 40% of the professionals in Medicine who had left the country did so due to this type of senior predators. This must see an end! Allowing researchers to maintain independent research laboratories so that the requirement to depend on the seniors is reduced, may help. At least this is what I saw in the Johns Hopkins University that is regarded to be the best for medicine with 30 Nobel Prize winners so far. We had no influence from outsiders except our principle investigator in all responsibilities like fund management, securing funds from outside, publications etc., though we had good inter-laboratory collaborations on a competitive basis. This was not at all a barrier to the collaborations. In fact, we had identified clear strengths and weaknesses of each laboratory that gave us a reason to collaborate.

Figure 20: Investing on a better intranet.

A better intranet: An intranet is also a web based information system but one that is restricted to a particular organization. A university can benefit much from an intranet. Suppose I want to order an item through the existing red-tape. I do not have to fill three identical paper forms. All what I do is to fill a web form with clear textboxes. Then I may have the additional opportunity to include some homepages of alternative suppliers so that the supplies department can look for those suppliers in addition to the suppliers they are aware of. This is very important when we import items. The world has become very convenient where, there are internet sites that allow you to compare suppliers in terms of prices and other performance criteria for a given item. I recommend you to visit www.pricewatch.com as an example.

If we depend on the intranet facilities with the current red-tape untapped, the world suddenly becomes more civilized. In that world, when I submit the form, an electronic copy goes to the head of the department like what is required by the current system. Though he does not know anything about the relationship between my requirement and the item I am ordering, he can approve it and click on a button so that an email message will go to the Dean of my faculty to look in the intranet for the details. Though he/she also does not know anything about the relationship between my requirement and the item I am ordering, he can approve it and click on a button if the vice chancellor also should have a look. Then the vice chancellor can have a lot of fun going through all this type of requests sent from the whole University though he/she does not know anything about the relationships between the requirements and the items people are ordering and click a button to approve. Finally the bursar checks whether I have funds to purchase the item and gives the green light to the supplies department to go ahead with the call for quotations. Then the supplies department can advertise and receive quotations from different suppliers and try the ones I have suggested also. When the supplies department gets three quotations, they can click a button on my form so that I will be informed about the one with the minimum price. Then I do not have to fill more forms to say that there are items at a lower price from my neighbor.  This often happens to us. If you send somebody to the 1^st cross street in Pettah, you find most of the items you need at a very much cheaper price.

However, the process with the intranet will at least save time of walking from place to place, and greatly reduce the risk of losing a file of orders that can easily happen to an innocent clerk drowned in a sea of files. Therefore, according to figure 20, 67% of the professionals believed that this can improve efficiency. However, a considerable 23% suspects the success of such an intranet based system. When I discussed unofficially with some professionals, they said, you will most probably have to do two things. Fill the web-based form and send the paper form also and wait till the paper work gets done. This suspicion should be alleviated by the officers in the red-tape by admiring the comfort and efficiency in a networked society.

Increase the petty cash level: In figure 19, about 7% suggested that the petty cash levels could be increased as a solution. If an item costs less than the petty cash level, we do not need to go through the above procedure, and you can buy what you want. Yet, the last person who upgraded the petty cash level must not be living today to see his/her great grand daughters and sons.

Figure 21: Extended services of government funding agencies.

Allow Government funding agencies to maintain separate grant accounts: Let us assume that the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards me a research grant to do a project. If I can keep the money with a special account opened for this grant by the NSF, and help them to buy items using a credit card, a lot of time will be saved in importing items. This is a serious problem with electronics, where we have to import ICs very frequently. We can not keep stocks because we do not know the specific item till we finish the design. The NSF can order items without going through normal tender procedures, because when they approved the grant, I have explained the requirements of items. Therefore, some cooperation with the NSF will save a major part of the nightmare. It will also improve the transparency I have with the purchasing of items. According to figure 21, 67% believed that this would be a good measure. Amazingly the numbers are the same as we saw in figure 20. It could be because we are talking about Government institutes in both cases that conditioned their expectation at equal levels.

Start trusting the researchers: I can understand why the British colonial rulers who introduced most of these messy procedures did not trust us. They did not trust us because we were suppressed by them and some of us wanted freedom. Therefore they kept central control over all affairs in any government institute and chopped off the research layer in the education system knowing very well that research leads to freedom and independence.

Figure 22: System’s trust on researchers.

Figure 23: Suggestions to trust researchers more.

What I can not understand is, why are our advisors to the policy makers on higher education still following that rubbish? One example to show that we still do not trust each other is that the buildings in the university are closed after some time and nobody can enter after that. I worked for the Johns Hopkins University as a postdoctoral fellow. Johns Hopkins is located in the downtown of Baltimore which is regarded as the third most dangerous city in the United States. But, I was given a key to the laboratory that had very expensive equipment. I was free to enter and leave the laboratory at any time in the night. It was the same in Japan where I did my postgraduate studies. The same poor sole, when I came here as a senior lecturer, I am chased out of the building after a given time, and I have no access to my own research laboratory. It is amazing that I am mistrusted in my own country while other countries treating me as one of their own. Therefore, we felt more home in the United States or Japan as far as the work environment is concerned. It is not only me who says this. According to figure 22, 84% of the researchers have not had laboratory keys to enter the laboratory facilities round the clock while they were working in Sri Lanka. In figure 23, 94% of them agree that full-time researchers should have laboratory keys to enter the research facilities round the clock. This is a strong cry. Researchers are not those typical 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. type government servants. They do not care for the time. They do not need overtime payments. All what they need is access to their research facilities at any time. Therefore, it is time to think like a free Nation and trust our own people. Without that we do not have a path to go. If somebody abuses that trust, there should be mechanisms to trace them and treat accordingly, without punishing the whole population of researchers with central locks.

Discussion and concluding remarks

Here, I wish to include the additional comments given by a small number of participants. I have made small spelling and grammar mistakes.

Comment:

The Sri Lankan government exports skilled and non-skilled labor instead of using them to create jobs in the country to turn Sri Lankan raw materials into industrial goods, etc., as the developed nations do with their indigenous labor. It also allows multinational corporations to exploit the Sri Lankan labor market within the country to produce cheap industrial goods, such as in the garment industry.

Sri Lanka exports millions of pounds of tea, rubber and coconut products annually in the form of raw materials. All those exports are turned into consumer products in the importing countries, thus setting up industries to create jobs. Sometimes the finished products are sold back again into Sri Lanka.

I believe Sri Lankan universities can do all the research necessary to collect information on how and into what consumable products the importing countries turn the tea, rubber and coconut products imported from Sri Lanka and advise the feasibility or otherwise to the Sri Lankan government on how to set up similar industries in Sri Lanka to produce the finished products in Sri Lanka itself without exporting its raw materials.

In this manner Sri Lanka can create more jobs for Sri Lankans and earn more foreign exchange, and stop this shameless export and exploitation of Sri Lankan labor as is happening at the moment.

At least 50 % of whatever the international aid Sri Lanka receives should be allocated to job/wealth creation and the rest to national reconstruction and reconciliation because the past governments have turned Sri Lanka, since independence, from a 'have' country to a 'have-not' country.

Comment:

Dedicated time allocation is essential for staff in medical faculties who are burdened with their additional clinical commitments.

Comment:

One major facility that we are lacking is proper accommodation/housing near the University which is not helping the research culture. Even academic staff (let alone research students) has to travel from far. Accommodation around the university seems to be unspeakable. This is not the case in foreign universities doing good research. This problem is a much more important and difficult issue to handle than procumbent etc. in the long run.

My personal feeling is that we need to develop a *very* good housing complex around the university. Good enough cost-wise and facilities-wise to persuade people to leave their (ancestral?) homes!!

Research culture is something that has to go a little bit outside the boundary walls of the university.

Comment:

The following may not be in any order, I am suggesting everything while keeping in mind the fact that we are in the 3rd world.

Improvements in research:

1. Set up a database of SL expatriates around the world who are actively involved in research in every field. Universities should have centers that provide information to local researchers, and help encourage collaborations. We should always try to do some collaborations -- we have good learned brains-- what is lacking is expertise and experience (which some of our old-fellows have to admit too, because sometimes I get a feeling that Sri Lankan academia pretends that they know everything). Of course, universities have to find their own money; collaborations will help get a better value for the money spent on research. Because, I attended a few research seminars while I was in SL, I get a feeling do we have to do this. Of course, we know that, as graduate students, a big portion of our research ended up in our own thesis’s and publications. But the training helped us do better things when we started our careers. We have limitations in affordability due to the small economy. There should have national priorities for next 20 years -- that should come from ministerial level. Researchers have to prove the value of their work and win their own money.

2. We can do a lot of computational research -- I am sure we should have multi processor Linux clusters in our universities already.

3. I am wary about the idea that subscribing to journals.. it could be an unnecessary waste of money given the handful researchers in Universities.. Ideally, you can ask collaborators to send articles from their own Universities, of course, this is bit embarrassing, but I believe a lot of expatriates would not mind doing so.

A positive example: Look at the number of medical tourists who visits India. Because the Indian Medical Science is so well updated and they do almost everything that the rest of the developed world does. It is simply because their commitment to research in the last 2 decades. They are doing a good job in computer science and communication technology too.

Comment:

In Sri Lanka, researchers waste their time on a lot unnecessary things due to bad infrastructure for research instead of focusing their research activities. This is a bit of a burden in Sri Lanka. Sometimes this leads to self frustration and leaving the country forever!

Comment:

In my opinion the following are important.

1. Access to the laboratories round the clock.
2. Establish a good store of frequently used hardware items in every department. The store may have its own account and the cost of components drawn may be paid back from other accounts like research grants. This can expedite the process of procurement since only a few specific items need to be purchased through the normal procedure.
3. Supporting staff/research students to participate in international/National industrial exhibitions.
4. Increasing the salary of academic staff members to a reasonable level to live in dignity so that they could fully concentrate on research and development.
5. A mini-workshop in the department level is also important. 

Comment:

A data base should be maintained on National problems that can be solved by advancement of research.

Comment:

I spent only three months at the University of Colombo in the early ‘90s. I saw only primitive facilities for research.

Comment:

The facilities and grants should be improved so that the university can attract and retain good research students until the completion of the projects.

Comment:

Although universities should take the lead in developing the research environment, it should be established in all the areas in the country, and government as a whole.

The university courses and facilities should be developed to produce proper scientists (researchers) rather than blind followers.

Comment:

“Yes Sir/Madam” type senior officers in the academia should be kicked out of their seats.

Comment:

Salaries paid are not competitive and do not help curbing the brain drain. A stipend of a few thousand per month for a graduate is not going to attract a qualified person into research

Industries also should first seek the expertise of local people.

Comment:

Lack of enthusiasm among the undergraduates is a major drawback I feel. They should be given the basic concepts properly from their undergraduate dates. Support from the staff (lecturers/professors) is grossly inadequate. I would say there is no encouragement at all. Even at postgraduate level, it is disappointing.

Before anything else, most university teachers themselves need proper training on teaching and research.

Comment:

We have to move beyond a nation of garment workers, house maids, and tea-pluckers. Energy research is a very important thing Sri Lanka should do. We should have active solar and wind energy centers. We need energy in any development activity.

Sri Lanka has to build a good R&D culture. Otherwise we will be perpetually living talking about how our fore-fathers built dams and lakes (they did their own version of R&D and none of that was imported technology) and nothing to show for the future.

One useful thing is if there is a common place where available positions in SL universities are advertised. From what I understand, now it is primarily by word of mouth. We should also be open to having foreign researchers coming and working in Sri Lanka even on a temporary basis. But again it boils down to the need for more funds for research.

Comment:

Some additional barriers: Lack of time with other priorities, professional jealousness and blocking of activities by the senior colleagues.

Comment:

Stop the brain drain! Just look across the ocean to see what India has done. Now, even Indians who has been living in US are going back to work in India. The reason is the government has made large investments in high-tech industries and given an attractive environment for intellectuals to work there.

Comment:

Active research and development can lead to economic growth. Research and development should not be limited to the laboratory. It can be used to find out better economic plans, better production lines, effective and efficient methods to replace old ways of practices, improve crops, health and many other things.

When there is a ground breaking invention made, the image of the country will improve. People will start paying attention to the work force of that country and elevate their level from mere assembly line workers.

Most famous inventions made in the USA are mostly done by the immigrants. But USA has the reputation for being leaders in research.

One other suggestion I have to raise money for the universities is to encourage children of the expatriate Sri Lankans to attend Sri Lankan universities as paid students. Most of us who graduated with the basic degrees from Sri Lankan universities still believe that Sri Lankan universities have a lot to offer for the students at the basic degree level. By this method you can open up a new funding source. You may have to spend some of the charged tuition fees to upgrade the facilities for the increased number of students, but you can use some of that money to start investing in a good research laboratories.

Comment:

 What is remaining in the country are either fed-up professionals or those rotten with the old system. We need more research and tech transfer and see how poor could benefit from this.

Comment:

Consider one’s research background when promoting to senior positions like Vice Chancellor and positions in the UGC. At present it seems purely political. If that is the case, you do not deserve more.

Comment:

Make research a keyword in every academic meeting; let it be departmental, faculty, senate or whatever. Some time should be spent on reviewing how research is progressing.

Comment:

Filling the vacancies in the academic/support staff is another important thing. I ended up doing a lot of work that is supposed to be done by instructors that took quite a bit of time away from research.

Comment:

I still think that the main obstacle, in most cases, is in our own minds and attitudes, even though outside factors such as the working environment, funds and grants, laboratory and library facilities are true irritants.

The most important outside factor that hinders progress is the absence of a true peer group.

Comment:

In connection with your survey, I can tell you one good experience I had in Sri Lanka.  Once I was invited by a major Biscuit Manufacturer to give a talk on Baking and one of the researchers pointed out a problem in their process which, according to him, even their foreign consultants could not correct.  When I looked at the matter, it was a simple adjustment of a valve and since then the product returned to normal.  But, once it went to the management, there was a sense of disappointment and 'no big deal' type of attitude because it was corrected by a Sri Lankan with a dark skin!!!   Your survey might find a tinge of this attitude on the part of the Sri Lankans, if the contributors to the survey become honest.

A kind request:

This survey would not have been a reality without the help of the Lanka Academic Network and The Lanka Academic: www.lacnet.org, www.theacademic.org

The Lanka Academic Network consists of a large number of Sri Lankan expatriate professionals spread all across the Globe. The primary goal of the Lanka Academic Network is to support underprivileged children in Sri Lanka though providing better IT based learning environments. Through connecting the rural kids to the global networked society, the Lanka Academic Network and The Lanka Academic strive to make the place of residence immaterial to the access to free information.

The Lanka Academic collaborates with The Lanka Academic Network to further this objective. The Lanka Academic maintains an on-line newspaper at www.thecademic.org , which is updated round the clock with news about Sri Lanka. The revenue collected through the advertisements is donated to the Lanka Academic Network to use in the above mentioned IT projects in Sri Lanka.

The Lanka Academic maintained a separate section for this survey in their on-line newspaper, so that Sri Lankans from all over the globe could access it.

The information provided in this article is free to be used in any policy papers. There are no copy rights. Therefore, if you use the statistics in any consultancy work that leads to an income, please donate part of that to the organization Lanka Academic Network who shed sweat to collect this data and give credit to The Lanka Academic for the original data. I personally bear the responsibility of the analysis, comments, and conclusions, and The Lanka Academic is not at all held responsible for them.

Thank you very much for helping me to give clues for you to hold the bull by the horns. The rest is up to our political leaders.

I wish mother Lanka a safe journey towards brilliance.

Dr. Thrishantha Nanayakkara

Email: thrish@bme.jhu.edu