Currently, over 1000 institutions that offer diploma or certificate programs are registered with TVEC. Many more remain unregistered. TVEC has adopted the wise policy of using a market approach to regulation. In a market approach, a list of registered institutes and the programs offered by them would be readily available to the consumers allowing the consumer to make informed decisions. The expectation is that student interest in seeking out registered institute would would compel all institutions to register.

The market principle will work only if the consumers get reliable and timely data that are made available in a manner that is convenient to the consumer. So far TVEC has not been able to deliver in this regard. Please take a look at TVEC’s web site (www.tvec.gov.lk) and decide for yourself. Meanwhile, the demand for training continues to increase and the supply is increasing to meet the demand. A government agency that is already behind will not be able to keep up.

Degree Programs

The University Grants Commission (UGC) is responsible for maintaining quality in the degree granting sector. The term ‘University’ is essentially owned by the government of Sri Lanka, since a university can be only created by an act of parliament. An independent institution may be authorized to offer degree programs but can not call itself a university.

UGC is a latecomer to the business of quality assurance. In 2002, the Committee on Quality Assurance, a committee appointed by the UGC, initiated a project to design and implement a quality assurance system for higher education. Review of all institutions is expected to be completed by 2005 and the review of individual degree programs is expected to be completed by 2007. This time table does not include private degree programs. The efficiency and the effectiveness of process is not encouraging. It will interesting to see how UGC complies with the presidential decree, which I am not sure did not come with any additional resources for UGC.

Reviewers for quality assurance are chosen from among the faculty members from the 13 universities and therein lay the problem. Many of our faculty members in the universities do not have the level of post-graduate training. The situation is particularly acute in social sciences, humanities and management fields. Of those faculty members with adequate post-graduate training, not all keep up to date in their subject matter. Degree program reviewers should themselves meet certain quality standards. If you set the bar too high for a qualifying a reviewer, there won’t be sufficient reviewers and the efficiency suffers. If you set the bar too low you lower the validity of the quality assurance.

In addition there is the small-pond problem. Nobody would want to be too hard on another colleague who is in the same small university system The quality assurance process in the higher sector badly needs some sort of external validation.

Transnational Operations

Transnational education is a no mans land, locally here in or globally around the world. Transnational education is service or a trade where the supplier of education is in one country and the receiver is in another country. According to the GATS (General Trades and Services) convention, transnational educational services or any transnational trade or service can operate in one of four modes. In Mode I, education is provided in distance mode. Distance education requires a high-degree of self-motivation and discipline and is suited more for more mature learners. Distance mode is yet to establish it self as a viable mode of higher education for young school leavers for whom the acculturation and socialization process of higher education is just as important as the as the educational experience.

In Mode II, the consumer moves across the border to where there is supply. Although reliable statistics are unavailable, the number of alumni associations such Association of Sri Lankan Graduates of Indian universities or alumni associations of specific universities are becoming established is an indicator of the growth of mode II educational services.

In Mode III, the supplier establishes a commercial presence in the consumer’s country either by establishing a campus or through a partnership with an affiliate. In Mode III a student can study for a foreign degree in his/her home country. In , Mode III or a Mixed Mode is most prevalent. In a mixed mode, a student begins his/her study in Mode III and then convert to Mode II by proceeding to a foreign destination to complete the degree

Mode IV is when persons move across borders to provide services in person. A recent advertisement for a transnational IT degree program stressed the fact that their entire faculty is made of Australian nationals.

Regulation and Ranking of Transnational Educational Services

UNESCO, together with the European Union has developed a draft paper that emphasizes the importance of transparency, accountability and academic standards and specifying that transnational arrangements must comply with national legislation in both receiving and sending countries. An international document is in the works. The implementation of these codes of ethics is of course is up to each country.

In the absence of a national regulatory framework or a local ranking system in the receiving countries, rankings that are meant for national consumption in the supplier’s country are used as credentials in transnational operations. For example, University of Nottingham’s operations in cite the ranking of that parent university as the 9th in the Sunday Times Good University League Tables 2004. Curtin University of Technology in Perth is ranked by the Times Higher Education Supplement’s World University Rankings 2004 for as 76th from among a group of 200 universities from around the world. Curtin University has a branch campus in Sarawak, . A Curtin University degree can be completed also by studying full-time at the Sri Lanka Institute for Information Technology.