Need for revisions in curriculum of business programs in Sri Lanka

We are talking about globalisation, glocalisation and all new concepts in the world. Updating your knowledge in day-to-day business activities is really important to make decisions. The turbulent business environment always demands business practitioners to study the marker carefully. Anyway to be competitive and to become a ‘hit’ in the market there is a need for proper ‘business sense’. For that, you should have more imaginative power with creativity.  

A certain percentage of that you bring from your genes. Nevertheless, you should learn how ‘to sense business environment’. If you always follow core subjects and all given text materials in your university or in your college you will become a machine without that ‘sense’. Because of that recognised international business universities are having different combinations of the subjects in their curriculum.

A good example (refer to the given box) is the Babson Business School in Massachusetts, US (Babson’s MBA program has been ranked number one in entrepreneurship for 21 consecutive years by US News and World Report and is ranked 58th overall in the Bloomberg Businessweek 2014 rankings. Babson’s undergraduate business program is ranked 26th overall in the Bloomberg Businessweek 2014 rankings). 

We need to read the ‘big picture’. The ‘big picture’ is all about ‘common sense’. There is need for better collaboration between industry and academia in Sri Lanka to read this big picture. And also, there is a need to respect the tradition which is a prerequisite to become a great professional

We can see some combinations which are really important to develop a better business professional in the long run. And in Sri Lanka also, we can see some universities have already started some optional courses such as fine arts for their curriculum. William M. Sullivan, a senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching argued that liberal-arts programs should help students cultivate ‘practical reasoning’ and prepare them for the world of work. (Glenn, 2010). And also, it can be observed, the section of students (especially comes under Generation Y) having a problem of ‘empathy’ despite their academic credentials (refer my article on ‘Wanted! A nation with empathy’ via http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=201032).

As a responsible citizen you need to identify the real meaning of ‘responsibility’. The Association of American Colleges and Universities categorised five dimensions of personal and social responsibility (refer below).

Five key dimensions of personal and social responsibility

1. Striving for excellence: developing a strong work ethic and consciously doing one’s very best in all aspects of college

2. Cultivating personal and academic integrity: recognising and acting on a sense of honour, ranging from honesty in relationships to principled engagement with a formal academic honour code

3. Contributing to a larger community: recognising and acting on one’s responsibility to the educational community and to the wider society – local, national, and global

4. Taking seriously the perspectives of others: recognising and acting on the obligation to inform one’s own judgment; engaging diverse and competing perspectives as a resource for learning, citizenship, and work

5. Developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning: developing ethical and moral reasoning in ways that incorporate the previous four dimensions, and using such reasoning in learning and in life

Align with this in the article of “Strengthening the Foundations of Students’ Excellence, Integrity, and Social Contribution” Colby and Sullivan (2009) explain the importance of ‘practical reasoning’. Here you can see their argument:

“Students need to experience engagement with the world so that they grasp the practical, the personal, and moral significance of what they are learning. Hence, the importance of practical reasoning. We see this in the best kind of preparation for a career: teaching practices that place students in their future roles as businesspeople or nurses or teachers or other professionals so that they can experience the many dimensions of knowledge, skill, and responsibility needed to practice these demanding occupations (Colby and Sullivan, 2009).”

Moreover, the future researcher can study  ‘Five Key Dimensions of Personal and Social Responsibility’ with The Sigalovada Sutta (Advice to Sigala) in Digha Nikaya which more philosophically and more broadly articulated about how people need to respect the society by having a better understanding of the duties and responsibilities of individuals. Unfortunately, in this era, we can observe only the ‘copy-paste’ scenario in many sectors in our nation with no proper synthesising (between context and content). Actually, this would always underestimate our own traditions embedded with rich insight.

Conclusion

In Sri Lanka, we can witness many people talking about soft skills. Furthermore a section of people criticise the output of national universities claiming that most of the graduates do not have ‘soft skills’. The same set of people define ‘soft skills’ as ‘language competency and IT skills’. But I do not agree with this. We need to read the ‘big picture’. The ‘big picture’ is all about ‘common sense’. There is need for better collaboration between industry and academia in Sri Lanka to read this big picture. And also, there is a need to respect the tradition which is a prerequisite to become a great professional.

“A love for tradition has never weakened a nation; indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril” – Winston S. Churchill

(The writer is Professor in Management Studies Open University of Sri Lanka and Visiting Professor in Canadore College, North Bay, Canada. You can reach Professor Abeysekera on [email protected].)