Dudley’s fiasco

Business magnet Dudley Sirisena who was invited by the Kelaniya University to give a guest lecture on entrepreneurship was stopped by a group of students, ridiculed, and sent back. The students were hurling diatribes at him and some senior academics were seen pacifying the students. The students were questioning his qualifications to deliver a guest lecture and asking why the lecturers couldn’t do it and what they were paid for. Dudley Sirisena is a much acclaimed business entrepreneur and he was there to share his success story with the students specialising in entrepreneurship.  He couldn’t have gone there without the consent of the HOD, Dean and VC. From social media I could understand some academics were happy about this incident. In their view, he is a persona non grata within the premises of the university.

In my view, listening to a successful entrepreneur like Dudley Sirisena would be worthwhile for students of entrepreneurship. The students were criticising him for hoarding rice and manipulating the market. Suppose he did so and became a successful businessman, what’s wrong? Is it taboo for students of entrepreneurship to learn how hoarding works in business? Their lecturers could have learned hoarding from books but Dudley Sirisena might have already employed the process of hoarding in his own business and experienced its success and failure.

This incident happened a few years ago when the MBA degree was synonymous with better administration.  One executive officer who was working for a reputed company enrolled for the MBA program in a popular university here and then quit after studying for a few months. He wrote a letter to an English daily here criticising the course. Among other things, he mentioned that a Professor who didn’t have the experience of running even a tea kiosk was teaching them to run a big enterprise like the one he was working for productively.

The involvement of skilled professionals and industrialists in the planning and delivering of some courses is important to make the university products productive. In most Indian universities over 10% of the academic staff is reserved for professionals. Most PhD holders are recruited as lecturers through the qualifying exam called UGC NET.

For instance, would our universities recruit Booker prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka to teach fiction? I doubt, unless he has a special degree in English with Honours. What’s the ultimate goal of getting a special degree in fiction? To write one. He has already achieved it at Booker prize level.

Therefore, an Agriculture graduate should have the knowledge and skills to work as a farm manager, a B. Ed degree holder should be a practising teacher, an LL.B holder on completion of the Attorney at Law course should be a practising lawyer, an Engineer should be able to build bridges, a degree holder in Translation studies should be able to translate and interpret, and a degree holder in media studies should be able write news stories and feature articles. If a person with an MA in English speaks halting English then the entire purpose is lost.

M. A. Kaleel

Kalmunai - 05.