Is it a branding Problem?

We would expect at least one of our universities to be included among the top 1000 universities in the world. Unfortunately, we are not.

As per the chart, India and Pakistan have been able to secure 38 and 14 respectively to be in the list and they are the only two countries from South Asian Region. There are many countries from the Asia as well in the list. China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong are in the list. One might feel this list contains only well -developed countries from the look of it and that may be the reason why Sri Lanka is not in the list. But there are four countries representing the low-income belt; India, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt. If it’s the case, what are we missing here?

What is the paradox?

Sri Lankan education sector produces best engineers, best doctors etc but surprisingly we are not in the list. Is it a problem of facilities, or the number of students in the universities, or quality of the education? Or is it the poor branding of our universities? One thing for sure is that, our lecturers are doing a good job. Apart from a fraction getting trapped in the local political scenario (As certain political parties which are using university students to drive their agendas as it’s free labour and free knowledge which can cost otherwise a fortune of money to run their campaigns) majority of the local university students score well in exams. However, when it comes to striking a balance between education and extra-curricular activities there is an imbalance in the local universities. In addition to that, over the last 6 decades, there is a visible drop in the number of male students entering the universities and increase in the number of female students entering the universities.

Trend of University Enrollment in Sri Lanka, 1942/43-2002/03 (Article in Journal of Management • January 2011 )

The above statistics surely will not have an impact on the subject matter as I personally feel.

What are we missing here?

It can’t be the number of years in operation. University of Colombo was established back in 1921, i.e. it’s 100 year old university. University of Peradeniya was established in 1942 and it’s going to be 100 years in a decade. Undoubtedly our universities are giving the best of class education to students. However, one thing that is noticeably missing in the picture is branding.

In comparison to the way other universities in the world are marketing and branding, the local universities, especially the government universities don’t seem to be on par with the way international universities engage in branding of themselves. One of the main reasons for them could be the fact that they are not charging from the students as its free education provided by the government therefore, there is no reason for these universities to be in competition.  However, University of Colombo is ranked #1001-1200 in QS World University Rankings 2024. We can be happy that we are almost there to be among the top 1000 universities in the near future. The impact of branding on this journey should be assessed well in fast tracking the journey.

Possible solutions

The government should look at possibilities of opening up these facilities for international students to engage in their higher education in Sri Lanka at a higher price. It will take the burden out of the treasury to run these universities, and to be among the top tanking universities which are patronized by the international students. It will also pave the way to upgrade the facilities in these universities and to get among the top graded universities in the world as the world will start searching for our universities. It will also allow our students to interact with other countries which in return can widen the horizon for local students to explore new opportunities.

However, it shouldn’t be misunderstood by anyone to misinterpret for political games that we are selling local universities. Whilst increasing the entries for local students, we should provide a quota for overseas students also to come to Sri Lanka. Education is one thing we have done right so far and it’s up to us to capitalize on it to get returns to the country. In order to be competitive and to compete, we have to be in the competition. Branding can do a lot to position our universities in the world market as we have the pre-requisite; the right product to sell. Whilst the world selling wrong products, we are lagging behind having the right product in our hand. It’s time to wake up and open up eyes and ears to get ready for a worthy competition.