I was included in a five-person panel discussing the university education in Sri Lanka in light of the currently heightened interest re relaxing the government monopoly. In my opening comments, I referred to research conducted in 2012 by the Human Capital Research team. I also talked about the need to allow innovation in the educational system so that we can better respond to the fast changing external environment. The video of the talk show.
LIRNEasia in partnership with the Human Resource and Education Sub-committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce will be presenting the data from the survey that was conducted on higher education institutes in Sri Lanka. The survey consists of at least 46 private institutions and 10 public institutions/programs that recruit students outside of the University Grants commission (UGC)-mediated admission system, in addition to the 17 public institutions for which admissions are mediated by the UGC. The event will be held at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Colombo 02, on Wednesday, 27 June 2012 from 0900 hours till 1200 hours. Press release regarding the event: Daily News Daily FT NOTE: This directory is meant to be a guide only. Prospective students and their parents should contact the relevant institutions before making decisions.
Stanford, one of the world’ great universities, is poised as the test bed for a disruptive innovation to beat them all. Bringing the costs down to one percent surely qualifies as disruptive. Thrun’s ultimate mission is a virtual university in which the best professors broadcast their lectures to tens of thousands of students. Testing, peer interaction and grading would happen online; a cadre of teaching assistants would provide some human supervision; and the price would be within reach of almost anyone. “Literally, we can probably get the same quality of education I teach in class for about 1 to 2 percent of the cost,” Thrun told me.