Reorientation Of Higher Education System For Building A National Innovation System

In recent years, national competition for grater shaves of the global economy has led governments around the world to think much more significantly about the economic significance of academic knowledge production and dissemination. Higher education systems worldwide are undergoing manifold types of changes that are often interrelated. It is a repository and defender of culture, an agent of change in this culture, an engine for national economic growth, and an instrument for the realization of collective aspirations. Social demand for higher education remains very high, in particular in developing countries, and systems in many countries expanding fast, while the financial and administrative capacity to respond to this growing demand is often inadequate. Given that insufficient financial and administrative capacity of higher education to respond to the social demand and national growth requirements, many countries world wide that were committed formerly to exclusive public system of education, have adopted legislations that allow for the development of a private participation in one hand. On the other hand, there is a new emphasis on market conditions, competition, the adoption of business practices, and the birth of the 'entrepreneurial university', and scholars are emphasizing that universities in developing countries need to transform themselves into'developmental universities'. For this purpose, other participants, such as industry, government, vocational and technical institutions and research institutions must also be prepared to take on new responsibilities. However, the modern world of higher education is undergoing enormous forms of reorientation and the agenda can usefully be viewed in the context of five themes:(i) Expansion and Diversification, (ii) Fiscal pressure, (iii) Markets, (iv) The Demand for Greater Accountability and (v) The Demand for Greater Quality, Relevancy and Efficiency.Author, with his longitudinal field experiences and while occupying the grounded theory in qualitative researching, used to address question,'How should Sri Lankan higher education be reorganized so that it contributes to a take-off in terms of innovation and economic growth?'Data revealed very clearly that, although Sri Lanka achieved notable gains in literacy, several gaps have existed in the higher education sector: (i) lack of responsiveness of the system to labor market requirements, (ii) disparities in access to quality and relevance, (iii) lack of an effective linkage between higher education and secondary education, (iv) inadequate management capabilities that constrain decentralization, (v) inadequate teacher deployment and management, (vi) declining government expenditures on higher education, (vii) limited public private partnerships, (viii) lack of good English language, Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and soft skills, (ix) the moderate quality of courses and programs (x) the absence of a national qualification framework with pathways between the various types of higher education institutions, programs and courses, (xi) inadequate quality assurance mechanisms, and (xi) weak research and knowledge linkages between higher education institutions and the industrial and service sectors of the economy. The greatest challenge in the 21st century for higher education is the recognition of relevance, which is the need to adapt to the immediate needs of the employability of educated human resource for the social and economic development of in any given society, whether developed or developing, has to play a role in the production and transmission of knowledge. Knowledge is universal and has become the heritage of the mankind. To convert higher education institutions into knowledgeable institutions towards marketability of knowledge, the institutions in the sphere of higher education need to be encouraged to perform an active, creative and innovative role to help change society. Though there is no national innovation system in Sri Lanka, many countries are now having much concentration on national innovation systems and governments are much aware about their responsibilities in national growth through innovation. But national innovation systems in developing countries are at an even more primitive stage, especially due to lack of joint industry activities, public private partnerships, technology diffusion, and personal mobility. Major reason behind this situation is that ill understanding about the importance of intellectual. Education and mobility is important drivers in the context of innovation development and the heart of the whole process of industrialization and economic development. Therefore, governments especially in developing countries should understand the'importance of the intellectual human capital' and have to have the positive linkages with all the relevant actors to build up national innovation system aiming the national growth.Findings of the study revealed that the'necessity of comprehensive reorientation' of Sri Lankan higher education system aiming national requirements so as to contribute to build up the national innovation system. Observations may be of special relevance for developing countries where the distance from the'academic world'to the 'world of industry' is far away. Major implications in that higher education institutions of Sri Lanka need to be ready for System modification of enrollment in higher education based on national requirements, Strategic expansion of access to higher education in areas of economic and social importance, Improved Academic and teaching quality supporting continuous and life-long learning for academics and learning quality by giving attention to enhancing the learning capacity of the students in the higher education institutions, A national qualification framework for the full higher education sector, A quality assurance and accreditation system for the full higher education sector, The empowerment of higher education institutions through strategic decentralization and autonomy, A comprehensive and reliable Higher Education Management Information System, Increased research and development towards knowledge commercialization, An expansion of the resource envelope available to develop the higher education sector, Greater economic relevance of degree programs and courses and also Promote higher education institutions become a world class in the long run.In this regard, Author is recommending four generic frameworks for reorientation of higher education such as:(i) National Qualification Framework (NQF), (ii) Comprehensive Quality Assurance Framework (CQAF), (iii) Research, Teaching, Learning and Training Framework (RTLTF) and (iv) Human Resource and Administrative Framework (HRAF) and finally revealed the general conclusion is that the role of higher education needs to be assessed in the wider context of the national innovation system and that higher education policy needs to be coordinated with a wider set of innovation policies.