The Need for an Effective Management Framework for Enhancing the Quality of Higher Education

Abstract

This paper shows the need for a management-framework to enhance the employability of Sri Lankan graduates. According to sources including World Bank, graduate-unemployment rate is higher than the national unemployment-rate in Sri Lanka. The graduate-unemployment in certain subject-disciplines is as high as 45.5% due to graduates lacking transferable skill expected by the employer as studies have revealed. To identify why the transferable skills are not being effectively developed in graduates, teaching practices in Sri Lankan higher education (HE) were studied using Biggs?s Constructive Alignment model. Data collected from a sample (n=56) of lecturers from six Sri Lankan universities. The study revealed that though the expectations from the graduates by both employers and the lecturers aligned with that of each other Constructive Alignment is largely being absent in HE. The importance of a management-framework to address graduate-unemployment, and to prevent the occurrence of third university student-led-insurgency, is discussed in the paper.