SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE UNIVERSITIES IN SRI LANKA?

Abstract

The social and environmental responsibility is a new concept in the education sector in Sri Lanka in recent years. This is generally called as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and is a growing concept in the world.Many developing countries also pay attention to this field even though there is no accepted CSR framework.Whether or not we use public funds for higher education, it is essential to recognize the CSR elements in Sri Lanka. Recent CSR studies point out that the large companies get the advantages by implementing the social and environmental activities but small and medium enterprises still do not. The main objective of this study is to recognize the CSR elements and activities of Sri Lankan universities. All universities are given the opportunity to participate in relation to their societal and environmental activities. The research problem addressed is the type of social and environmental, activities which can be served by the university even though they have many stakeholders. The universities main stakeholder is the Sri Lankan government through the University Grants Commission. The universities are obliged by law to comply with all relevant rules and regulations in order to get continued funding. The other stakeholders of the universities are schools, trade associations, professional educational institutions, and the society. Although not obliged by law to meet the expectations of these stakeholders the universities must try seriously to satisfy them, in order to have a sustainable future. This study examines the development of the criteria based on international data. I used several research articles related to the education sector, government departments and corporations. These can be compared to identify the specific responsibilities relating to the university education sector. I concluded with suggestions for university social and environmental responsibility as well as for further research.

Key Words: Social and Environmental Responsibility, Corporate Social Responsibility, Professional
Educational Institutions

For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk