Psychological Paradigm Shift in Students’ Degree Choice

1. ISSN 2448- 9883
Gender Imbalance and Trends in Tertiary Education: A
case study in Capacity building in Maritime Industry
Lalith Edirisinghe1,2*
, Lixin Shen1
, A.W. Wijeratne3
1
College of Transportation Management
Dalian Maritime University
No. 1 Linghai Rd, Ganjingzi
Dalian, Liaoning, China
2
Faculty of Management and Social Sciences
CINEC Campus, Malabe, Sri Lanka
3
Department of Agribusiness Management, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Sabaragamuwa
University of Sri Lanka, Belihuloya 70140, Sri Lanka.
* Corresponding author: Email: edirisinghe@cinec.edu
Telephone: + 94 777 562 505
ABSTRACT
Maritime and logistics are still not buzz words in schools. Therefore, it is a challenge
introducing these subjects that are characterized by highly technical nature at tertiary
level. The involvement of transport, maritime and logistics at government universities
remain at 0.2 %. If this factor is considered as an indicator of current demand for
logistics and transport education in Sri Lanka it does not commensurate with the
strategic location advantage that country is rewarded by nature. The female
participation in logistics and maritime sector also remain very low thus maritime and
logistics education could be one of the key area to increase this industry contribution
of women in Sri Lanka. The paper proposes various strategies; inter alia, government
sector collaboration with reputed private institute that could bring synergetic impact to
the country’s economy. This would ease the pressure to the government institutes
investing funds to increase infrastructural and other technical resources to train their
staff because many private educational institutes have invested substantial money on

2. teaching tools such as simulators, laboratories and other academic tools. Given the
present context encouraging women participation in maritime and logistics sector
through gradual changes in education system could be an effective solution. These
changes may include introducing maritime and logistics in the secondary level
education curriculum, form and encourage student participation in maritime and
logistics related students’ societies in schools.
Keywords: Maritime, Logistics, Education, Schools, Students, Female, Gender
1. Introduction.
Gender inequality in education takes many forms depending on the context. Though
gender inequality affects girls and boys, women and men alike, girls and women are
still more often disadvantaged [1]. The maritime and logistics education is not exclusive
from this factor. Some time back the maritime and logistics industry particularly the
shipping sector in Sri Lanka were perceived as industries that generate employments
for males rather than females. Of course one cannot totally deny the fact that certain
social and cultural factors in the country do not act in favour of women engaging in
operational activities related to various transport and logistics industry. Factors
affecting female participation in education are geographical, socio-cultural, health,
economic, religious, legal, political/administrative, and educational and initiatives [2].
However, this phobia has gradually eased with shipping and logistics jobs proved to be
more academic or professional centric than skilled or technical centred in the past. The
technology has played a major role in this evolution while globalization made possible
to see through what is happening in the transport and logistics industry overseas. This
awareness of many opportunities available for women and that many females have
developed successful carriers in the transport and Logistics industry created the
confidence among the women in Sri Lanka. On the other hand, most of staff in the
maritime education and training institutes are recruited because of their maritime
experience and qualifications [3]. Therefore, it is not necessarily they have to
permanently work in the offshore.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2014–2015 of World Economic Forum (WEF)
reveals that the discrimination according to gender is, inter alia, a typical example of

3. social exclusion that have a considerable negative impact on the competitiveness of a
nation. The report also suggests that the international community has made
significant progress in defining inclusive growth. However, agreeing on a
comprehensive and more actionable framework remains an ongoing challenge.
converting the country into naval, aviation and commercial hubs is pertinent to the
cross-border movement of goods, services and people [4]. In this scenario, equal gender
participation makes sense. According to World Economic Forum (WEF), promoting
gender parity is one of key areas of this initial framework which will be used as a point
of departure for a series of policy dialogues among policymakers, business leaders, and
other opinion shapers. it is pertinent to note that gender parity is equally fundamental
to whether and how societies thrive [5].
Maritime sector is not popular in tertiary education in many countries like management,
computing, marketing, banking, accounting and engineering subjects [6].This paper
discusses the key issues caused by the gender inequality in the maritime and logistics
sector. It focuses on the factors such as unemployment, secondary and tertiary level
education in Sri Lanka, and other external influences.
2. Literature review
Both men and women enjoy relatively ambitious standards in health and education in
Sri Lanka, much in contrast to most other developing countries. However, despite these
positive social development indicators, the country’s overall level of women gender
empowerment is below the average level of developing countries [7]. The role of female
participation in every sector is significantly on the rise in Sri Lanka. But, lack of higher
education facilities restricts the university admission. Hence this scenario leads to
gender imbalance in Sri Lanka [8]. The maritime industry is one of the special sectors,
which worldwide, humanity has accepted as being a job for men, thereby making it
difficult for women to penetrate and function very easily within the industry as in the
norm [9]. This factor is common in Sri Lanka as well. The supply chain and logistics
sector remains male dominated [10]. Education facilitates access to resources such as
information, knowledge and skills and enhances capability to use them, to make choices,
to improve life chances and to develop self-confidence and autonomy. It is, therefore,

4. an instrument to reduce gender and socio-economic inequalities as well as an agent of
empowerment [11]. The challenge is to reduce existing gender inequalities through
gender sensitive policies and programmes and to promote empowerment through
developing capabilities as well as self-confidence through socialisation, particularly
through the education process [11].
It may be many people’s dream of reaching the heights in navigating and becoming a
captain. Despite such dreams and the substantial financial remuneration involved in
seafaring the women participation is at negligible level. The general perception in the
society is that women can easily become victims of sexual harassment in the sea. The
sexual harassment or the living in an environment that attracts for similar incidents is a
key issue in the maritime industry. As cited in [9] the Collins Cobuild English dictionary
defines sexual harassment as, “repeated unwelcome sexual comments, looks, or
physical contact, usually by men against women”. According to [9] states that most
of the women who fall victim to it never complain, unless to very close friends. The
article further revels that that two female officers interviewed had counter questioned,
“To whom do you complain to, the male master or the managing director?” The fact is
that at least some people are aware that this does happen at times. In the recent (April
2000) issue of the Telegraph the ‘bomb’of sexual harassment exploded under the article
“Men behaving badly is no joke”. This is the time publicly a reproach has been made
about sexual harassment in the maritime sector and it is being handled by the Women
Trade Union Congress (WTUC). Hansen (1998) as cited in the same article quotes the
women of the Danish Navigators’ Union (DNU) at a meeting with the union officials,
the first of its kind, saying that in the only instance where sexual harassment was
mentioned, the response was to transfer the female navigator. This to some extent will
not solve the problem, as the man stayed on the ship and could probably carry on his
‘bad’ behaviour towards a new victim. This common problem makes some women live
in isolation on board and some drop out of their career. More than 80% of the
questionnaires answered by women made mention of it in some form. However, this is
a problem not talked off publicly because of its after effects.

5. 3. Methodology
This case study is a combination of desk research and interviews with various
professionals in maritime and logistics as well as academia. The secondary data were
obtained from the Department of Census and Statistics, Central Bank of Sri Lanka,
Department of Examinations of Sri Lanka, University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka,
and CINEC Maritime Campus of Sri Lanka. Past reseraches on gender imblance,
education and training methods have been refered to asertain the relevence and potential
impact of the factors with respect to the scenario explined in the study. The primary
data have been obtianed from the acadamic and non acadamic staff, parents and
students of various government and private education institutes through interviews. The
convenient sampling method has been deployed to gather data.
4. Analysis and Results
4.1 Country employment perspectives
Although there are plenty of success stories globally that the women have been very
successful in the Transport and Logistics industry the general tendency of selecting
maritime or logistics related education by females is still questionable. Therefore, it
would be important to consider related statistics to realize the actual situation with
regard to labour force trends and unemployment rate of female in which it is plainly
visible that there is enough room for improvements.
Table 1: Unemployment Percentage of Labour Force in Sri Lanka
2012 2013 2014
Male 2.9 3.2 3.2
Female 6.2 6.6 6.5
Source: Department of Census and Statistics [12]
According to table 1 there is a clear disparity between male and female unemployment
rate in Sri Lanka. Table 2 and table 3 illustrate the level of unemployment in the country
analysed under various age groups and the level of education.
Table 2: Unemployment rate by age group and gender (Fourth Quarter 2015)
Age group (Years) Sri Lanka Gender
Male Female
Sri Lanka 4.3 2.6 7.6

6. 15—24 16.7 13.4 22.2
25—29 10.9 4.8 20.8
Over 30 1.7 0.8 3.5
Source: Department of Census and Statistics [12]
It shows the highest unemployment rate is recorded in the age group 15-24 years
followed by 25-29.
Table 3 : Unemployment rate by level of education – Fourth Quarter 2015
Level of Education Sri Lanka Unemployment Rate (%)
Male Female
Below GCE O/L 2.7 1.8 4.6
GCE O/L 6.0 4.4 8.8
GCE A/L & above 8.1 3.8 12.3
Source: Department of Census and Statistics [12]
According to table 3 the higher the level of education of females in Sri Lanka the more
they are unemployed. This paradox is clear when the data are compared with the male
category. The unemployment rate of males those who qualified with GCE ordinary level
are higher than that of Advanced level and above. In other words with higher
qualifications males have managed to secure employments. Therefore it appears that
either the females have paid less interest to explore employments having secured higher
qualifications or there are no employment opportunities available to them.
In order to review the issue, it may be vital to understand the current trend of gender
participation in various occupation groups in Sri Lanka.
Table 4: Employed person by Occupation group-percentages of both sexes in Sri Lanka
(Fourth Quarter 2015)
Employment category* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
Male 66 75 36 65 48 68 68 66 87 64 64
Female 34 25 64 35 52 32 32 34 13 36 36
Source: Department of Census and Statistics [12]
*Key to the table: 1=Managers, Senior Officials and Legislators; 2=Professionals; 3=Technicians and
Associate Professionals; 4=Clerks and Clerical support workers; 5=Services and Sales workers;
6=Skilled Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery workers; 7=Craft and Related Trades workers; 8=Plant
and Machine operators and Assemblers; 9=Elementary occupations; 10=Armed Forces Occupations &
unidentified occupations

7. Since category 4 combines clerks and clerical support workers the data do not reflect
the realistic picture and causes some problems. Generally, clerks are over-whelming
female in the context of Sri Lanka although the table indicates otherwise. Further, it
does not contain vocations such as “teaching” or public administration, medical
profession, nurses, etc., which would have changed the picture totally. Therefore, it is
presumed that they are included in category 3, under Technicians and Associate
Professionals because only the category 3 has a higher participation (64 %) for females.
Usually the employers have many obvious reasons to prioritise the male candidates
when recruiting staff. Given the eastern cultural norms and social practices females are
reluctant to work late hours. When it is really necessary to have female workers carry
out night duty there are certain legitimate conditions to employers to provide hostel
facilities or transport services home. In contrast these additional expenses are
eliminated with male employers. Particularly with respect to shipping and logistics
industry the 24/7 work pattern is very common. Ships used to arrive day and night and
port operates 24 hours of the day. The other key factor is granting maternity leave for
female workers. In Sri Lanka, the Maternity Benefits Ordinance and the Shop and
Office Employees’ Act protects employees in the private sector from dismissal due to
maternity reasons, so there is compliance in the private sector [13]. The female workers
in government sector are granted 84 days’ maternity leave with full pay, 84 days’
maternity leave on half pay and 84 days’ maternity leave on no pay in respect of every
child-birth. Generally, many Logistics, shipping, Freight Forwarding, Exports &
Imports, or Trading companies that were keen to employ only male workers have
realized the many advantages of designating professionally qualified females for
specific jobs. Documentation, marketing, customer services, accounts, ICT, are some
of preferred areas for female employees.
4.2 Secondary education threshold
The authors are also critical about the increasing numbers that fail to attend to
government universities every year.
Table 5: The trend of Government University Enrolment in Sri Lanka (1989 -2011
selected years)

8. Enrolment year Male Female Total
1989/90 Eligible 15021 19470 34491
Admitted 3766 2697 6463
Percentage 25 14 19
1999/00 Eligible 27437 45985 73422
Admitted 5720 6085 11805
Percentage 21 13 16
2001/02 Eligible 33722 57954 91676
Admitted 5616 6528 12144
Percentage 18 12 14
2004/05 Eligible 43740 67985 111725
Admitted 6851 7669 14520
Percentage 15.7 11.3 13.5
2006/07 Eligible 45310 74645 119955
Admitted 7471 9725 17196
Percentage 16.5 13 14.3
2010/11 Eligible 50154 92362 142516
Admitted 8801 13215 22016
Percentage 17.6 14.3 15.5
Source: Ahamedlebbe, S.M.(2011) [8] and Central Bank of Sri Lanka (2014) [14]
Table 5 focuses on the fact that there is an accumulation of qualified students who fail
to enter government universities due to lack of sufficient basic infrastructure and other
facilitates.
Table 6: Performance of Candidates - G.C.E.(A/L), 2010-2013
2012 2013
All Candidates Sat for the GCE(A/L) 233,634 241,629
All Candidates Qualifying to Enter University 144,745 140,993
New admissions for basic degrees 28,908 24,299
Source: Department of Examinations ( as cited in www.statistics.gov.lk) [15]
This creates opportunities for private education institutes and it a national responsibility
to provide these candidates with most employable tertiary education. On top of this
scenario even from those enter into government universities only 0.2% have the access
(or the demand) to logistics and transport education. Table 6 provides information
with regard to the logistics and transport related education provided by the government
universities in Sri Lanka.
Table 7: undergraduate admissions by district: academic year 2014/2015(Universities

9. and HEIs established under the Universities Act)
(Source: University Grants Commission , 2016 ) [16]
The statistics shows that the problem has a predominant impact on female students and
also reflects an ever increasing trend.
Graph 01: The trend of those who failed to enter government universities despite being
eligible
(Source: Ahamedlebbe, S.M.(2011) and Central Bank of Sri Lanka (2014) [8] [14]
It was not possible to ascertain the precise data of male and female combination in the
logistics and transport degree offered by government universities because the statistics
are published combining two different disciplines namely, fashion design, transport and
logistics under one category.
Table 8: Logistics student distribution in the government universities in Sri Lanka
(Source: University Grants Commission , 2016 ) [16]
According to table 8 it is clear that logistics and transport sector has been identified as
a subject for tertiary education by only one government university in Sri Lanka.
However, in addition to the University of Moratuwa, there is another timely and very
effective action has been taken by the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka.Accordingly,

10. as per the primary data collected from interviews, the students who peruse economics
degree in the faculty of arts can specialise the maritime field in their final year of the
degree. Although, this program attracts a limited number of students, it is encouraging
to note a major participation from female students. It may have attributed to the fact
that the female participation is usually higher in the faculty of arts. This program is in
fact a role model in maritime education because it successfully combines a government
university with the maritime industry which is dominated by the private sector.
Accordingly, the university offers the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Economics with
Transport and Commercial shipping as speciality. It offers in both 3rd
and final years
with all the technical modules are conducted by qualified lecturers from the industry.
This exercise is synergised by the Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents in Sri Lanka
the make sure the most updated knowledge is effectively transferred to students.
Therefore, more emphasis should be drawn in favour of creating job opportunities for
this category while enhancing private sector education at tertiary level that could charge
on emerging disciplines and streams. For example, many Logistics, shipping, Freight
Forwarding, Exports & Imports, or Trading companies that were keen to employ only
male workers have now realized many advantages of designating professionally
qualified females for specific jobs. Documentation, marketing, customer services,
accounts, ICT, are some of preferred areas for female employees by many companies
in the shipping and logistics sector. The student enrolment data of CINEC Maritime
Campus in Sri Lanka revealed that a reasonable growth in the demand among the
female students for the Transport and Logistics degree. Apart from the enrolment for
courses the awareness and the interest has grown tremendously. The most vital point
here to stress is that all of them have been employed at very prestigious local and
multinational organizations right from the graduation. Most of them are even
continuing employment in the same organization where they were placed for
internships. However, the gender disparity plays a role in this aspect as well. The case
study revealed that there is a reasonable female participation at undergraduate level for
the Transport and Logistics degree as shown in table 5.
Table 5: The percentage share of female participation in BSc (Hons) Degree in

11. Transport and Logistics (2007-2015)
Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Female participation as a percentage of
annual student intakes (%)
33 38 21 31 27 16 31 29 36 22
Source: Department of Census and Statistics [12]
Although, there is a growth of 3 % between 2007 and 2015 the female participation has
again declined by 14% in 2016. Therefore it is quite debatable if there has been any
improvement taken place in the maritime or logistics education in Sri Lanka because
the actual female participation has been fluctuating between 16% and 38% during last
ten years. Therefore, the authors believes that the present female participation could be
(and should be) increased in consistent with the market demand that is explained in the
graph 01 because the trend of females those who failed to enter government universities
despite being eligible has been ever increasing in Sri Lanka.
5. Discussions
5.1 The industry reality
The key impediment that revealed during various interviews with parents is that the
general perception regarding maritime and logistics (shipping in particular). Parents
who have less association with the industry think that the carrier in shipping ends up in
a ship; carrier in Logistics means carrying or handling cargo in stores; and carrier in
transport driving vehicles but nothing else. Basically, the misperception may have been
occurred due to the technical and operational ‘front end’ of the industry because these
operational activities usually get exposed to the society than the back end clerical and
desk work at the back end. On the other hand there is certain amount of industry norms
and realities have backed these conclusions. For example, most of maritime and
logistics activities are 24/7 operations thus night work is inevitable. Therefore, those
who have no knowledge about the diverse opportunities for day time duties in a logistics
and shipping organization will obviously perceive that this industry may not be suitable
for females. It is therefore necessary to build general awareness in the society about
how this industry really operates. The management functions that are available in the

12. ‘back end’ of this complicated logistics and transport operation. On the other hand the
night shifts are common in many other industries such as health and garment
manufacturing. Therefore, maritime and logistics sector should not be discriminated.
The most vital point revealed in this study is that the females those who completed their
degrees in logistics and transport immediately got employed in very prestigious local
and multinational organizations. Most of them are even continuing employment in the
same organization where they were placed for internships. The study also covered the
employment status them. The graduates are extremely happy with the firms they are
associated with. These companies include MAS, Brandix, Fontera, Abans, Expolanka,
SAGT, CICT, NYK, Hayleys, DHL, etc. which have high reputation in Sri Lanka and
overseas. Some students have left the country to take up overseas job assignments or to
follow full time Master’s Degree in Logistics. There are also opportunities for them in
the academic field also. There are two females who secured high academic
achievements found lectureship in the same university while perusing their masters’
degree in logistics. This factor is common in other government and private universities
in Sri Lanka.
This is a very encouraging scenario but the fact remains that many parents and school
authorities may not be aware of the opportunities available in the transport and logistics
sector for Tertiary Education in Sri Lanka. The traditional preference by most of parents
or guardians for this task is securing qualification in the areas of Accounting, Marketing,
ICT, of general management with unsuccessful Z – Score achieved at the GCE A- level
performances.
5.2 External influence
The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) is currently carrying out a project funded
by the Australian IORA Economic Development Fund as to develop minimum skills
global standards for selected port occupation including gantry crane operators. During
this second workshop held in Sri Lanka it was highlighted the importance of women
participation in the maritime sector. Setting minimum occupational standards in the
maritime sector means more education and training are required in the maritime sector.
The combinations of these efforts are all centred to gender issue in the maritime

13. education. First time in the history of Sri Lanka Ports Authority recruited 12 female
gantry crane operators for training. These efforts have been strengthened by the
Mahapola Training Centre which is a strong step in the right direction. These 12 brave
women will act as brand ambassadors of this program and set good example to other
females who seek employment in the maritime sector. Education, irrespective of stream
is a service that needs to be marketed using the pull strategy according to the theory of
marketing. Therefore, women who are already in the maritime sector have a serious
role to play in promoting the maritime education.
Development of national competency standard for the logistic management (level 5 &
6) is currently in the process initiated by the NationalApprentice and Industrial Training
Authority (NAITA). This will further enhances education and training opportunities.
According in the recent workshop to develop Functional map for the above
occupational sector after the competency standards are set the job opportunities will be
driven by the professional qualification that are secured by individuals irrespective of
the gender. What is required is the determination and interest by women to get them
armed with right qualification because the gender equality is more appropriate “gain on
merit” rather than “reward”.
6. Conclusions and further research
The authors suggest that rapid social awareness programs are required to bring more
female participation in the maritime and logistics sector. There are enough and more
opportunities available in Sri Lanka in that direction. Collaboration between
government authorities and private education institutes can play a substantial role by
expanding the current scope. Forums such as Chartered Institute of Logistics and
Transport, Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents, Women in Logistics and Transport,
Young Professional Forum Young Shipping Professionals forum, Women in Shipping
and Transport can act as the driving force in making the required awareness in the
society which as a national duty and the need of the hour. Logistics and maritime
education may effectively begin from schools at secondary level education subject. This
will erase much negative perception regarding female participation of the maritime and
logistics sector in the society. The paper suggests the need of an idiosyncratic model

14. combining Chapman’s [17] model and other industry specific factors in the model.
This paper discussed the gender inequality in education in Sri Lanka particularly in the
maritime and logistics sector. It is vital to conduct an empirical research on identifying
the factors that influence female students’ choice of tertiary education with special
reference to maritime and logistics sector based on the results of this case study,
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