15 October 2016 06:56 pm
“We are planning to increase the University intake annually by 10% as we successful this year to increase it by 10%,” he said.
He said approximately 300 000 students were sat for the A/L examination last year and 150000 were qualified to pursue higher education and only 27500 students could enroll to the state universities under free education scheme.
“Only 18% of the total students who sat for the A/Ls 2015 have been enrolled for the State Universities. Other three quarter of students should find other paths for their higher education. This is a major problem in our free higher education system. We are addressing these issues one by one and plan is to increase the intake annually by 10% for the state universities,” he said.
He expressed these views at the opening ceremony of the Education Fair named ‘Study in India’ at BMICH organized by the EdCIL, Indian High Commission with Indian UGC at the BMICH today.
The Minister said the 82% of the students who sat for the exam should be seriously considered by the government as it was the youth of the country.
“We have some governmental higher education institutes related technology, agriculture and some areas to provide higher education in some limited areas. But they all can’t get into that system since their studies are varied. Sri Lankan government has given the permission for the none-state higher education institutes to offer degrees with quality and relevance under the permission of the UGC Sri Lanka. There are 17 none-state universities around Sri Lanka to provide higher education for such students who has given permission by the UGC. Another 25 institutes are willing to be permitted as it takes very long time for the process with the keen and smoothly observation done by the relevant institutes and parties under the purview of UGC,” he added.
He said the government was planning to establish a new independent commission to accredit and assure the quality of the higher education in Sri Lanka called Quality Assurance and Accreditation Commission.
“The bill has already drafted but it takes another one and half years to implement since it is a job related to the higher education of the country. After the establishment of the Commission, it will be the authorized institution to provide license or the accreditation for all the higher education institutions around the country,” he said.