Cutoff mark hike prompts District Quota review for Varsity admissions: UGC
The District Quota for University Admissions is set to be reviewed in future with the increase in the cutoff marks, University Grants Commission ( UGC) Chairperson Prof Kshanika Hirimburegama told Education Times.
“A significant aspect we saw in this year’s examination was that the cutoff marks seem to be increasing islandwide. This shows that the education level of the country is improving,” she said.
She said the reason for this could be that good tuition classes are being held in rural areas, or students going to places where they are available. She added that tuition classes play an important role in A/L education.
“As a result of the increasing cutoff marks, the Commission will have to revisit the District Quota system by which cutoff marks are made,” she said.
Prof. Hirimburegama said that this year was the only year when two cutoff marks were released for two A/L examinations.
“Students were made to wait for university admission longer than they should have. We are going to take necessary actions to rectify this,” she said, adding that the UGC has formed a committee to look into the gap between A/L examination and university admission, while concentrating on means to reduce the gap.
The statistics, this year, show that students have scored high m a rk s in Medicine, Engineering and Law subjects, while the performances in districts such as Colombo, Hambantota and Matara were comparatively high.
“The Higher Education Ministry is to commence the leadership training programme next Sunday for students selected to State universities,” she said.
She said that, by this, they plan to admit students for the academic year 2012/2013, early next year.
“At least students of the Engineering and Medical faculties will be admitted by midJanuary 2014. We wish to place all students in State universities without further ado,” she said.
The cutoff marks for university admission were released last Friday ( 08), where 22,943 students were selected from 55, 241 applicants for university admission under the normal intake. According to UGC statistics, 229,737 students sat for the GCE A/L exam, from which 144, 816 were found eligible for university admission.
In addition to this, the UGC will also give placements to an additional 2,000 students under special appeals, taking into consideration extracurricular activities and special skills, which will altogether total an intake of 25,000 students this year as well.
However, it was observed that students failed to qualify in certain key subjects in some areas. In the old syllabus, Mannar District candidates failed to qualify in Commerce subjects, while those from Vavuniya failed in Law. Furthermore, candidates from several districts failed in Computing & Information Systems, Science & Technology
and Computer Science & Technology, under the new syllabus. Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu District candidates failed in all three subjects.
Giving reasons for this, Academic Affairs & University Admissions, Additional Secretary, Dr Priyantha Premakumara said this was a result of students failing in aptitude and practical tests. “While scoring well in the theory paper, it is vital that students pass these two tests too. The main reason for the students failure is because they didn’t take these tests,” he said.
He added that, in some cases, some subjects didn't have any students qualified as they were selected for others.
Meanwhile, Prof. Hirimburegama called upon the students to contact the UGC when they need any information, or have a problem to be sorted out, as they will be available to help them.