Greater scope for UK institutes to invest in SL’s Higher Education: Min. Sec.
Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr S. J. Nawaratne declared there was greater scope now to promote British institutions interested in investing in Higher Education in Sri Lanka.
“Now that our President is the Head of the Commonwealth, it is practical to promote British institutions interested in investing in private Higher Education, as there are resources for that here,” Mr Navaratne noted.
He was speaking at the ceremonial launch of the partnership signed between the UK’s Buckingham New University and the Horizon Campus, Malabe, for the commencement of Degree programmes for 2014.
He said that these partnerships will benefit the 17 State-owned universities to upgrade their Degree programmes.
He said that the Government’s policy was to make Sri Lanka the hub of excellence in Higher Education.
“We have followed the British educational system from colonial times and is not something new,” he said.
“The country earns US$ 6 billion as foreign exchange by exporting unskilled labour. We need to have a base to export skilled graduates produced from these institutions. Accordingly, our goal should be to have globally employable graduates,” he said.
“The Gover nment has given employment to 50,000 graduates but what is their productivity. The Arts graduates lack knowledge in English to advance further in higher education. We expend at least Rs 20,000 for a employable graduate, and the investment does not give its due returns,” he said.
“There is an annual demand for higher education, which the Government can’t meet. We have to take note of the 16,000 students who opt to go abroad for higher education. This is a colossal sum of money going out of the country. We are able to accommodate only 25,000 students in our universities, but the problem of higher education multiplies annually,” he said.
He said these partnerships will save foreign exchange now being drained into overseas universities, and also earn foreign exchange by enrolling students from neighboring countries for higher education. British Universities have established their brand names in education. (BN)