100,000 University admissions by 2020: UGC Chairperon
Student intake to State universities to be increased to 100,000 by 2020, said University Grants Commission ( UGC) Chairperson Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama said.
She said that university infrastructure facilities will be expanded to enable this increased intake.
“By next year, we intend admitting 2,000 students into the Technology stream, which will be increased significantly later. For this, we have already started the construction of a separate Faculty,” Prof. Hirimburegama said.
In addition to this, new Faculties will be established in each of the 15 State-run universities islandwide from next year. The Chairperson added that Colombo University’s new Technology Faculty will be set up in Hambantota. The UGC intends purchasing more land for the other universities.
As a part of this newly declared expansion, IT is to be introduced to the Arts stream, in a bid to enhance employability of the students.
“We also intend to introduce distant learning facilities to the students. Students selected by the UGC will be afforded the opportunity to follow courses online. Certificates awarded to these students will be equivalent to those given to students who follow university courses,” added Prof. Hirimburegama.
She added that, to her knowledge, this is the largest portion allocated for Higher Education in the Budget.
She further said that more university lecturers will be hired to cater to these students, for which the UGC has proposed to the Government to allocate 25% of the housing complexes near each university to these lecturers.
“They will also be granted loans to buy these houses. Priority will be given to academic staff with PHD and senior Professors. We will also increase salaries of all university academic staff and grant financial assistance to do their PHDs,” she said.
8,000 O/L Candidates’ NIC applications rejected: Registration Dept CG
About 8,000 National Identity Card (NIC) applications submitted for next months GCE Ordinary Level candidates cannot be accepted due to shortcomings, said the Commissioner General, Registration of Persons Sarath Kumara.
Among them, 5,000 applications were from students who had not reached the mandatory age of 16 years, to be eligible for an NIC, while about 3,000 applications were incomplete.
Mr Kumara said that students of rejected applications need to send in fresh applications or complete the shortcomings, and submit them before November 30, in order to receive their NICs.
He said that, once the service is established, Admission Dept services will be available any day, including Saturday and Sunday.
“Furthermore, this system will help reduce the time interval between the release of results and cutoff marks for various courses. Earlier, Applications had to be received, analogs opened, and details checked and categorized, but now, everything can be done online,” he explained, adding that the service will also enable the UGC to access vital information helpful for decision making and policy development of the university system.
The public will be informed of its establishment via newspaper adverts and notices. Dr. Premakumara said all students will be notified of the Application procedures too, in the near future. (AW)