Six new state universities in districts with no higher education facilities

Feasibility studies have already begun for the construction of six new universities out of the ten granted approval by the Cabinet, University Grants Commission ( UGC) Vice Chairperson Janitha Liyanage said.

The Cabinet has sanctioned the setting up of ten new universities across the country, in districts which currently don’t have any state universities or facilities for higher education. Prof. Liyanage said, the UGC has already identified six locations, for the new universities to be set up.

These universities would move away from the Z- score based admission practice currently followed. Instead students would be admitted on the basis of results obtained through a proficiency test, he said.

“Anyone being admitted will still need to pass the Advanced Level examinations,” Prof. Liyanage said.

Prof. Liyanage also said students within the districts of these universities were located in, would be allowed to gain admission for their higher studies. While the other state universities would continue to maintain syllabuses in all streams,

the new universities would teach district- specific syllabuses, he added.

“The university in Nuwara Eliya will focus on streams like agriculture and tourism. So the syllabuses taught at the new universities will essentially be job opportunitycentric courses, relevant to each district,” Prof Liyanage said.

The UGC brought the project to fruition in line with President Rajapaksa’s wish to give more Advanced Level students higher education opportunities.

Out of the total 300,000 students who participated in the 2019 Advanced Level examination, 180,000 students passed. Just 90,000 applied to the state universities, and the total student acceptance rate was between 35-37%.

“This shows that many students get left behind due to our provision of higher education and we want to change that, at least a little bit,” Prof Liyanage said.

He also said the students at these new universities would have the option of either obtaining a higher diploma certificate from a two- year course, or continuing on to a degree. Moreover, the University Act would be revised to facilitate the project.

“The provisions regarding Z- score requirements and so on, are currently insufficient to move the project forward,” Prof Liyanage said.

He also said research facilities would be prioritised in the new universities.

Prof. Liyanage said the UGC hopes to begin the first phase of lectures at some of the new universities next year, as some of the selected locations already had buildings.

He also said the Asian Development Bank had offered assistance with the project. Roughly 500 students were expected to be admitted at each new university, at the initial stage. Precise figures would be available once feasibility studies were completed.

The Vice Chancellors were expected to present the first development analysis of the project to the UGC, last week. - Tharushi Weerasinghe