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Private college degrees: President urged to follow through his decision
View(s):Sri Lanka’s medical profession has strongly urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to follow through his decision to withdraw an earlier gazette notification allowing private institutions to award degrees without proper safeguards. Following growing protests over the controversial gazette which provided for the issue of degrees without conforming to professional standards, the President had ordered the Higher Education Secretary to reverse the notification.
But a new gazette rescinding the January 31 gazette is yet to be issued, raising concerns whether the President’s directive would take effect.Sri Lanka Medical Association President Palitha Abeykoon, in a February 26 letter to the President said that at a meeting called with all medical stakeholders, it was unanimously decided to “applaud your decision to maintain the standards of medical education in Lanka” and order the Higher Education Secretary to rescind the gazette notification, which is an amendment of an earlier gazette pertaining to private institutions awarding degrees.
The medical and other affected professions raised serious concerns that this gazette ruling would result in a drop in the level of medical and engineering education, among other disciplines, and invariably lead to deteriorating standards in the level of expertise of those passing out. The questionable gazette under the Universities Act, No. 16 of 1978 – Rule 31 under section 137, said that “all Non-State Institutes recognised as degree awarding Institutes in pursuance to the reports made to the Minister by the Specified Authority under Section 70C of the Act and which offer study programmes leading to degrees in Medicine, Engineering, Architecture and other similar professional degrees may seek compliance certificates from respective professional bodies”.
This was an amendment to an earlier gazette with the change being in the earlier words “shall obtain”. It was being substituted with “may seek”. Protesting organisations said the change meant that there was no compulsory requirement any more for these institutions to get approval from professional bodies.
Confronted with the protests, the President ordered the authorities to revert to the earlier gazette which makes it compulsory for compliance certification.
The Sunday Times broke the story in a February 9 report headlined ‘SB’s private degrees cause concern’. A few days later the President intervened in the matter.
The meeting referred to by Dr. Abeykoon was attended by members of the Sri Lanka Medical Council, the Government Medical Officers’ Association and representatives of 18 academic and medical colleges.