New policy for higher education: State campuses to enrol 20,000 more students for 2020/2021 academic year
The University Grants Commission (UGC) plans to enrol 20,000 more students into state universities for 2020/2021 academic year, UGC Chairman Sampath Amaratunga told the Sunday Times recently.
Referring to the current university admission policy that was introduced in 1994, the Chairman said the UGC wanted to re-engineer a new policy to facilitate more students. He said this had been a long standing requirement for the higher education system.
He also said the UGC had held almost 25 meetings with relevant stakeholders to discuss the red tapes, barriers and the provisions that should be considered and included in a new policy.
Ten thousand more students would be admitted to fifteen public universities and another ten thousand more would be admitted for information technology studies to the Open University. The UGC was also working closely with IT companies to bridge the gap between education and job opportunities in Sri Lanka. Medical faculty admissions would also be increased to 350 admissions within state universities, the Chairman said.
The decision was taken on Wednesday at an Education Ministry meeting. It was an extension of the Vision for Prosperity programme, to give more students an opportunity for higher education. The Z-score would be the priority factor in the admissions, Prof. Amaratunga said.
“A student with 3 As for A/Ls might not get in, but a student with 2As, 1B and a verified Z-score will,” he added.
Prof. Amaratunga also said waiting for resources such as hostels to come into place before expanding admissions would prolong the move by at least three years.
“The President and the Education Minister are determined to expand education opportunities without failure in quality,” said Prof. Amaratunga.
He also said the Treasury had already approved the funding for more carders.
An Education Ministry official said the aim of this move was to provide more enrolment opportunities to the students who were admitted based on the results of the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination. The Ministry also said it hopes to improve the human resources of the country through the training of more doctors.
- Tharushi Weerasinghe