UGC plans to increase state university intake

October 20, 2011, 10:20 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe

The University Grants Commission is planning to increase the intake to all Sri Lankan universities up to 20% by 2016, UGC Chairman Prof. Gamini Samaranayake said.

He told The Island that the current enrolment rate was 15% - 16% of those students between 18 and 24 years old involved in full time tertiary education compared with the population and 22,500 students would be admitted to local universities for next academic year.

"This year, 54,000 students applied for university entrance, but we could accommodate only 22,500", Prof. Samaranayake said.

He said they would first develop the quality of the university system especially of the three universities of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

The universities in the war affected two provinces could not serve to their full potential during last three decades, but now the UGC was focusing to develop them and enroll more students. The government universities alone could not meet the demand for higher education, the UGC Chairman said.

"According to the UGC Act, we granted permission to award degrees to nine private institutions so far," Prof. Samaranayake said adding over ten other requests were pending approval. They would approve them only after fulfilling the necessary standards.

According to statistics, the number of students who pass the G. C. E. (A/L) examination had been increasing year by year, that they have to create more higher education opportunities for them.

Commissioner General of Examinations Anura Edirisinghe said that 237,000 students sat for the G. C. E. (A/L) 2010 and of them 130,000 students passed the examination. Prof. Samaranayake said.

This year the amount of students who sat the examination increased by 57,000 to 294,000, he said.

adding that their results are pending.