Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Dons to make decision following court ruling

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The voluntary administrative positions of University teachers would depend on the outcome of the case in the Appeal Courts today, sources said.

FUTA President Dr. Ranjith Nirmal Dewasiri speaking to Daily Mirror today stated
that since the case in Appeal Courts and the prevalent issue between the academics and Vice Chancellors were linked, they would most likely take a decision concerning the situation following the outcome of the court case.

During early June, the Court of Appeals issued an interim order to the Department Heads in the Wayamba, Sri Jayawardenapura and Ruhunu universities, restraining them from accepting the resignations rendered by academics during end of May.

The interim orders were issued following the hearing of three writ applications filed by students in the three universities.

“We are attempting to come up with a practical solution to the current situation since we believe there is no need to further delay the restoration of normalcy in universities,” Dr. Dewasiri said adding that there were several urgent activities that needed to be carried out including the release of results for the final year students and resuming examinations that were disrupted due to the trade union actions.

“The VCs are still not ready to accept the resignations rendered by the academics in May. Our position concerning the current situation hasn’t changed - we are expecting the VCs to issue fresh appointment letters to the resigned academics. However we hope that we will be able to work up a permanent solution to the situation in an official level soon,” he added. 

Speaking further he said that although they haven’t arrived at an agreement with the VCs yet, certain practical arrangements have been made in certain universities informally to resume activities.

The university academics resigned from their voluntary administrative positions on May 3 as part of a series of trade union actions to urge the government to grant them an adequate salary increase. (By Lakna Paranamanna)

Kelaniya uni conducts inquiry

Dailymirror

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Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) said today that the University of Kelaniya has begun a new disciplinary inquiry against the organization’s Executive Director, Keerthi Tennakoon.

CaFFE’s Director Legal, Harindra Banagala said that the new disciplinary inquiry was initiated to remove Tennakoon from his position and to intimidate civil society activists from the academia. He said the move to remove Tennakoon from his position came after he made statements to the effect that the recently concluded Northern elections were corrupt.

He said that the university’s Vice Chancellor, Sarath Amunugama had sent a letter to Tennakoon five days after the end of the Local Government Elections. According to him the letter stated “a new disciplinary inquiry will be held against Tennakoon for action conducted as the media coordinator for CaFFE.”

Tennakoon was stripped of his post at the university on October 2008 for exposing election law violations and other irregularities which occurred during the Eastern Provincial Council elections. Banagala said the first officer in charge of the disciplinary inquiry resigned on the day he was to conclude the inquiry. Tennakoon was released during the second inquiry. The university administration refused to accept this decision and has decided to begin a new inquiry 33 months after the CaFFE Director was stripped of his post, he said.

“Tennakoon’s case is not an isolated incident. Many reports, including the US State Department and several reports by human rights organizations state that academic freedom is rapidly being restricted in Sri Lanka,” Banagala said.

CaFFE published six separate reports on the recently held Local Government Elections which specifically focused on the intimidation, abuse of state resources, and the mass scale poll card snatching in Kilinochchi.

Poor response from foreign students

Dailymirror

By Kelum Bandara
Though the government had initially planned to admit around 1000 foreign students to local universities, only a few applications had been received so far, officials said yesterday.The Cabinet decided to permit university authorities to admit five per cent of foreign students to local universities, an increase against one per cent allocated for such students in the past.
For foreign students the annual course fee would be US $ 12,000 for Medical and Dental Sciences, US $ 10,000 for Para Medical Courses such as Nursing, Pharmacy, Radiography and US $ 8000 for Engineering Design and Architecture.
For Law, the course fee is US $ 5000 and US $ 4,000 for Management Studies and Commerce.
Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne, however, said only one or two applications had been received upto now.
“There is no deadline as such. We may receive more applications in the future,” he said.

Lecturer allegedly threatened by cops

Dailymirror

By Ananda Weerasuriya
The Mt. Lavinia Additional Magistrate Ruchira Weliwatta granted two suspected Police Constables attached to the Judges Security Division who had allegedly threatened a university lecturer at gun point after crashing their motorcycles onto his vehicle.
The court enlarged the suspect PCs,  Ananda Kodikara and S Wickramasinghe on Rs 50,000 surety bail.
The suspect police constables attached to the security unit of Appeal Court Judge Sarath Abrew on July 29 were riding on their motorcycles towards Ratmalana and at around 5.30 pm near the Bellanthara Junction, the two motor cycles had collided with a motor car.
The two motorcyclists had fallen with the impact and a  pistol belong to one of them too had fallen. One of the suspects picking up the pistol had aimed it at the driver of the Motor Car who was later identified as Janaka Ranganath, a lecturer attached the University of Moratuwa. On a complaint made by the lecturer the police apprehended the suspected Police Constables and had produced them before courts. 

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Poor response from foreign students








By Kelum Bandara
Though the government had initially planned to admit around 1000 foreign students to local universities, only a few applications had been received so far, officials said yesterday.The Cabinet decided to permit university authorities to admit five per cent of foreign students to local universities, an increase against one per cent allocated for such students in the past.
For foreign students the annual course fee would be US $ 12,000 for Medical and Dental Sciences, US $ 10,000 for Para Medical Courses such as Nursing, Pharmacy, Radiography and US $ 8000 for Engineering Design and Architecture.
For Law, the course fee is US $ 5000 and US $ 4,000 for Management Studies and Commerce.
Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne, however, said only one or two applications had been received upto now.
“There is no deadline as such. We may receive more applications in the future,” he said.

Total Views: 219