GMOA give ultimatum Wednesday, 07 September 2011 14:00 The Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) gave an ultimatum to S. B. Dissanayake, Minister of Higher Education to withdraw the gazette notification approving the Malabe Private Medical Faculty and suspend enrolment of students to the Private Medical Faculty with immediate effect. The GMOA further added that if the minister fails to meet these two demands in seven days it will launch all island trade union action. (Sandun A. Jayasekera)

SB defends giving MPMC degree awarding status

September 6, 2011, 9:10 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe

Despite doctors threatening to strike on Wednesday (07) in protest against the granting of degree awarding status to the Malabe Private Medical College, the Higher Education Ministry yesterday reiterated its commitment to allow private universities operate in the country.

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake told a media briefing at the University Grants Commission (UGC) yesterday that the Malabe Private Medical College (South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine - SAITM) had been seeking the degree awarding status since 2008, though the UGC gave approval after monitoring it for 2 years and 11 months.

"The SAITM had sent their application seeking approval to award degrees on September 30, 2008," he said adding that before they granted approval, the UGC team, including senior professors, consultant doctors and members from the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) inspected the institute and their programmes.

The minister said that the SAITM fulfilled the UGC’s guidelines and standards before being the degree awarding status was approved.

Dissanayake said that government’s policy was to allow private universities here, but not the way former President J. R. Jayewardena approved some private medical institutions in 1981.

He charged that although the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) was protesting against the SAITM, the sons and daughters of most of doctors were going overseas for higher education every year.

"We ask the GMOA to not to put innocent patients in trouble by launching trade union action," Dissanayake said.

GMOA refuses to accept private medical uni

Tuesday, 06 September 2011 18:24

In the midst of protests by the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) which had refused to accept the legality of the private medical university in Malabe, the Higher Education Minister today vowed that the university will continue to function and that many more private universitiesof the kind will be established in Sri Lanka in the future.

Minister S. B. Dissanayake said the Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), the first private medical university in Sri Lanka which was established in 2008, is a legally functioning, accredited institution although the GMOA has said that it should not have legal recognition on the basis that the medical college was functioning as a branch of a Russian university and therefore could be legally established in the country.

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has vowed to continue with a strike tomorrow. “We will definitely stage an all-island strike tomorrow in protest against the authority’s decision to legalise the medical institution,” a GMOA sources said today. The GMOA has also decided to withdraw its membership from the SLMC, if the institution is accepted as legal entity. (Olindhi Jayasundere)