University teachers join fight against private universities

November 27, 2011, 9:32 pm , The Island.

by Dasun Edirisinghe

University teachers have joined the on-going campaign against establishing private universities in the country, claiming that they do not want education to be turned into a commodity.

President of the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said that establishing or facilitating private universities here was not a task for the government.

"The government’s task is to develop and expand the public university system," he said.

Dr. Devasiri said that at present, Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, who was paid by public funds was working towards setting up private universities.

The senior academic said that today the government had forgotten its duty to improve, expand and allocate more funds to the existing public university system.

"The Higher Education Minister has taken upon himself the task of countering criticism of private universities," Dr. Devasiri alleged.

Similarly, he said, the Health Ministry’s duty was not to facilitate the establishment of private hospitals in the country and its first priority would be to develop the government’s health sector.

Dr. Devasiri said that most of the private higher educational institutions with awarding status were abusing the word ‘university’.

"Anyone can start a higher educational institution today and call it a university," he said adding that their goal was making profits and not the provision of quality education.

FUTA Secretary Dr. Terrance Madujith said that higher education minister promoted private universities saying that establishing branches of foreign universities was to Sri Lanka’s benefit, but the fact was they were not recognised world universities.

"If the universities like Harvard, Cambridge or Oxford set up their branches here, it would be to our advantage," he said, "but no such recognised world university has set up a branch here."