Twenty percent free private university placements under UNP

October 17, 2014, 9:08 pm ,The Island


By Zacki Jabbar

A future UNP government will request private universities to allocate 20 percent of slots annually for deserving students who do not have the required financial resources, says the party’s Deputy Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam.

In India, private universities had adopted the practice of enrolling a certain percentage of students free of charge and a future UNP administration would do the same, MP Kariyawasama said.

"We have many good proposals in mind to develop our education system, but to implement it, the people should act wisely and defeat the Rajapaksa regime which had ruined the progress of our youth and install a UNP led government", the MP emphasised.

Private higher education institutions would be regulated through an Act of Parliament by establishing a body similar to the University Grants Commission, but with wider powers, MP Kariyawasam said.

Commenting on  the recent  appointments made by the UNP including those given to Sajith Premadasa and him, Kariyawasam said that some in the government had  raised various queries about those posts but they had been decided on by the UNP’s decision making body the Working Committee (WC).

"Outsiders have no business to be questioning decisions taken by the WC. We decide what is best for us. Our critics are worried that the UNP has united under Ranil Wickremesinghe’s leadership. With the anti-government vote increasing by the day, it wll only be a matter of time before we are back in power," he said.