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Plans to absorb 40,000 into Open University in 2009

EDUCATION: The Open University is unique within the national university system in being the only university to offer programmes of study leading to certificate to post graduate degree through the distance mode, its Acting Vice Chancellor Engineer Cecil Fonseka said.

He said that over the last 25 years the number of programmes of study departments and faculties have increased in production to the demands of the economy and wider society.


Open University

This especially caters to the children of the rural areas to obtain an educational qualification at a nominal cost especially for university drop outs in the country.

At present OUSL has a student population of more than 20,000 in the entire system and the annual intake is more than 10,000, he said.

The out put of the OUSL graduates has also steadily increased. At present its four Faculties- Education, Engineering Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences and Natural Sciences, provide eight degree programmes, four post-graduate diplomas and four Master degree programmes and several Diplomas, Advance Certificate and Certificate programmes.

Along with the traditional programmes the university also offers vocational, professional and general awareness programmes, Fonseka said. Normal output for degree programmes is between 1000-1750 and now it has a gradual increase over the past few years, he said.

The striking feature of this university unlike other conventional universities is that a person who has reached the age of 18+ with or without GCE qualifications could enter the university and they could pursue their studies up to the PhD level, he said.

OUSL is mainly attracting working adults and now it has increased the number of school leavers enabling them to obtain a quality qualification.

At present it has a student population of 25,000 and conducts through their programs through four main regional centres and in another 20 centres situated islandwide, Fonseka said.

The university conducts popular programmes in the country namely LLB degree, Management, Engineering and Nursing degrees.

The charges for educational programmes are nominal which could be afforded to anybody in the country.

At academic programmes and their durations are on par with other conventional universities, he said.

This University functions under the University Grants Commission and all programmes are recognised all over the world, he said. OUSL has 200 academic staff and 600 non academic staff.

Fonseka also said that for every program they conduct day schools for the students to clarify their doubt to give the student a real conventional type university exposure.

For students to enhance their knowledge they have good libraries covering main regional centres in the country.

OUSL has one of the best media centres in the country and now they are in the process of digitalising the library facilities in the Colombo centre, he said.

Its engineering division has many affiliations namely Universities in Canada and Christian Stad University in Sweden, Fonseka said.

They have number of engineering programmes. He said that their engineering degree programme is very popular and person with a NDT qualification could directly enter their engineering programme and recognised by the Institute of Engineering of Sri Lanka, he said.

Their Bachelor of Laws degree is recognised by the Council of Legal Education and Bar Association of Sri Lanka.

It also conducts international programmes like Commonwealth Executive MBA programme in collaboration with Commonwealth Universities in the world. It has a Master of Art teacher Education programmes as well, he said.

OUSL is now in the process of doubling the intake to 40,000 per year by 2009 which would be mainly targeted at University dropouts in the country which is Asian Development Project named as Distance Education Modernisation Project.

Therefore to achieve that goal it is now building their capacity to cater that demand to provide with a quality educational qualification for Sri Lankans, he said.

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