20,203 gain Varsity admission

Dharma Sri Abeyratne

COLOMBO: The University Grants Commission (UGC) issued the minimum marks yesterday for admission to undergraduate courses for the Academic Year 2007/2008.

According to the cut-off marks, the UGC is scheduled to admit 20,203 students to the 14 National Universities and four higher educational institutes, Chairman of the UGC, Professor Gamini Samaranayake said. In accordance with the normal procedure, 18,713 students will be recruited while 1,100 more will be recruited under `Special Admission'.

In addition, 390 more students are scheduled to be admitted to the University of the Visual and Performing Arts.

The Ministry of Higher Education has further introduced 10 new `courses of study' for the upcoming Academic Year which have been mentioned and described in the students' hand book.

When considering the last year, more than 20,200 students can be entered into the university system due to the assistance of the Heads of Universities, said the Minister of Higher Education Professor Wiswa Warnapala. Moves are under way to increase the number to 25,000 by 2010, the Minister added.